twitter & uk politics - a tweetminster report

Tweetminster.co.uk | ©2010-2011 Tweetminster

Twitter & UK Politics


Tweetminster was launched in December 2008

with the goal of making UK politics more open and

social. Our mission is to make politicians more

accessible to the public, help people follow breaking

news stories and make sense of political issues by

connecting directly with the MPs, journalists and

politicos that shape the national debate.

When we launched Tweetminster there were 4 MPs

using Twitter. As of January 19th 2010 there are 111

MPs and 226 PPCs on Twitter, and these numbers

are growing daily.

Tweetminster also tracks and analyses thousands

of posts by news sources, journalists, bloggers

and the wider “UK politics network” (defined by

our bespoke network analysis tools) comprising

thousands of influential activists, writers, bloggers,

pundits, analysts and opinion leaders within the

Twitter community.

Over the last twelve months we have seen a

shift in how Twitter is perceived as a political

communications tool, notably there are now more

MPs tweeting than blogging – a development that

has surprised many in the political community who

felt text-based blogging would remain the primary

social media tool for UK politicians. This shift

in social media activity may be because Twitter

posts connect with a wide number of users and

conversations whilst requiring less investment of

time than long-form blogging. This convenience

factor, combined with the public attention focused

on Twitter in 2009, means it is easier for politicians

to gain visibility using Twitter than competing for

web traffic with more established bloggers.

We believe that Twitter and other social media

platforms, if used effectively, have the potential

to impact the next general election campaign and

shape the 2010 parliament in unprecedented ways

that we can currently only make an educated guess

about - for the simple reason that many of these

tools weren’t around the last time the UK took to

the booths. The sheer pace of change within UK

user engagement with social media platforms

means the public are constantly innovating how to

best leverage the political potential of these tools

– often faster than political parties or the media.

However, we can say with some certainty that

whatever the impact of social media on the general

election, 2010 will set new standards for digital

engagement in local and national politics, open data

and accessibility, with all parties and government

departments putting digital engagement high on

their agendas.

The aim of this report is to share with you an

analysis of the data that underpins the Twitter and

UK politics network. The report encompasses an

overview, our top-5 findings and a summary of data

around MPs, PPCs and News & Comment.

Summary


Overview831,349 tweets were analysed in this report.

Total number of tweets by MPs: 48,167

Total number of tweets by PPCs: 75,530

Total number of tweets by political news sources, journalists and bloggers: 707,652

0

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800000

Total number of Tweets by political news sources, journalists and bloggers

Total number of tweets by PPCs

Total Number of tweets by MPs


Total number of followers (MPs, PPCs and official party accounts) by Party:

Labour: 113,201Conservatives: 36,874Liberal Democrats: 32,202

0

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Liberal Democrats: 32,202

Conservatives: 36,874

Labour: 113,201


Eastmidlands – 21

North East – 11

Wales – 23

Northern Ireland – 1

East – 32

North West – 32

South East – 40

Yorkshire & The Humber – 25

West Midlands – 27

London – 57

Southwest – 37

Scotland – 27

Politicians on Twitter - breakdown by region

27

1132

2721

32

4037

23

1

25

57


1. cpc09 (Conservative Party Conference)

2. lab09 (Labour Party Conference)

3. Labour party

4. BBC Question Time

5. Tories

6. David Cameron

7. Twitter

8. Obama

9. Climate Change

10. Hope

*Trends: the most frequently mentioned terms within tweets around UK politics.

Top trends* within UK Politics for 2009


1 – In terms of politicians, the Labour Party

dominates all key metrics – collectively Labour

MPs and PPCs are more active, more frequently

mentioned (i.e. have greater reach) and have

more followers than the two other main parties

combined.

2 – Senior party members can play a critical role in

connecting with members of the public: Nick Clegg

and Eric Pickles standout in all tables well above

their party’s average metrics.

3 - The findings for official party accounts show a

different picture – the Conservatives not only have

significantly greater reach than the other main

parties, but also their posts tend to have greater

distribution (i.e. mentions and retweets) than

established media and key bloggers.

4 – The data shows that the Conservatives are

more effective at distributing their message from

the top, yet less so at a grassroots level in terms

of spreading these positions within conversations

(this should be the work of supporters, MPs,

PPCs). While Labour has the opposite challenge

– members drive conversations, yet the official

line doesn’t strategically trickle down. The Lib

Dems are somewhere in between – while the data

is in-line with expectations, and reach-wise the

party punches above its weight when looking at the

number of followers, their challenge is breaking

into conversations that go beyond party supporters,

especially in terms of how these then influence the

mainstream media agenda.

5 – While as expected established mainstream

news sources have a higher number of followers

than bloggers and commentators, individual

journalists and bloggers receive more mentions

and retweets. This is probably due to a combination

of factors - including that the latter are more

engaging, post different angles and commentary

around a story, and established sources tend to

broadcast links (that followers may click on but not

interact with the source) or stories that followers

have caught up with elsewhere. Comparatively

the blogospheres of the two main parties show

relatively similar figures in terms of followers and

reach.

Based on our data we predict that the next

election (on Twitter at least) will be between

the Conservative party machine and Labour’s

grassroots activists’. We also feel that individual

journalists, beyond the media organisations they

represent, will play a critical role in influencing

how a message is framed.

Top five findings


The Data (Members of Parliament)

Number of Tweets by Party

MPs on Twitter – party breakdown

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40000Respect 85

Scottish National Party 104

Social Democratic and Labour Party 105

Conservative 2083

Liberal Democrat 7031

Labour 38759

Respect 1


Plaid Cymru 2


Conservative 16

Liberal Democrat 23

Labour 65


The Data (Members of Parliament) cont.

MPs by party & followers

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Plaid Cymru 647


Respect 4342

Conservative 19247


Labour 91061



Most mentioned MPs - top 20

* This figure included retweets.

0 3000 6000 9000 12000 15000

0 3000 6000 9000 12000 15000

Kerry McCarthy 14921

John Prescott 4902

Tom Watson 4634

Tom Harris 3624

Andrew Gwynne 3454

Nicholas Clegg 2731

Nadine Dorries 2083

Edward Balls 1886

Edward Miliband 1870

Jo Swinson 1602

David Miliband 1490

Eric Joyce 1307

Siôn Simon 1030

Eric Pickles 907

Sadiq Khan 881

Jim Knight 605

Sandra Gidley 459

Grant Shapps 434

Ben Bradshaw 422

Harriet Harman 419



Most Retweeted MPs – top 20

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200


The Data (Prospective Parliamentary Candidates)

Party Breakdown

Number of followers by party

SNP 1

Plaid Cymru 16

Libertarian Party 3

UKIP 5

Independent 6

Green Party 7

Liberal Democrat 42

Labour 63

Conservative 78

0

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Plaid Cymru 209

Libertarian Party 1402

Independent 2137

Green Party 3400

UKIP 4761


Conservative17627

Labour 22140


The Data (Prospective Parliamentary Candidates) cont.

Number of mentions - top 20

* This figure included retweets.

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500


The Data (Prospective Parliamentary Candidates) cont.

Most Retweeted PPCs- top 20

05 01 00 150 200 250

05 01 00 150 200 250


The Data (News & Comment)

Followers - top 20

0 500000 1000000 1500000 2000000

0 500000 1000000 1500000 2000000


The Data (News & Comment) cont.

Number of mentions - top 20


The Data (News & Comment) cont.

Most Retweeted - top 20

*uklabour is 126th


Established in December 2008, Tweetminster is a media utility that aims to make UK politics

more open and social.

You can use Tweetminster to:

• Find and follow MPs and PPCs on Twitter: http://tweetminster.co.uk/

• Connect and interact with those that shape the issues that matter to you: politicians, news

sources, journalists, bloggers, commentators and influencers -

http://tweetminster.co.uk/livewire

• Access curated lists of relevant news, commentary and politicians

http://twitter.com/tweetminster

• Measure the pulse of UK politics in real time: dynamically analyse and make sense of

information and data around political conversations and news stories:

http://search.tweetminster.co.uk/pages/about

Find out more: www.tweetminster.co.uk

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tweetminster

Get in touch: [email protected]

About Tweetminster


• Data for this report was collected between January 1st 2009 and January 15th 2010.

• Data for MPs and PPCs is analysed from when Tweetminster added the relevant account to its

systems (this is usually no later than a few days from when the individual joins Twitter).

• Fail whales may have caused temporary interruptions in the collection of data during the

course of the analysed period.

• Mentions are all tweets posted by an user containing another person’s username.

• Retweets are posts pre-fixed by “RT” (or posted via Twitter’s retweet feature introduced in

2009) and tweeted by a user who is re-posting someone else’s original post.

Editorial notes

twitter & uk politics - a tweetminster report

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