It was only a matter of time before politicians jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. Twitter proved to be an information portal during the campaign of Barack Obama, with both Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull beginning to ‘tweet’in late 2008.

Yet, not every pollie has signed up for a Twitter account, and those who have rarely use it to their advantage. Generally, the very best ‘Twitterers’have a good understanding of how to use the social network system – part supplier of information, part thought leadership, with the occasional dash of personal information thrown in, to allow followers an insight into their personality.

 I was surprised to find that politicians who I thought would ‘get it right’, didn’t, and vise versa. While Barack Obama may be the first Blackberry toting president, his Twitter posts were old-school. Mostly, they consisted of calls to rallies - “In Harrisonburg, VA. At a “Change We Need” rally. Watch this event live at…” was a typical tweet. But, disappointingly, his Twitter days ended around inauguration time. It’s fairly obvious that Obama himself wasn’t posting – you get no sense of personality.

John McCain, on the other hand, would appear to be the last person on earth to embrace new technology. Not so – he’s an avid tweeter. And, it’s clear that it’s McCain himself who’s ‘doing it’. And, whether or not you agree with his politics, he’s quite funny. With the US Stimulus bill, he’s taken to tweeting the daily “Top Ten Porkiest Projects” that are before congress. Tweets include: “#4. $2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York – quick peel me a grape.” and, “$143,000 for Nevada Humanities to develop and expand an online encyclopedia – Anyone heard of Wikipedia?” .

He admits he has some help – “YEs!! I am twittering on my blackberry but not without a little help!” (the typo is real, making it even more credible that it was his genuine mistake). The point is, you feel you know more about Senator John McCain from his tweets, and his sense of humour comes out (his appearance on Saturday Night Live didn’t hurt, either). You actually WANT to follow his posts.

In Australia, Kevin Rudd uses his tweets mainly for awareness, and posts such as “Donate on line to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund” are no doubt important. Again, very little of his personality comes through (is that why he’s called the Ruddbot?). Of course, whether or not Kev is tweeting personally is another issue.

Malcolm Turnbull, on the other hand, seems to have the Twitter touch. He, too, announces speeches he is making and conferences he’s attending. But he also uses his Twitter account to interact with people, such as “getting ready for Question Time, feel free to send through any suggestions on possible questions.”. But Malcolm also tweets on personal time – “Watching Nick Cave now – he is on fire.” and announces he has a new post on his ‘dog blog (a  blog about his family dogs). What’s more, it’s obvious that Malcolm is really doing his own ‘tweeting’.

The most conflicting realisation for me when researching how politicians use Twitter was that ‘my side’of politics didn’t fare very well. It was quite a surprise that the ‘right’(read ‘old-fashioned’) are using new technology better than the ‘left’. One might argue that both Kevin Rudd and Barack Obama are a little busy right now, and might have better things to do – but it only takes a minute to post. That’s why it’s accessible.

I think that new technology and social media have a major role in not only electing officials, but with connecting with the people that they serve. Give us an opportunity to find out who you ‘really’are. Let us have a say. Keep me up to date with what I don’t get to read in the papers. 

But the last word to politicians who Twitter has to go to Pauline Hanson. The anti-immigration, anti-Muslim, anti-everything candidate hasn’t quite got the hand of interacting with voters. But she certainly has allowed us an insight to her personality with her single, two word tweet – “Elect me!”. (Bash over the head, anyone?)

Posted by Dana Minter