Tag Archives: Politics

Politicians that don’t get Twitter – MacShane, Byrne, Swoboda

There are two ways to use Twitter as a politician.

The first (the right way) is to build a discussion, a conversation with people, to reply to normal Twitter users as well as other politicians and journalists. Politicians that understand this include @jeaninehennis @edballsmp and @corybooker.

The second way (the wrong way) is to just broadcast, broadcast, broadcast. Worst I have ever seen in this regard is Austrian socialist Hannes Swoboda @Hannes_Swoboda – not a single @ reply in the last 20 tweets, and not even a single link to anything! Following close behind is former UK Europe Minister Denis MacShane @DenisMacShane – he follows just 22 people and yet more than 1300 follow him, and again there’s not a single @ reply. Wrong in a different way is @LiamByrneMP – he just auto posts links from his blog to Twitter. If I want to follow the blog, then surely I’ll use a RSS reader?

I’m undecided whether these sorts of approaches are better than nothing or not. Is the impression of a conversation – the very fact of being on Twitter – outweighed by the fact that you can’t actually build a proper dialogue with these people?

‘But replying takes soooo much time!’ will be the reply to this post. No, absolutely not, and that’s precisely the point with Twitter. Get an iPhone, Android, Blackberry or other smartphone, and tweet in between meetings, in the limousine on the way to the airport etc.

Listening is actually the hard bit as a politician. Time and tech are just the excuses.

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Live blog: Reporting forbidden? Freedom of the press and personal rights

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friedrichI’m at the conference “Media and politics – the tension between freedom of the press and personal rights in print media and the internet” (more here) – refresh the page for the latest entries.

1921 – Hajo Friedrich is making the introduction, introducing Klaus-Heiner Lehne from the CDU, chair of the Legal Affairs Committee in the EP (more on Lehne here, here)

1924 – the conference is running in French, German and English, this might be a bit complex to live blog, even though I speak all 3 languages.

1928 – Hajo is now talking about GPlus and speaker Gregor Kreuzhuber, and how that’s nothing to do with Gunter Verheugen’s personal scandals (as Kreuzhuber worked for Verheugen).

1932 – Hajo is now running around the room getting comments from people. Lots of Germans and Liberals here.

1936 – David Schraven of Ruhrbarone now speaking, talking about why he’s blogging. For him blogging is an sort of journalism. But no cash comes from it…

1937 – Honestly I am disappointed with this so far. The panel is full of old and dull people. They are talking about the basics of blogging at the moment.

1938 – Schraven just happened to be in court for the Koch Mehrin hearing in Hamburg, and that’s how he managed to get involved in this whole thing. Pressure was applied to the editors of Ruhrbarone within hours of him writing first about Koch Mehrin. Schraven’s words on Koch Mehrin here, my coverage in English at the time here.

1944 – Now Philippe Leruth, how much are journalists under threat now in comparison to what was happening before? It’s not worse now in his opinion.

1946 – What’s the difference between journalists and bloggers? What sets the journalists apart? People should be respectful if they are journalists (British ones too?)

1948 – Supposedly journalists are supposed to provide information that is in the public interest, not just in the private interest in the way that bloggers are supposed to do. I’m not really in agreement with that.

1957 – Eberhard Kempf now speaking. It’s a long ramble, I do not completely follow what his point is. Maybe my German is not as good as it used to be.

2002 – Now time for Klaus-Heiner Lehne. He’s old and CDU. Will be be interesting?

2003 – It’s better to speak to journalists where possible, rather than trying a legal process against journalists. Aim to avoid such legal-journalist fights. And what if the opponent is a blogger? If there is an unequal allocation of financial resources then we need to deal with that. Against a blogger is different to being against FAZ or the Springer Verlag.

2010 – I’m now completely and totally lost. What is the point here? I’m thinking of heading off and going to get a beer… I’m a blogger here, I want some practical tips and some relevant, everyday things to use. Not a detailed discussion of German law.

2018 – Amusing myself uploading photos of the event to Flickr. Quite a good one of Hajo in profile.

2026 – Going for a beer. The joy of citizen journalism: when it’s dull you can escape. Sorry Hajo and co – I’m not too impressed by your event. Apologies.

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Twitter for politics

Twitter“I just don’t get Twitter” – words I often here uttered in political circles in Brussels and London. How can 140 characters be used to communicate effectively? This is a first effort to explain how to use Twitter in a political context.

Firstly the Twitter slogan “What are you doing?” is a bit ambiguous for the sake of politics. Some folks might post “I’m having muesli for breakfast” on Twitter, but as a politician or political organisation you are not going to be doing that. However the vocabulary of Twitter is vitally important: rather than Facebook term friends, on Twitter you have followers, and you follow people. Essentially Twitter is about building up communities of interest among people that care about the same things, but do not necessarily know each other offline.

Don’t however fall into the trap of just using Twitter as a broadcast medium – it’s about discourse and discussion, and it’s good practice to follow the people that follow you, and then unfollow if it gets annoying. Boris Johnson (@MayorofLondon) has it wrong – no interaction whatsoever with his followers.

Look at it this way: Facebook is for people you know, and Twitter is for the people you think you would like to know.

Let me give an example of this. I personally work in the area of political and governmental website design. Three of the very best professionals in the sector in the UK are Simon Dickson (@simond on Twitter), Steph Gray (@lesteph) and Dave Briggs (@davebriggs). I happen to know Simon and Steph personally, but have never met Dave. That does not stop me respecting the work that he does, and exchanging messages with him on Twitter about various web projects. These sorts of interactions I would not build via e-mail or Facebook. So follow and reply to people whose views you respect, people with something interesting to say.

So how does the 140 characters thing work? Essentially you should view this as a necessary part of Twitter to keep things concise. I’m never going to read a verbose press release from 10 Downing Street but I will follow them on Twitter (@downingstreet – more than 800K followers), short bite-size updates of what the PM is doing. Politicians and political organisations are known for being dull and long winded, so think of the 140 character limit as a way to keep it short and snappy.

Twitter also allows you to keep the professional and personal separate more easily than Facebook – it is possible to open up as many accounts as you wish and then use the different accounts for alternative purposes – I’m @jonworth and @AtheistBus on Twitter, essentially one community of interest about tech and EU politics, and the other about atheism.

Lastly there are a whole range of tools that allows Twitter to work all over the place very easily. On a desktop machine try Nambu (Mac) or Tweetdeck (PC) to manage your multiple Twitter accounts. There are Twitter apps for smart phones (e.g. Tweetie for iPhone) and you can also post updates via text message (add your mobile at twitter.com/devices).

So signup for an account, find some people to follow (Google twitter and whatever you’re interested in), hit the follow button on someone’s Twitter page, and let the discussions begin…

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