Tag Archives: facebook

Doubling your traffic from Facebook: how best to integrate Twitter, Facebook and your website

Many Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners have both a Twitter account and a Facebook profile alongside their blog or website. Linking the three together efficiently can greatly increase the political impact of them individually, especially as many people find that Twitter is one of the best ways of driving traffic and Facebook one of the best places to get comments, whilst it’s on their website that is more convenient for longer or more detailed content. With each having a different role, how best then to put all three together?

The basic option that many people go for is to have a …

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Do Tweets win seats? – Micro-blogging and politics

Politicos use Twitter to communicate with voters, activists and the media. It’s sociable and fashionable. It’s useful but it has its limits.

And if this was Twitter I’d stop there, for the paragraph above is a 140-character summary of the popular micro-blogging service and its emerging role in politics. Having the luxury of a whole chapter, rather than a couple of lines, I can expound a bit. But sometimes I relish Twitter’s brevity and the way it gives me both the discipline and the excuse not to write at length.

Twitter was to the 2010 General Election what blogging had been to the previous one: novel, topical, conversational, personal. Blogging, in long and short form, is good for quickly spreading campaign messages, news and rumours and it’s freely accessible for anyone with an internet connection.

When I first subscribed to the service a couple of years ago, few news outlets or political candidates were tweeting, although the three main parties were already using it to link to party information and election results.

Over the past year, Twitter has been increasingly taken up by MPs and councillors, bloggers and journalists, even government departments, but crucially by thousands of people who are none of the above, but want to converse with them on an equal footing.

The parties continue to tweet, but now candidates, MPs and party leaders themselves are using the medium, with varying degrees of skill.

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Whither the professional journalist when we all write for free?

The Guardian reports on the 19-strong “Facebook Users’ Union” which wants Facebook’s users to have more control over where the company’s money goes.

…people are effectively working for free to create wealth for Facebook’s shareholders. “Online tools really aren’t free. We pay for them with micropayments of personal information.”

Buchanan wants someone to calculate the value of each Facebook user, based on how much money Facebook (or Google, or MySpace) makes from advertising next to their information. “It may be a small amount but it adds up when scaled into the half billion. Thus I feel we, the users, should have

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 3 Comments

Opinion: Social media enhances our campaigns

In one sense I’m disappointed the election is over.

Returning from my own self imposed wilderness at the dismalness of the political scene to the local fold in New Forest East has been a revelation to me to see how social media networks can re energise the election process, and importantly how it has engaged more of our local membership helpers during campaigns – and not just the under 35s. The more active are definitely the silver surfers who have taken to the new technology like a duck to water. So much so, that a regular evening briefing session …

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Today’s Lib Dem Flashmobs – a planned, spontaneous, orderly uprising. All very liberal.

LDV reported on Saturday that the independent Lib Dem Facebook fan group LibDem2010.com – now numbering well over 163,000 members – had hit upon the idea of organising ‘Flashmobs’ up and down the country to demonstrate the support for Nick Clegg’s party.

Well, here’s the result from Trafalgar Square, where scores of Cleggites actually followed through with the idea to spontaneously chant “I agree with Nick”.

LibDem2010.com’s creator Ben Stockman posted the following message of thanks to those supporters who made it happen:

Ben Stockman … personally thanks all of the people that rocked up to Trafalgar Square earlier to make our flashmob such a success, and an even bigger thanks to all those people who then went to various local constituencies to campaign on behalf of their local candidates. x

To get a flavour of what actually transpired in Trafalgar Square today, enjoy the following Flashmob video:

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Philippa Stroud: the disappearing Conservative candidate

This morning The Observer ran a piece detailing the less than savoury attitude towards homosexuality of Philippa Stroud, Conservative candidate for Sutton & Cheam and head of the influential Conservative think-tank Centre for Social Justice:

A high-flying prospective Conservative MP, credited with shaping many of the party’s social policies, founded a church that tried to “cure” homosexuals by driving out their “demons” through prayer…

Abi, a teenage girl with transsexual issues, was sent to the church by her parents, who were evangelical Christians. “Convinced I was demonically possessed, my parents made the decision to move to Bedford, because of this woman

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Lib Dem Flashmobs nationwide

Just a few weeks ago we brought you the news of the unofficial Lib Dem Facebook group that was growing by 1,000 members an hour.

Now its members are enthusiastically promoting a series of flashmobs. There’s been one scheduled for London for some time, but I know many of us discounted going to that on the simple horror of getting to London on a bank holiday, whilst we should be shoving leaflets through letterboxes in our various provincial locations.

The prospect of a series of nationwide flashmobs, however, makes attendance just a little easier, no? Here’s the …

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Daily View: the virtual poster special

Posters matter in election campaigns, because they show people that a party has plenty of support. Knowing that a party has lots of support in turn encourages other people to vote for that party. So last Sunday’s Daily View was a poster special with one you can print off and put in your window.

Today it’s the turn of the virtual poster. Take this graphic – also at http://bit.ly/ldvirtual – and use it to as your Facebook profile picture / Twitter avatar etc. That way we can help turn the 49% who say they would vote Lib Dem

Posted in Daily View and Online politics | Also tagged | 2 Comments

Lib Dems lead the digital way … on the Web, on Twitter and on Facebook

The jury might be out on whether the 2010 general election is living up to its billing as ‘The Internet Election’, but the verdict on the Lib Dems’ use of the web is a thumbs-up.

The party website

First up, www.libdems.org.uk. As today’s Guardian reports:

Fresh from being crowned king of TV following the first leaders’ debate on ITV1 last week, Nick Clegg can also polish his digital halo after a new report found that the Liberal Democrats have the most user-friendly website. It seems that Clegg, the self-styled people’s champion, presides over a website most fit for the people, according to

Posted in General Election and Online politics | Also tagged and | 4 Comments

Unofficial Lib Dem Facebook fan group exceeds 100,000 members

It’s less than a week since Lib Dem Voice brought you news of a fresh new unofficial Facebook fan group, We got Rage Against the Machine to #1, we can get the Lib Dems into office!

We noted then that the group was “almost as big” as the official Lib Dem Facebook group, having just reached the 13,000 members mark.

Since then LibDem2010.com (its official web address) has gone well and truly viral, and today it passed the 100,000 member mark. In fact it didn’t just pass it, it smashed it. As I type it stands at 102,759 members. By the time you read this it will be more, many more.

Posted in General Election and Online politics | 7 Comments

What challenges might the future bring?

Challenge #1 – the electoral system

I nearly wrote this a few weeks ago, at which point it would have looked prophetic – writing it now just looks like I’m crowbarring it on the back of the rather sensational Yougov / Sun poll, news of which is breaking on Twitter.

Any number of people have taken the poll figures, Con: 33 (-4); Lab: 28 (-3); Lib Dem: 30 (+8), plugged them into UK Polling Report’s uniform swing calculator, and reeled, aghast at the revelation that our awful electoral system is so completely bust that it’s conceivable that the party …

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Over 13,000 raging against the election – and for the Lib Dems – on Facebook

‘We got Rage Against the Machine to #1, we can get the Lib Dems into office!’ is the name of the independent Facebook group set up just 2 weeks ago, and which currently numbers well over 13,000 fans. Which means (with impeccable liberalism) that this unofficial grassroots movement is already almost as big as almost as the official Lib Dem Facebook group.

As the group’s creators state:

This is NOT a bandwagon! This group is intended to encourage those who would like to vote Lib Dem, but usually don’t in favour of strategic voting, that if we unite we can really see a change in the 2 party system.

Also, the group wasn’t set up by lib dems, it was set up by Ben Stockman. He sent Jon Morter (creator of the RATM group) an email asking if he would mention the group. Jon Morter liked the idea… and that’s how it took off!!

Our reference to the Christmas RATM effort is simply a recognition of the way people can join together for a purpose (any purpose!) using a social networking site. However, it’s good to see that Rage oppose two-party politics also lol (See http://tinyurl.com/ye2f582)

Want to promote the group to your non-Lib Dem Facebook friends? Then spread the word, using http://libdem2010.com as the direct link, or Digg it here.

The Voice’s favourite quote from the group?

Posted in General Election and Online politics | 10 Comments

Social media: heavily used by candidates with best chances of winning

A ComRes survey of 101 Parliamentary candidates “who are likely to win or retain their seats” has found very heavy use of social media.

Around half the Parliamentary seats in the UK have not changed hands even once between different political parties in the last forty years, which helps explain why overall levels of take-up amongst MPs and candidates is usually on the range modest to quite good (though in fact often compare very well, for example, with large UK firms).

However, as this survey indicates, there are much higher than average levels of take-up amongst those were the election result is …

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Open Rights Group flashmob serves disconnection notice on UK Music #DEBill

DEBill flashmob at UK Music
Filmmaker Obhi Chatterjee, one of the team behind the Lib Dem Spring Conference emergency motion on Freedom, creativity & the internet, describes the experience:

It was while following #DEBill on Twitter on the train that, with just over an hour to go, we discovered where we had to be at 12:15. In front of London’s Dominion Theatre, near Tottenham Court Road. Bring a police helmet and clipboard if poss.

My father had struggled to understand how we could have left home knowing only that we had to be in central London at a certain time. We had aimed for Trafalgar Square.

I recognised Open Rights Group‘s Executive Director, Jim Killock, from his Facebook photo. A few people were distributing imitation police helmets and clipboards. A journalist was asking people why they were there.

The sheet on the clipboard explained what we had to do and where we had to go: the Soho offices of UK Music, a short walk away.

Once there, we were to wander up and down outside the building, looking officious. Perhaps everyone was too good-humoured and smiling a bit too much for that.

Still, there were quite a few photographers and video cameras around to record the event.

Staff heading out of the building for lunch didn’t seem to be very conversational. I can’t imagine they mistook us for MI5 …

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Electioneering the social networking way

So you’ve been selected as a candidate for council or general election as a Lib Dem. Hurrah! The first step on the path to world domination and ever-lasting glory has been taken, and now you’re wondering what the next step is. You look at your campaign budget. You realise that thruppence ha’penny and a tin of organic pasta sauce is not going to go as far as the Ashcroft millions the Tories have access to, or the union funding of Labour. You’re going to have to use all your wiles and cunning to even get noticed as a member of …

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Daily View 2×2: 10 March 2010

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

  • Tories in Devon and Cornwall set themselves a target of raising £13,000 in an Obama-style online donate-now campaign, perhaps in an attempt to wean themselves off the Ashcroft millions.  How much did they raise?
  • Stephen Glenn picks up on the news that Lord Paul has said he will voluntarily end his non-dom status from April, whether required to or not, and asks what it means for the Tory “they do it too” defence.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Short term prison sentences don’t work

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Do your blog comments make a good impression?

There are many reasons people have for posting comments on this site or others: because they’ve got something to add to the conversation, because they want to correct an error, because they like taking part in a debate, because they’ve got a question to ask or a myriad of other reasons.

For those seeking public office, judicious commenting on other people’s sites can also be rather like going to events and meetings in the area; it’s a way of getting to know people, getting known by them and discussing relevant issues. Reaching out to other people’s sites, particularly if they aren’t …

Posted in Online politics | Also tagged and | 3 Comments

What do the public want politicians to get up to online?

The Hansard Society has a new report out which asks the public what they want out of politicians and the political system online.

Although many studies have looked at what politicians do or don’t do online, those looking at what the public actually wants are rather rarer. That makes this a particularly welcome report and is based on:

Two samples, the first is a national survey of individuals who are already online and the second a group of ‘digital leaders’; individuals with a strong interest in social media and politics. The first group is representative of digital Britain and the second group are the ‘early adopters’ of social media and digital technologies.

In many ways the report paints a positive picture, concluding that the country has:

An online population who are actively involved in civic and political life and who see the internet as beneficial for this.

However, this optimism should be tempered with the knowledge that other research has often seen people draw a distinction between being interested in issues and seeing the connection between them and voting, political parties or election results. Although the report has apparently very healthy figures for the proportion of people who have got engaged with the political system, this includes registering to vote – an important and welcome step, but one whose inclusion boosts the headline figures.

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Daily View 2×2: 4 February 2010

Good morning, on this misty day which in history saw three awful earthquakes – in Haicheng, Guatemala and Afghanistan.

This day is a birthday to American civil rights campaigner Rosa Parks (pictured) as well as to the American vice-president famously unable to spell “potato”, Dan Quayle.

Deaths on the 4th February include Liberace and American novelist novellist writer Patricia Highsmith, who wrote Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr Ripley, and – according to Wikipedia at least – the first lesbian novel with a happy ending.

Today is also Facebook’s 6th birthday. How many other 6 year-olds earned $300m last year, had new words entered into dictionaries, and caused moral panic?

2 Big Stories

Legg Report published

Later today, Sir Thomas Legg’s report will be published on Parliament’s website. The Guardian – MPs ordered to pay back more than £1m reports:

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Social networking tip: the benefits of NutshellMail

Back in March I blogged about the benefits of using NutshellMail to keep on top of social networks. The free service has just been updated, with some very useful extra features added.

But first, why use it?

What I wrote in March still applies:

One of the most common reasons I hear people give for not joining a social network site such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn is, “I know it’s useful, but where would I find the time to keep up with what’s happening?”

A typical way of tackling, at least in party, this dilemma is to go through carefully tweaking your

Posted in Online politics | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments

How will ACT and Facebook sit together?

As we covered earlier this week, the Liberal Democrats now have a new social network – ACT. Unsurprisingly one of the most common comments made since its launch has been, “how does this fit with Facebook?”. The party’s previous decision to have a heavy emphasis on using Facebook, both for its centrally inspired social networking activities and also as the tool recommended and supported for widespread use at the local level, was one largely made by myself when working there, so it’s a question that interests me too.

I’m glad to say that the move to set up ACT …

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The Tory councillors who labelled their Lib Dem opponents “morons” refuse to apologise

Moron: it’s not exactly a nice word. Definitions include “a person of subnormal intelligence” and the more psychologically precise “a person having an intelligence quotient of between 50 and 70”. Many of us might have used the term, but it’s one generally best kept out of civilised political discourse.

Tory councillors in the Cotswolds take a different view, as the BBC reports:

Councillors dubbed “morons” by rivals via social networking site Facebook say they may report the insult to the local government watchdog. Cotswold District Council leader Lynden Stowe and fellow Tory Chris Roberts said Lib Dem rivals “have a

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Daily View 2×2: 22 October 2009

Good morning readers. It’s the 22nd October and there are just 70 days left til the end of the year. Today is Derek Jacobi’s birthday, the 43rd anniversary of the first time an all-female group topped the charts in the States, and the 114th anniversary of a rather scary train-wreck at Paris’s Montparnasse station. Train wreck at Montparnasse, 1895

2 Big Stories

Postal strike poll puts blame on government as union announces action

The Guardian reports a Yougov poll in which voters put the blame for postal strikes squarely on Gordon’s shoulders.

Gordon Brown’s handling of the Royal Mail strikes comes under strong criticism from the public and Labour backbenchers today, with a new poll showing most voters believe the government should get directly involved in the dispute and force management and unions to go to the conciliation service Acas.

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Jan Moir: the dilemma for the PCC (and what you should say in your complaint)

The reaction to Jan Moir’s article about the death of Stephen Gately has been widespread and swift. Fuelled primarily by Twitter and Facebook, complaints about homophobia flooded in on the Daily Mail, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) and the firms who were unlucky enough to have their adverts appearing on the page. The headline was changed, the PCC’s website crashed, the adverts were pulled and many members of the public got a taste of how effective a simple tweet, email or phone call can be.

The big dilemma now is for the Press Complaints Commission because, although many of the messages urging people to complain to the PCC were helpfully specific about which clauses of its code should be referenced, the real issue for the PCC to decide is not in the code itself.

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“Taxpayers don’t want Web 2.0!”

So runs the rather foolish quote from the Taxpayers’ Alliance in a story from the Daily Express expressing outrage at a job ad for a Director of Digital Engagement.

The Government should have better things to spend money on than a pointless deputy Twittercrat. The public sector as a whole should be tightening its belt during times of economic hardship, and this job would be a scandalous waste even during good economic times.

Taxpayers don’t want more Web2.0. They want an end to wasteful spending.

Neither the TPA nor the Conservative Party can see the point, instead frothing at the mouth …

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The Government’s farcical slowness over updating election imprint rules

Six years on from receiving a recommendation from the Electoral Commission that existing legal powers should be used to clarify how the rules regarding election imprints apply to internet campaigning, the Government has still failed to act. This is despite the Government acknowledging in its official response to the recommendation the “importance” of getting this right. But it has decided that due to it being a “fast-evolving” area doing nothing for six years is the right response.

Posted in News and Online politics | Also tagged , , and | 7 Comments

Portsmouth Council rejoices at discovery staff only spending 11 seconds a day on Facebook

There has been widespread praise for Portsmouth Council after it was discovered that on average its staff only spend 11 seconds a day using Facebook. Despite the huge growth in the number of people using Facebook and the growing number of hours spent on the site by its users, Portsmouth Council staff are barely using the site. It may even be that much of this time is spent outside of work hours.

Facebook is going to be banned at Portsmouth Council after new figures outrageously revealed that its 4,500 staff waste an average of 413 hours a month in total on …

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More people use Facebook in the UK than it takes to elect a government

A bit of whimsical statistical trivia for the bank holiday weekend:

Number of votes won by the winning party at the 2005 general election: 9.6 million (BBC)
Number of Facebook users in the UK: 11.2 million (TechCrunch)

(Before anyone starts threatening me with a slide-rule: yes, this does compare apples and oranges a bit since Facebook’s minimum age requirement is less than 18 and also allows people who aren’t qualified to vote to become users . However, unless there’s a very unusual skew in their user base, the broad picture still stands.)

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MPs on Facebook: leading the way or forgetting to change the defaults?

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

A new studyof MPs on Facebook shows widespread use of the social network by Parliamentarians, but also a range of curious choices about how to use the medium which may in part reflect a failure to change default settings.

The study, carried out by Woodnewton Associates and based on evidence gathered in May this year, found that:

  • 26% of MPs have a Facebook presence (a page or profile).
  • Liberal Democrat MPs lead the way in Facebook usage, with 65% being on Facebook. 25% of Labour MPs and 21% of Conservative MPs are on Facebook.

Whilst a static presence in …

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The week in Facebook groups

Not  a week goes by without a dozen invites to various groups on Facebook.  (Well, maybe the week my ISP turned my email off without warning…) Here’s a selection that have crossed my path in recent days:

We agree with Vince Cable and Compass. Lets have a high pay commission.

Ever since the collapse of Northern Rock, Vince Cable has led the way in support of demanding an end to excessive pay and bonuses for greedy bankers who are more interested in short term profit than the long term interests of the economy.

Recently the Left

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