Labour appoints "Twitter tsar"

 

Gallery

By David Neal

Posted on 18 Aug 2009 at 10:06

Labour MP Kerry McCarthy has been tasked with improving the party's use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter ahead of the next election.

McCarthy revealed her appointment this weekend in tweets and in an interview with LabourList, a party grassroots publication.

"There's an ever-growing interest in the new media area and so the Party thought that there should be a politician involved in both the coordination and in being the public face of the great work the Labour Party is doing in this area," she notes.

While the Conservative party has struggled to engage tweeters - David Cameron recently said of Twitter that "too many twits might make a twat" - Labour has fared slightly better with social networks.

New media campaigning isn't really that different to traditional campaigning

McCarthy, a prolific blogger and Tweeter, was recently voted the most influential MP to use the online services. It is expected that she will use this experience to help the party manage its new media path through the coming year and subsequent general election.

McCarthy claims the party will use new media to better engage with the electorate and to guide its own decisions, explaining that quick access to fast changing information would help it to organise and adapt during campaigns.

"New media campaigning isn't really that different to traditional campaigning. Rather than being something completely new, campaigning using new media is simply doing what we've always done in a new setting – and rather than replacing traditional ways of doing things, it is about making traditional campaigning methods even more effective," she adds.