I follow about 4000 people on Twitter. Anyway, these are the ones who have entertained, informed, educated, annoyed and, most of all, made me laugh most this year. It’s not meant to be a list of best Twitter feeds on the internet – it’s just the ones I particularly enjoy or take notice of. The latest tweets from @IanDunt. LBC host Iain Dale breaks long silence over attempted rape This article is more than 8 months old Inspired by a female date rape survivor, the radio pundit says men must report sex assaults.
The latest tweets from @iaindalealltalk. Author and broadcaster Iain Dale has received the 2020 Parliamentary Book Award, in the category Best Political Book by a Non-Parliamentarian for The Prime Ministers. Now in its fifth year, the Parliamentary Book Awards were launched in 2016 to champion the best of political writing and recognise the important link between politics and the book world.
Politico have done an analysis of MPs' Twitter habits, who they follow, and who follows them. All very interesting, I suppose, although you wonder how much it matters.
Iain Dale Twitter Site
Of the 650 MPs in the House of Commons, 579 of them have Twitter accounts. 82% of Tory MPs are on Twitter, a little lower than the 91% of Labour MPs who tweet. All very well but what do they do with them? Some of them use them to follow other people, but never tweet themselves. Others tweet like they have twitter-diarrhea. Some just tweet about local constituency issues, others only pontificate on national debates. Some have tens of thousands of followers, others barely get into four figures.
Politico's research shows that the majority of MPs feel comfortable in their Twitter Echo Chamber. That maybe doesn't come as a huge surprise.
Politico has also published a list of the journalists who are most popular among MPs on Twitter. Seeing as I never self-describe as a journalist, I was surprised to be included on the list, but was very pleased to see I rank above Tom Newton-Dunn, Adam Boulton, Sophy Ridge and Jim Pickard. However, I'd better up my game and climb a few places next year.
173 Conservative MPs follow me (67% of Tory MPs who are on Twitter), 117 Labour MPs (49% of Labour MPs who are on Twitter), 10 SNP MPs, 9 TIGs and 6 LibDems.
If you scroll down the Politico article, just type in your Twitter handle in the box at the end and you can see how many MPs follow you.
I must admit, I don't follow huge numbers of MPs, because of the inane things they often tweet. If I read the phrase 'Labour doorstep', I generally reach for the Unfollow button. Has a politician ever tweeted: 'Was out canvassing this afternoon. Reaction was terrible. We're gonna lose.' Clearly not. MPs need to keep it real on Twitter and not just utter political platitudes. If they're going to appeal to people on social media we want to know what they really think and get an impression of what they're like as people as well as politicians.
In theory, it ought to be constituents who should be the biggest influencers on MPs, but I wonder how much most MPs actually engage with their constituents? I'm not an MP but I am constantly surprised by the number of people who are totally shocked and surprised when I reply to a tweet they have sent me. Clearly their experience is that people in the public eye tend to be rather aloof. Now I don't pretend that I can reply to every tweet sent to me - it's impossible when I sometimes get ten tweets a minute. But if someone asks me an interesting question or makes an interesting comment, of course I'll engage with them.
Of course the main problem here is that many MPs don't actually tweet themselves - it's all done by their staff. That's why so many of their tweets are so bland.
MPs still have a lot to learn about social media, but then again so do many journalists. Just as well I don't count myself as a journalist, eh?
Twitter is a form of social media which some people in the political and media world really do seem to have an issue with. Rachel Sylvester in this morning's Times launches a tirade against people who use Twitter, relying on clapped out psychologist Oliver James to make her point for her...
“Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It's a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you are. Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity.”
Gee thanks for that insight. What a load of old cobblers. Bit it fits Sylvester's narrative that everyone who twitters must have something missing in their lives. She may be right about some, but it's also what MSM journalists used to say about blogging, which many of them have now either chosen to or been forced to take up. Rachel also says that 'Twitter is reality TV without the pictures'. I think there is a small amount of truth in that, especially when you look at those who twitter obsessively, every minute of the day. I am thinking of some of the celebrity twitterers like Stephen Fry or Philip Schofield whose every movement seems to be catalogued in too much detail. It was for that reason that I was a comparatively late developer on Twitter.
But having decided how I wanted to use it, and that I wouldn't do it too often (So far this month it has ranged between twice and seven times a day) I have grown to rather enjoy it. For me, it complements the blog brand and strengthens the feeling of community I have tried to engender within the blog. I have not gone out to tart myself around Twitter (more of this in a moment) but I seem to be getting 40 or 50 new followers each day. I now have more than 2,500, which is around a fifth of the number of people who read the blog each day. I have around 150 people whose feeds I follow on Twitter, but that number has grown too far and I am about to cut it back. Stan Collymore is about to be dumped into the Twatterbox, for instance. And not before time! He, like Jonathan Ross, suffers from Twittahhorrea.
Guido has written a very thoughtful post on the benefits of Twitter today too. He uses Twitter purely as a broadcast mechanism in order to drive more readers to his blog. His only ever tweets to advertise a new blogpost. He says...
Iain Dale positively relishes keeping us up to date with his movements - why anyone besides Mrs Fawkes would be interested in knowing that Guido was stuffing porridge into a recalcitrant 2 year old at 7.30 a.m. or Guinness into himself at 7.30 p.m. is bewildering.
I think that is to fundamentally misunderstand the medium. I don't recall ever using Twitter in such a manner (unless, as Esther Rantzen might say, you know different). Some people do use it to describe their everyday lives, as if we should be interested in what time they go to bed, or put out the cat. I try to stick to twittering about things I think - and I emphasise, the word, think - might be of interest either to my followers or blog readers. It's mainly about events I am going to, media programmes I may be appearing on (it saves a blogpost) or saying something which I think might be vaguely funny. It's as simple as that. Guido & Rachel Sylvester can dub that 'narcissistic' all they want, but is it any more narcissistic than writing a blog or a newspaper column in the belief that people might be interested in what you say? I don't think so.
But it is Guido's final point which is of most interest to me, where he cites the example of Derek Draper's use of twitter as proof of a need for self validation. Here's how he justifies the accusation...
Iain Dale Twitter
That people care to know what the Twitterer is doing enhances their own sense of self worth. Draper feels validated and boasts (on Twitter of course) that he has more 'followers' than his rivals. He has spent a lot of time canvassing thousands of Twitterers of other political commentators to build his following. Desperate. The desperation is shown by a key ratio, your followers to following ratio - your Twitter F2F ratio.
Exhibit C: Twitter F2F ratios
John Prescott 1,410 Followers, 29 Following - 48.62
Iain Dale 2,499 Followers, 152 Following - 16.44
Tom Watson 2,518 Followers, 909 Following - 2.77
Alastair Campbell 2,567 Followers, 2,088 Following - 1.23
Derek Draper 2,918 Followers, 2,836 Following - 1.02
Look at those ratios, Prescott and Dale have healthy ratios, with a genuinely won following. Even so, following 152 other Twitterers is toppy for even always-connected Dale. Does Tom Watson really engage with 909 followers? Alastair Campbell and Derek Draper are obviously totally inauthentic spinners, they have merely followed thousands of people by deliberately Twitter-spamming Dale and Guido's Twitter followers. Automatic reciprocation grew their following completely synthetically - the incredibly low ratio is the giveaway. Prescott hasn't used artifice, his followers are genuinely interested because he is the real deal.
And there you have the reasons why Prescott get's the internet and Draper doesn't. Even Tom Watson and Alastair Campbell seem to have adopted the Draper approach of Twitter-stalking. As Guido says, it's pretty desperate. We all know New Labour's record of massaging figures but it's almost as if they feel in need a group hug. Perish the thought. They should stop behaving like Twitter tw*ts and abide by the same Twitter conventions as everyone else.
And purely as a point of information, if you'd like to follow my Twitter feed, click HERE.
UPDATE: Lynne Featherstone blogs HERE on why Rachel Sylvester is wrong.
UPDATE: Derek Draper's Twitter feed has been removed due to 'strange activity'. No further comment necessary.