Can we use Twitter to break the Political-Nerd Ghetto? Twitter and Conversational Politics
This article is a continuation of my previous reflections on Twitter in Politics.
I have spent part of the last week or so building a new blog about Twitter and what can be done with it called Twexpert. As such I’ve been overexposed to the section (still small – 6 million) of the Net community that is using the service.
I thought it would be useful to revisit the list published 12 days ago by Mr Dale’s list of “Top Political Blogging Twits”, to have a look at the rate of change of Twitter use in the political niche. These are listed in the same order as they were on Iain’s site on February 19/20th. I collected data on the morning of the 4th March.
First I’ll list the data, then make some comments.
Iain’s previous figures are in brackets.
[Update 5/3. I'm getting a bit of comment about there being only one woman in the list here. Let me be clear that this is not the list that I think of as the most followed political twitters, it is rather the same list used by Iain with updated numbers to see the rate of change. If anyone who has commented had added numbers below Iain's list, as some of us did, then it would be possible to include them - they didn't, so I can't. It's wonderful to have the attention of all those MPs though.
I have approached Tweetminster to see if we can put a wider list together.]
1 (3). Derek Draper 2695 (1686) - Editor of Labour List
2 (1). Tom Watson 2404 (2065) - Labour MP & blogger
3 (2). Iain Dale 2370 (2061) - Tory blogger
4 (5). Alastair Campbell 2000 (1180) - Former spinmeister & new entrant to the new media
5 (4). Guido Fawkes 1432 (1183) - Anarcho blogger
6 (13). Paul Dennett 1413 (580) – Blogger at A Progressive Viewpoint
7 (9). James Cleverly 1310 (778) - Tory GLA member & blogger
8 (8). John Prescott 1185 (822) - Retired Labour “anti-Grandee” (that’s meant as a backhanded compliment)
9 (6). Andrew Ian Dodge 1768 1175 (1031) - Libertarian blogger. Updated 4/3.
10 (7). The Fabians 1020 (869) - Sunder Katwala & the Next left blog
11 (10). Lynne Featherstone 822 (681) - LibDem MP & blogger
12 (12). Dave Hill 713 (635) - Left of centre blogger in London / commentator
13 (11). Steve Green 711 (652) - Tory blogger at the Daily Referendum blog
14 (14). Mick Fealty 602 (522) – Blogs at Brassneck & Slugger O’Toole
15 (20). Sadiq Khan 590 (361) - Labour MP & Minister
16 (17). Tom Harris 534 (417) - Labour MP & blogger
17 (18). Craig Elder 512 (390) -Web editor & Webcameron supremo at CCHQ
18 (15). Jeremy Jacobs 505 (454) - Right of centre supporting “corporate presenter”
19 (22). Tim Montgomerie 499 (346) - Founder of ConservativeHome
20 (16). Danvers Baillieu 491 (448) - Tory blogger
21 (19). Will Howells 424 (369) - Works at LibDem HQ & writes for LibDem Voice
22 (21). Scott Redding 423 (348) - Green Party blogger from Coventry
23 (23). Dave Cross 363 (346) - Blogs at davorg
24 (24). Charlie Beckett 351 (245) – Director of POLIS at the LSE
25 (25). Ed Vaizey 319 (245) - Tory MP for Wantage and blogger
26 (26). Devil’s Kitchen 285 (243) - Libertarian blogger
(I am not updating this list, since it is a straight comparison – but I’m quite happy to have your own numbers posted in the comments)
Reflections
- For Political Twitterers, the overall numbers are still relatively small, even compared to just London.
- There’s more attention from bloggers on the left – probably generated by the big splash made by Labour List and the Labour20 conference.
- The general growth rate is actually less than I was expecting; a useful cold shower after a couple of weeks of hype.
- There are different strategies here – which you can see to some extent by doing a Twitter Counter graph. Smooth growth (Dale, Guido, Lynne Featherstone, Alistair Campbell) implies an “organic” strategy, while jumps and flatspots (Draper, DailyReferendum, James Cleverly to an extent, and me .) imply an approach “searching out” followers.
Wrapping Up
I think that at present the Twitter service is a significant opportunity to get politics out of Westminster. It will be lost if political bloggers and politicians do two things:
-
Search out and talk to followers inside the political blogging ghetto.
-
Or find followers outside the ghetto and then only talk to them about Parliamentary Parish Pump Partisan Politics.
This came across as one of the key points raised at the Progress Online conference, but do they (or the Tories for that matter) have the patience to follow through on the insight.
I’ll write again about my strategy for generating some debate about politics in the outside world.
And please take a look at Twexpert, where I’m putting together an E-Book about how to use Twitter, with a focus on what it can be used for, rather than simply the technology.
Tags: iaindale, labourlist, lynne featherstone, twitter
Categories: All WW, Blog Platform, Columns, Comment, Geek in Politics, Media, Political Blogging, Politics
> Search out and talk to followers inside the political blogging ghetto.
Neat list, obviously, but you’re doing exactly what you’re advising everyone else not to do. Those names are precisely the same members of the “political blogging ghetto” you’re supposed to be looking outside. So, you missed me (@hackneye) for a start (675 followers right now), and I could easily name you another 10 off the cuff that aren’t part of the usual pol-blogging set but that certainly do tweet and blog ‘politics’ in the proper sense. Environment/sustainability/tech? How about @monkchips (5109 followers). Accessibility and local govt.? You missed @dominiccampbell (1894)…. Plus @mrpower (303), @qwghlm (729), even @DaiilyWail (1881). That lot tweet politics even in the narrow definition that many on your list see it; and I haven’t even had to think that hard yet.
I realise there’s always a certain futility in compiling a list, any list. You’re just setting yourself up to be shot at. So, there’s my shot.
Matt: sound analysis as ever. But there is an inconsistency in your welcome aversion to ‘the political blogging ghetto’ and your adoption of Iain’s league table for which being a blogger is a necessary qualification. People who aren’t bloggers can be political Twitterers too, you know.
Duncan Hames´s last blog post..duncanhames: voting for Chippenham’s http://www.goodenergyshop.co.uk for the Best Online Retailer Initiative in the Observer Ethical Awards http://bit.ly/tirym
>Neat list, obviously, but you’re doing exactly what you’re advising everyone else not to do. Those names are precisely the same members of the “political blogging ghetto” you’re supposed to be looking outside. So, you missed me (@hackneye) for a start (675 followers right now), and I could easily name you another 10 off the cuff that aren’t part of the usual pol-blogging set but that certainly do tweet and blog ‘politics’ in the proper sense.
Thanks for the comment. I probably wasn’t clear – it’s not a new list, I’m just making a comparison with a snapshot from 10 days ago looking at the rate of change, and then calling for any polibloggers to look outside the niche. Mass following of others’ followers can be (in my opinion anyway) pretty incestuous, so I’d like to see more linkage in to other niches (if I can talk about Twitter niches).
If I was forced to define the “political” niche crudely, I’d probably draw a line round the directory at totalpolitics.com . If I was forced to define the political niche, it would be a lot wider than than and include (for example) all the local news/civic affairs blogs in the country.
There are some around who do “life” coverage as well as “politics” coverage, whether it’s theatre reviews, interesting architecture or bird watching in the countryside relating back to planning policy. Personally I tend to write about politics, technology and media, but also subjects around farming, independent politics (e.g., “Residents Association”), sometimes the arts and religion.
> Environment/sustainability/tech? How about @monkchips (5109 followers). Accessibility and local govt.? You missed @dominiccampbell (1894)…. Plus @mrpower (303), @qwghlm (729), even @DaiilyWail (1881). That lot tweet politics even in the narrow definition that many on your list see it; and I haven’t even had to think that hard yet.
>I realise there’s always a certain futility in compiling a list, any list. You’re just setting yourself up to be shot at. So, there’s my shot.
Good to have the shot, and I hope my comment clarifies what I mean a little more.
Matt Wardman´s last blog post..Can we use Twitter to break the Political-Nerd Ghetto? Twitter and Conversational Politics
Ah, yes, one click and I see that your list originated with Iain Dale and the commenters at his site. Which explains why it’s, in the main, narrow in its view of what constitutes “politics”. Not that there aren’t some fine and interesting folk on there, of course.
>Matt: sound analysis as ever. But there is an inconsistency in your welcome aversion to ‘the political blogging ghetto’ and your adoption of Iain’s league table for which being a blogger is a necessary qualification. People who aren’t bloggers can be political Twitterers too, you know.
Yes – I’d agree with that, and I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t chosen it (!), but Iain does put out data that comparisons can be done with later. Coming back form a week focussed on Twitter, I was surprised how small the changes actually are compared with how quickly things can move in the Twitter service.
In one sense I’d like there not to be an identifiable “political” niche anywhere, but that would leave us where Wikio are where their overall blog list is hardly any different from their “political” blog list.
I guess the best we will get is for a less well-defined edge between “Westminster” and “Party Political” bloggers and the rest, but I think there are some political issues around where we all pretty much almost agree – free expression and British defamation law are perhaps examples. The political blogs I’d like to see more of are local ones, issue based ones and special interest groups who find they need to have a political edge to their special interest.
I have just started on Twitter. Hopefully it will go somewhere.
This is a fascinating article Matt and you make some very valid points. I have recently started a political blog and am currently engaged on the long hard slog to get people to read it. I have Twitter is a good way to make connections with other bloggers and those who follow them in an effort to connect with other readers and I know from website analysis that it is a moderately succesful approach in at least generating casual visitors who will at least read one or two articles.
But I agree whole heartedly that Twitter is an excellent tool to address a much wider community than just the Westminster village and its associated commentators and observers. But we must remember that most of the community will not be die hard affiliates of one party or another and are not interested in petty fueds between bloggers (eg. guido and drapers recent spat) and are similarly turned off by the minutae of party political socialising.
I’m sure Twitter can help create a much more democratic political community in future but you only have toi see how twitter lights up at PMQ’s to realise how closely it imitates the mainstream media’s political sketches.
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I think Iain Stuart Murray (ismurray) should be on the list. He is English but works in DC. He has been on the forefront of political technology for a very long time.
I am 1795/1175
Andrew Ian Dodge´s last blog post..Leaders are where?
>DonaldS
>Ah, yes, one click and I see that your list originated with Iain Dale and the commenters at his site.
>Donald
You didn’t even need one click, since it says right at the top:
“revisit the list published 12 days by Mr Dale”
If I was to do a “politics but not just the politico-nerds” list, it would need to include the likes of Bishop Alan Marshall (@alantlwilson – 862), @tallskinnykiwi, some of the “live and let live” geek-culture people, and even @girlonetrack (posted about MP expenses transparency, for example). And what about – following on from @qwghlm – @jangles (since PR is a hired-gun kissing cousin to politics). A horrible thing to have to draw boundaries around. I’ll leave that to others.
Perhaps the most interesting at the moment is Cory Doctorow >a href=”http://www.twitter.com/doctorow”>@doctorow who has 11,000+ followers and is attempting to use his pervasive presence via BoingBoing to raise consciousness of questions around individual freedom.
Cheers for the debate.
Matt
Tom Harris is no longer on Twitter according to Twitter.
Andrew Ian Dodge´s last blog post..Leaders are where?
Tom Harris is here:
http://twitter.com/tomharrismp
I have updated my link.
@Ciaran
Hope you find Twitter useful. Everyone’s learning. Just bang the rocks together.
Remarkably, I can’t find a way to delete that anonymous comment without editing the database.
You need some Led Zep theme music for this post
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I hope to post more profound Tweets than my last meal and when Amnesty are having a party.
Ciaran Rehill´s last blog post..Civil Contingencies Act.
Btw – Boris Johnson is the most followed Twitter.
http://twitter.com/MayorOfLondon
Getting parity: 1472 following, 1408 followers
If you want to know who follows/unfollows there are several good apps to tell you.
Andrew Ian Dodge´s last blog post..Newt backs nationwide Tea Party Movement…
@lagwolf
I use http://www.socialtoo.com, which sends me a list with the numbers every day.
It even lets me put somebody else’s account in, so I can track whoever I wish to to understand what happened if they get banned for a bit.
Yes, that is a good site. I would recommend FriendorFollow.com & Tweetlater.com for useful aides in keeping track of all that is going on with your followers.
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