Downing Street uses Twitter as glorified RSS feed

Blimey: UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has signed up to Twitter. And he’s following 133 people. Is the arrival of Jerome Armstrong in London to run London Mayoral-wannabe Brian Paddick’s campaign having an impact already leading Brown to recognise the opportunity to engage with grass roots audiences via Twitter?

I don’t think so – Downing Street is using it as a glorified RSS feed to distribute civil service press releases.

MP Alan Johnson was one of the first politicians to embrace Twitter as part of his unsuccessful Labour party deputy leadership bid. Like Brown he didn’t engage in dialogue with other Twitter users either.

It’s great to see politicians embracing these new tools but they need to recognise that social media is about restoring dialogue rather than just another way of pushing out content. I’m not listening, and won’t be signing up on Twitter as a Downing Street follower.

Also posted on www.rainierpr.co.uk

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Your response to "Downing Street uses Twitter as glorified RSS feed":

1. At 31 Mar 2008 11:28, Rebecca Caroe wrote:

Have you also read the BBC Today Programme's Twitter feed @todaytrial.... it broke the news about Charlotte Green's corpsing.

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