diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 56c6162..4767d3b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@
 /scripts/cache
 *.pickle
 .DS_Store
+/scripts/email/config.yml
diff --git a/scripts/email/config.yml.example b/scripts/email/config.yml.example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b38e78e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/email/config.yml.example
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# email:
+#   # smtp details
+#   hostname:
+#   port:
+#   user_name:
+#   password:
+#   starttls:
+#   # email defaults
+#   subject: "[unitedstates/congress-legislators] Notice"
+#   from:
+#   from_name: "unitedstates"
+#   to:
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/scripts/social_media.py b/scripts/social_media.py
index d9cc6e6..6896d8e 100755
--- a/scripts/social_media.py
+++ b/scripts/social_media.py
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@
 # other options:
 #  --service (required): "twitter", "youtube", or "facebook"
 #  --bioguide: limit to only one particular member
+#  --email:
+#      in conjunction with --sweep, send an email if there are any new leads, using
+#      settings in scripts/email/config.yml (if it was created and filled out).
 
 # uses a CSV at data/social_media_blacklist.csv to exclude known non-individual account names
 
@@ -46,6 +49,7 @@ def main():
     ]
   }
 
+  email_enabled = utils.flags().get('email', False)
   debug = utils.flags().get('debug', False)
   do_update = utils.flags().get('update', False)
   do_clean = utils.flags().get('clean', False)
@@ -212,13 +216,20 @@ def main():
     writer = csv.writer(open("cache/social_media/%s_candidates.csv" % service, 'w'))
     writer.writerow(["bioguide", "official_full", "website", "service", "candidate", "candidate_url"])
 
-    for bioguide in to_check:
-      candidate = candidate_for(bioguide)
-      if candidate:
-        url = current_bioguide[bioguide]["terms"][-1].get("url", None)
-        candidate_url = "https://%s.com/%s" % (service, candidate)
-        writer.writerow([bioguide, current_bioguide[bioguide]['name']['official_full'].encode('utf-8'), url, service, candidate, candidate_url])
-        print "\tWrote: %s" % candidate
+    if len(to_check) > 0:
+      email_body = "Social media leads found:\n\n"
+      for bioguide in to_check:
+        candidate = candidate_for(bioguide)
+        if candidate:
+          url = current_bioguide[bioguide]["terms"][-1].get("url", None)
+          candidate_url = "https://%s.com/%s" % (service, candidate)
+          row = [bioguide, current_bioguide[bioguide]['name']['official_full'].encode('utf-8'), url, service, candidate, candidate_url]
+          writer.writerow(row)
+          print "\tWrote: %s" % candidate
+          email_body += ("%s\n" % row)
+
+      if email_enabled:
+        utils.send_email(email_body)
 
   def verify():
     bioguide = utils.flags().get('bioguide', None)
diff --git a/scripts/utils.py b/scripts/utils.py
index 2b553d3..11d1b84 100644
--- a/scripts/utils.py
+++ b/scripts/utils.py
@@ -7,9 +7,27 @@ import os, errno, sys, traceback
 import re, htmlentitydefs
 import pprint
 from datetime import datetime
+import time
 
 import lxml.html # for meta redirect parsing
 
+import yaml
+
+import smtplib
+import email.utils
+from email.mime.text import MIMEText
+import getpass
+
+
+# read in an opt-in config file for supplying email settings
+# returns None if it's not there, and this should always be handled gracefully
+path = "email/config.yml"
+if os.path.exists(path):
+  email_settings = yaml.load(open(path, 'r')).get('email', None)
+else:
+  email_settings = None
+
+
 def parse_date(date):
   return datetime.strptime(date, "%Y-%m-%d").date()
 
@@ -175,7 +193,6 @@ def unescape(text):
 # hooked to load mappings as OrderedDicts. Adapted from:
 # https://gist.github.com/317164
 
-import yaml
 try:
     from yaml import CSafeLoader as Loader, CDumper as Dumper
 except ImportError:
@@ -270,3 +287,47 @@ def yaml_dump(data, path):
 def pprint(data):
     yaml.dump(data, sys.stdout, default_flow_style=False, allow_unicode=True)
 
+
+# if email settings are supplied, email the text - otherwise, just print it
+def admin(body):
+  try:
+    if isinstance(body, Exception):
+      body = format_exception(body)
+
+    print body # always print it
+
+    if email_settings:
+        send_email(body)
+
+  except Exception as exception:
+    print "Exception logging message to admin, halting as to avoid loop"
+    print format_exception(exception)
+
+def format_exception(exception):
+  exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback = sys.exc_info()
+  return "\n".join(traceback.format_exception(exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback))
+
+# this should only be called if the settings are definitely there
+def send_email(message):
+  print "Sending email to %s..." % email_settings['to']
+
+  # adapted from http://www.doughellmann.com/PyMOTW/smtplib/
+  msg = MIMEText(message)
+  msg.set_unixfrom('author')
+  msg['To'] = email.utils.formataddr(('Recipient', email_settings['to']))
+  msg['From'] = email.utils.formataddr((email_settings['from_name'], email_settings['from']))
+  msg['Subject'] = "%s - %i" % (email_settings['subject'], int(time.time()))
+
+  server = smtplib.SMTP(email_settings['hostname'])
+  try:
+    server.ehlo()
+    if email_settings['starttls'] and server.has_extn('STARTTLS'):
+      server.starttls()
+      server.ehlo()
+
+    server.login(email_settings['user_name'], email_settings['password'])
+    server.sendmail(email_settings['from'], [email_settings['to']], msg.as_string())
+  finally:
+    server.quit()
+
+  print "Sent email to %s." % email_settings['to']
\ No newline at end of file