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David Cameron & Twitter

Thursday, 30 July 2009, 9:43 | Category : Communications
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David Cameron speaking at NESTA
Originally uploaded by conservativepartyuk

Did you hear? David Cameron – the Leader of the Opposition in the UK (Conservative) – went on the O’Connell radio show and managed to swear twice. I’m sorry that I don’t find this exciting or important.

What I do find important is Cameron’s view on Twitter.

“The trouble with Twitter, the instantness of it – too many twits might make a twat.”
David Cameron on Absolute Radio

You know what? I think he is 100% right. (And by the way, he didn’t say Twitter is for twats as The Times would have you believe)

Allow me to elaborate. UK politicians have a wide variety of ways to use social media. Some have a blog, others have everything, some have a preference for specific tools over others, others have nothing at all.

The thing I like about Cameron is that he has an overall communications strategy. Offline, online, face to face or with the press, he seems to have a very clear goal in mind. Social media is just a part of his strategy – not a standalone. Even though, he cannot be blamed for not being forward thinking, let’s not forget that he was one of the first to go on video with the infamous WebCameron (and what a lovely wordplay it still is, in a ‘tongue in cheek’ kinda way). So I don’t think that Cameron is backwards and I don’t think he is missing a trick as John Prescott is suggesting. Twitter might be a great tool for what John Prescott wants to do but it might not be a great tool for what David Cameron wants to do.

I think that Cameron knows exactly what he is doing. He saw the tool, decided it’s not the right tool or that it’s not the right time for where he wants to go and what he wants to do.

That is exactly why I admire Cameron’s comms team. They don’t seem to be getting in on the hype as soon as possible just for the sake of it. They first define a target and then try to get there by using the right tools for them. What this tells me is that they are not trying to advertise a ‘hip’ David Cameron who connects to tweeple (yo!). It tells me that they are thinking about their communications and David Cameron as a brand by building a complete online and offline strategy.

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See the clip on the Absolute Radio website

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Following a database meltdown (long live the server move processes) this post and any comments were uploaded again manually.

  • I would die for a politician who would have the balls to say, e.g. in this particular example, "please stop making a fuss about meaningless nothings and concentrate on the actual subject at hand". That, is a person I would cast my very first vote to. Till then....
  • sofiagk
    It's kinda funny we were having exactly the same discussion at the office. Even though I am not fussed about him swearing I did hear a very good argument, that him swearing is effectively a 'dumbing down' assumption for the audience and thus a bit pretentious.
  • Aside from the discussion on the media tools, what I find hilarious (as well as deeply disturbing and depressing), is that it is precicelly irrelevant silly things like this (a politician mentioning the word 'twat', Janet Jackson showing a bit of nipple, etc, etc) that get people worked up, into a debate, or have their opnion affected or even formed by.
    He said twat. Thus, he is cool/rude/hip/with the young generation/inexperienced.......
    Bleh.
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