It may be too early for campaigns to be the "trending topic," but soon you'll see a "tweet" and "re-tweet" asking you to "follow" your local candidate for the 2010 elections.

“I'm going to be working hard,” said Mark Culver, Chairman of the Houston County Commission.

And he’ll be using new means to communicate.

“If there's anything going on I try to get it out there, I have it set up to where if I post to Twitter it automatically goes to Facebook,” said Culver. “The last time I actually campaigned was 12 years ago. Certainly things have changed. You have to learn how to use Facebook and Twitter and have been pretty active on it. I think it's a great way to get your message out to people to get information out

Houston County Commission Chairman, Mark Culver, announced on his Twitter and Facebook page that he is running for re-election in the 2010 election.

“Everybody says oh it's 2010 elections, but it's just right around the corner… I'm not one to play the game of be quiet and nobody will know you're running, people around here are smarter than that,” said Culver. “We want to get out and get the name out so people will know that we're running so that when Jan 1 comes and we qualify then people will know we're running right off the bat.”

One benefit for the candidate: it's free.

Even the candidates that aren't a Facebook "friend" or a Twitter "follower" may start looking to the social websites to help pave the campaign trial

“I like to have more one on one contact or in large meeting groups and day to day contact. That’s more my style,” said Sheriff Andy Hughes, Houston County Sheriff's Office. “I do think its some tools that could be useful and you can reach some folks anyway

Reach some folks, one "poke" at a time.

The official start for campaigning for next year's election is January.

At this point, no one has filed any campaign paperwork --including donations and contributions--with the Houston County Probate office.