The UK political parties and social media

The US Democratic nomination race showed just how much more developed the US political parties are at harnessing the web and social media in particular. Barack Obama may have gone a bit quiet now on Twitter, but at least his office recognised the need for a presence there, as did the Clinton camp. Although unlike her rival, Hillary doesn't follow anyone back!

A quick look at our main UK political party websites and I see that Labour has an email newsletter sign up, videos of speeches and four blogs, although none are by named people. Gordon Brown is keeping a mysteriously low profile. Over at The Conservatives, things are more impressive. 'Show your support on these social networks' declares the front page, with logos and links to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. Video is used well and the homepage also features an 'Ask David Your Question' box, an exhortation to subscribe to webcasts and and a link to 'Webcameron'.

Onward to the Liberal Democrats, and I was half hoping to see something akin to the Tory site, but instead the visitor is presented something rather lumpen. Pride of place is a news feed featuring what appear to be latest speeches by LibDem ministers accompanied by a less-than-enticing RSS button. The other main area on the page is taken up with a list of topical issues and a link to a film about climate change. OK so it's policy-led, but a bit unengaging, and not a personality in sight.

For news of Twittering UK politicians (the medium is made for them!) see http://shorttermmemoryloss.com/twitterpolitics/