Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

After our series of articles looking at whether candidates locally are using social media to help promote their campaigns we can now show an example of how not to use it.

George Hollingbery the Conservative Candidate for the Meon Valley Constituency decided to use humour and irony on twitter. Now there is nothing wrong with that in principle, the British people are generally welcoming of a good ironic comment when delivered with that distinctive tone of voice and a wink. Twitter however strips that from communication so what we were left with was:

It was a badly thought out comment that should not have been made and was quickly deleted.

I fully support the use of this medium in the General Election but only when done well.  So far I have seen few examples of well thought out and well executed online campaigns using any version of social media or blogging.

Last night was the first of the Leaders’ Debates broadcast on ITV. It was an experience that was enhanced by following the Twitter hashtag #leadersdebate.

A hashtag is a method that Tweeters use to tag a tweet about a particular topic, if you then search in Twitter for that particular hashtag you can see all the comments being made.

The general view of Tweeters using the #leadersdebate hashtag was that Nick Clegg was winning the debate, David Cameron was not being entirely convincing and that Gordon Brown was doing better than most people expected.

Tweetminster reports that there were in total 184,396 tweets with an average frequency of 29.06 tweets per second. In total there were 36,483 total tweeters and at it’s peak an incredible 41.05 tweets/second.

Continuing our look at how local politicians are looking to use social media in the upcoming General Election we turn our attention to the final Southampton constituency – Romsey and Southampton North.

This is the only Southampton constituency that is not currently held by Labour and has been Liberal Democrat since 2000. It is however a top Conservative target seat and has had it’s boundaries changed recently.

So let’s look at the runners…

Aktar Beg – Labour Party

I may be wrong, but I get the feeling the Labour Party are not trying very hard in Romsey. Aktar has a web site – http://www2.labour.org.uk/ppc/aktar_beg/348/ – but it does not exactly go overboard with tempting info.

How about Twitter? No, nothing.

Okay, Facebook? No, not that I could see.

I can only assume that Aktar is pounding the mean streets of Romsey because he has managed to keep a low profile on the Internet.

Caroline Nokes – Conservative

The Conservative Party in Romsey have a website with information about Caroline – http://romsey.conservativesintouch.com/ and it’s an informative enough website. From a SEO and development aspect it’s a bit rough, but that’s not the focus of these articles. The site has latest news but no ability for comments and no links to other social media websites.

Is Caroline on Twitter? Well not that I could see. She has however created a Facebook group – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5689638615 – it does seem to be a bit of a one way broadcast however with not much active debate and no discussions in the discussion section.

Sandra Gidley MP – Liberal Democrat

Sandra has been unusual for MPs near Southampton in so much that she has been tweeting for a long time – http://twitter.com/SandraGidley and not just tweeting but also responding and replying to people.

She also has the standard web page – http://www.sandragidley.org.uk/home.asp – but with the added touch of links to her Twitter, Facebook and also personal YouTube pages. The one niggle would be the Facebook page is a personal profile and not a group, although there is a group as well, but it is a little underused.

The main difference from Sandra against all the other candidates in Southampton is that she takes the time to engage on social media, to listen and to answer. And that is the main point – social media is a conservation not a broadcast.

Conclusion

Having looked at all three Southampton Constituencies what can we conclude about the use of social media, locally, as a campaigning tool in this election?

The conclusion that I come to is that it is either not being used, or indeed used effectively but most of the candidates. Where there should be opportunities for discussion, for fact finding and for engaging with the electorate there is instead either nothing or broadcasting.

And what businesses can learn from this is that the same ideas apply to them. To engage, discuss and help many clients and prospects through social media helps build your name and helps get yourself recognised.

The second part of this series of articles covering how social media is being used in the General Election campaigning in the Southampton Test constituency.

Alan Whitehead MP – Labour Party

No surprises that Alan has his own website – http://www.alan-whitehead.org.uk/. This website like all those in the previous article is in essence a brochure website. There are no opportunities for comments and no sign of links to a Twitter or Facebook pages dedicated to Alan.

A search on Facebook revealed this group but how official it might be is not obvious.

There is no sign of Alan on Twitter.

Jeremy Moulton – Conservative

He has a website http://www.jeremymoulton.com/. As a passing aside this website, like most other political websites, lacks in effective on-site search engine optimisation.

Next we have a first for the local politicians as Jeremy has a blog http://www.jeremymoulton.blogspot.com/ with comments enabled! Of course it would have been better if the blog had been part the main site but it’s a very positive sign.

There is a Facebook Group for Jeremy. As he is an admin for the group we can assume it’s official.

With only 53 fans however it is woefully underused and really should be linked from the main site and the blog to encourage more people to contribute to the discussions.

No sign of Jeremy on Twitter however.

David Callaghan – Liberal Democrat

David has a website http://davecallaghan.com/ but tragically no content. Please check back later is the note on many pages, perhaps David is planning a late dash.

Facebook – nothing. Twitter – nothing.

It looks like David is making no effort at using the Internet to help in his campaign at all.

Summary

Perhaps David has a point – if you’re going to use Social Media half-hearted you might as not bother at all.

As I commentated in the previous article 53 fans on Facebook and a Tweet once a week does not make a Social Media campaign. Using the tools of blogs, Facebook Groups and connecting with people on Twitter can and will make a difference.

Like all strategies however they need to be thought out, planned and executed relentlessly. Then there would be a return.

Southampton Test is not a completely safe seat and using these Social Media tools could help connect with some of the electorate.

It’s worth mentioning however that when candidates use these tools they have to be sensible. The news last week of the Scottish Labour candidate Stuart MacLennan shows why it is important to watch what you tweet.

Good social media is a strategy of – be yourself, be interesting, be professional and engage. It’s important to be sensible – the Internet has a long life. The event with Stuart MacLennan should not stop anyone using Social Media, but it should give a pause for thought to make sure what you are saying should be on the public record.

In a shock to all it was announced that there will be a General Election on May 6th 2010. This has inspired me to find out about the choices I have to make an informed choice.

So where should I turn first? Where else than the channels of Social Media. The use of Social Media in politics became big news with it’s use in the US Presidential Elections, and whilist no one would necessarily say that won Obama the election on it’s own, it certainly redefined how this medium could be used to engage with voters.

Let’s look at the candidates for Southampton Itchen, the constituency in which I will vote, to see how they have approached this.

John Denham MP – Labour Party

The current MP for Southampton Itchen has held the seat for Labour since 1992.

He has a website at http://www.johndenham.org.uk/ that let’s us know some of the things he has been up to. Interestingly none of the articles are dated, so there is no easy way of knowing how frequently the site is updated. Also users are unable to comment on the articles preventing any possible dialogue from breaking out about local policies.

There is a small link to Facebook on the site should you wish to proclaim your support for the Labour Party, but no obvious social media links.

A search on Twitter does reveal John Denham – http://twitter.com/Johnydenham – but unfortunately it’s not really him but his campaign manager and despite have nearly 1500 followers he only follows 6 back.

Even more disappointing is that he (they) gave up using it mid-February and even when they were only did so as a broadcast mechanism, the virtual equivalent of shouting off a rooftop. Where other MPs have used Twitter share their views and engage with people John Denham didn’t which is probably why he (they) saw no use and abandoned it.

Facebook seems to be a John Denham free zone with a search producing no relevant returns.

It looks like John will not be wooing my virtual vote.

David Goodall – Liberal Democrat

Up to this point I have never heard of David, not seen a promotion or had a leaflet thrust through my door. A quick search revealed a Lib Dem website full of info – http://davidgoodall.org.uk/

There is a blog http://www.davidgoodall.org.uk/pages/blog2010.html but unfortunately this one does have dates, but this only goes to show how little it has been updated – again comments have been disabled.  There is also a link to the Lib Dems YouTube videos but none (as far as I could see) of David himself.

There is also a link through to David’s Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/digoodall – but here is where I think the mistake is made, it’s a personal page.  I don’t want to become a friend of someone I do not know.  What David and the Lib Dems should have done is create either a group, or ideally a fan page.  Then anyone could join without becoming a “friend” and use the wall, discussion forum etc to have a meaningful debate about Lib Dem policies in relation to Southampton.

The link and the recognition of Facebook was good but an error in the type of account held back real use at just the wrong moment.

As far as I could see David is not Tweeting.

Royston Smith – Conservative

As for the offline campaign awareness Royston is making the most effort and even sent me a Christmas card and a leaflet or two so I was aware of his existence.

So what can I find online – his website http://www.roystonsmith.co.uk/ seems to come from the same stable as the others.  The articles again do not have comments enabled but they are often and plentiful (if the developer reads this the design breaks using Chrome).

There is also a Twitter feed in the sidebar, and it’s also being currently used.  Perhaps a bit short on “Followers / Following”  but a trawl through the tweets sees the same mistake as John.  It’s being used to broadcast not converse.  Looking through the tweets there are no @replies and no links, just a list of “now I’m doing…”.  This is the most positive Twitter feed so far but without two way communication it’s never going to get the most from Twitter.

Royston on Facebook is much better however – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Royston-Smith/272988209443

Firstly it is a Fan Page, so I could become a fan without being a friend and the Wall feed is being kept up to date and people are (to a limited extent I accept) engaging in a dialogue.

I would like to see the discussion board being used more with local topics and promotion from the main site as I needed to search in Facebook for the page.  But it’s a start.

Summary

Unfortunately that is all it is – a start.

Even if we put Royston as the winner of Southampton Itchen Online with a blog, Facebook and Twitter account the numbers make it insignificant.

39 fans on Facebook & 75 followers on Twitter is not going to lead to many extra votes.

The way these tools should be used is to engage with people, seek out local voice and follow them and invite them to become fans.  To start discussions, to engage with people – to find out what they want.

There is a great opportunity to build unique dialogue with local people and whilst it may be too late for this election to build the followers and fans to an appropriate level this type of permission based social marketing can and should be used to get a message out.

Every now and then we like to experiment with the Internet and we created a little website to track 4Networking members using Twitter on Google Maps.

It’s rough and ready at the moment but shows a way that the various APIs can be used to link different parts of the Internet together.

Take a look at the 4Networking Twitter Tool and see who you can find!

There are probably 3 main social networking sites that the majority of business people use in the hope of generating leads – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

All three of these sites use the idea of micro-blog status updates to some extent to communicate with followers, friends and contacts.

A lot of people use tools to send multiple updates to all of these invariably using Twitter as the main source, so every thought that they tweet, every comment they make, picture they take or YouTube video they favourite is automatically posted everywhere.

In my opinion this is the wrong thing to do. By treating every audience the same you will end up alienating one of them or just be ineffective to another.

I use all three – but I use them in different ways.

As @ChrisHatch on Twitter I will tweet all sorts of nonsense and I am quite happy to dip in a read, answer and look at other peoples tweets of pictures of their dog or follow their links to “interesting” websites.

I also tweet as @Zedoary and post news about the company, adverts about our services and updates on latest projects.

Any one can follow either Twitter feed and I follow people I find interesting. In a sense Twitter is an informal communication tool and because of the nature of the feed you only really read the current Tweets.

The linking of Twitter to Facebook is almost excusable and for a while I did this. However if you are an excessive Tweeter the high volume of posts in Facebook will probably annoy other, non Twitter users. Also Facebook is not just a “now” thing and people read profiles to see what happened in the past, if they see hundreds of posts of Re-Tweets and links to other sites they may not be impressed.

A better choice would be to use the “selective Twitter application” where worthwhile tweets for the Facebook audience are marked with a #fb.

The biggest mistake of all is to link Twitter to LinkedIn. I’ll say it again, IT’S A MISTAKE TO LINK TWITTER TO LINKEDIN.

In my opinion LinkedIn should be used in a completely different way – it is primarily a business tool and a way to let people know what you are doing in Business. It is not social in the same way and putting personal Tweets into it is not appropriate.

As an audience colleagues on LinkedIn are not interested in the cup of tea or the cake you baked – but the project you are working on.

You can link Twitter to it in a similar way as Facebook using a #in tag and send appropriate tweets.

Tweetdeck

Another choice is to use Tweetdeck to manage all the accounts. Using this software you can manage multiple Twitter accounts, your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts and send the appropriate message each one. (It also handles MySpace accounts too if you are young and trendy).

In Summary

It is wrong to treat all social media as the same – they are not the same audience expecting the same thing even if they are the same people.

Don’t use it as a blunt tool, shouting the same message at anyone who will listen – tailor the message to the audience, it will be more effective and less annoying.

It takes no more time, just some thought.

On Friday February the 26th we will be running a Social Media Quick Start training session.

This course will tell you some of the ways you could use social media to help promote yourself and your business. To tell you some things that have worked for us and to give some hints and tips for getting started.

It’s been arranged to follow the 4Networking breakfast at Fareham as #zhq is only a short walk down the bank of the Hamble from the breakfast venue.

For full details and to book in follow the link to the Social Media Quick Start training session.

The Internet is a big giant communication tool. Some communication is passive, for example you might just read this article after seeing a link on Twitter or Facebook. Alternatively this communication could become active as you might leave a comment.

A lot of times businesses expect the Internet to do the magic of creating visitors and that just by having a website their job is done. The problem with that thinking is that unless you give people a pressing reason to visit a website to see new material they won’t bother.

If you look at a list of most popular websites it’s not surprising to see that search engines, social networking and news sites dominate the list. If you want people to visit your site you have to make sure that they find it in one of those popular places and follow a link.

The most direct way that you have most control over is social media – in fact chances are that is why you are reading this post right now. Once it is finished and live on the site I will create a bit.ly short url and then send a notification on Twtter, LinkedIn and Facebook to let the masses know it’s there.

There is another way to let people know about your new content, email newsletters.  Last week we sent out a newsletter for the Jubilee Sailing Trust letting all their supporters know about the latest events with links back to their website.  This ensures their supporters, who probably don’t visit the JST website on a regular basis, are kept informed and encouraged to follow the links.

The email newsletter route is great for letting people (who have expressed an interest) know about your latest news and articles.  Another big advantage is we can track who reads and clicks on the links to know that the message is getting across.

Just having a website is not enough.  To make it successful you need to use the Internet to communicate with clients and prospects.  You need to have updated information and you need to let people know it is there.

I have one friend (they will remain nameless for the purposes of this post) who loves joining social media.  Barely a day goes by without a request to join them on Pfuff* or some other network.

There is a list of well over 120 social media sites on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites) and I think they are on a mission to join them all.

Now is this a good idea?  Does joining more and more strengthen your position, will it help make more connections and will it help you find more business?

I personally think the answer is no.  Especially if you just transmit the same info on all the sites.  For me the big three Social Media sites are Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn.  If you use those 3, and use them sensibly, they will provide a good basis for your social media use.  They shouldn’t take up too much of your time and they will let you communicate with a wide range of people.

What do I mean by “sensible use”?  Well I take you back to the comment “transmit the same info on all the sites”.

I know I am not alone in the dislike of the auto tweet and the linking of accounts.  The three sites have three different audiences and show be approached in different ways.  Yes, share links on all three, advertise you services (in moderation) on all three – but don’t treat all three the same.  They are not and you need to know your audience.

In future articles we will look at how to make best use of these sites and the tools you can use to make life easier..

Remember however that the next big thing in social media might be just around the corner…

*Pfuff is not real… yet.