If Congress had a nickel for every news article and blog post about Members' use of Twitter, it just might be able to pay off the deficit, fund health care reform and hire the nation’s unemployed to manage its tweets.

The social media trend certainly prevails on Capitol Hill, with many offices juggling not only Twitter accounts, but also Facebook pages, Google groups, Flickr slideshows and blog postings.

But Members are still grappling with how to use these tools effectively, with House leaders focusing more and more on using new media to streamline internal communication and amplify their message to the public.

"There's a real vacuum currently on what are the best practices for using new media for communicating with constituents,” said Tim Hysom, spokesman for the Congressional Management Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit that promotes a "more effective" Congress.

"This is just a really new, uncharted territory that we're in."

Both Democratic and Republican leaders have staffers dedicated to developing online tools. So far, those tools have turned out to be a hodgepodge of online experiments, some more successful than others.

Earlier this month, House Minority Leader John Boehner's (R-Ohio) office posted a blog entry on his Web site on public financing for abortion that elicited almost 1,400 comments.

Democrats distributed a Flash program that allowed users to find out how the House health care bill would affect them; it was viewed more than 250,000 times.

But how to use it internally — and perhaps improve interparty communication — is even newer territory.

In July, Democratic leadership unveiled one of its biggest new-media projects: an intranet Web site where staffers can privately discuss policy, find an archive of internal documents and keep up to date on House proceedings. Called DemCom, it is completely internal; only Democratic staffers can access it.

"New technologies make it possible to keep the public informed of what we’re doing and receive instant feedback," said Katie Grant, a spokeswoman for Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). But, she added, it "also helps Democrats distribute and maintain our message across the party so that we clearly convey our achievements."