Although the much-hyped digital election failed to materialise it seems that within the Palace of Westminster the powers that be are still looking to Twitter to get their message across. Well, some of them.
New research from Virgin Media Business has found that The Liberal Democrats are bossing the social media league table. Lib Dem leader and deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is officially the UK’s most powerful political Tweeter. According to Twitter Grader Clegg is the 4,060th most influential Tweeter out of more than 7 million users. That puts him fewer than 2,000 places behind the world’s most powerful man, US President Barack Obama.
Next on the list of the UK’s most influential political Tweeters is David Miliband, shadow foreign secretary and Labour leadership candidate. He’s ranked 5,761st. The Tories, however, are yet to fully embrace Twitter. None of its MPs feature in the top 10,000.
Other stats uncovered by Virgin Media Business include: 40% of MPs use Twitter, 57% of Lib Dem MPs are active on the site, including all five of its representatives on the coalition front-bench. Just 33% of Conservative MPs are on Twitter, including just three cabinet members, while Labour leads the way with 42% of its MPs signed up. An impressive 15 out of 29 members of the shadow cabinet Tweet.
The Welsh Assembly was the second most Twitter-friendly elected chamber, with 35% of its members on the site. In Northern Ireland, general uptake among members of the Stormont Assembly was 27% and in Scotland just 18% of Holyrood’s MSPs are Twitter users. This compares to 45% uptake among Westminster MPs with Scottish constituencies.
"We’re all agreed that the ‘social media election‘ many pundits were promising didn’t entirely transpire. But as our study suggests, the reasons for this may be that political engagement on Twitter is still patchy, with some regions and parties showing more commitment than others to the medium," said Lee Hull, head of public sector for Virgin Media Business.
"Looking at the way our elected politicians engage with Twitter as a new communication tool can, however, give us a glimpse at the future of government. What started as a useful tool for campaigning could be an important step towards a new system where public services and access to elected officials are delivered through multiple communication channels," he continued. "Provided this is underpinned with the right networks and IT strategy, we can look forward to a system of government with far wider reach and greater accountability than anything we have today."
