Comments on: Don’t Ask the PM about Social Media

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:08:56 +0000

It’s incredibly frustrating to see technology poorly deployed. Witness the furore over the latest re-launch of the No. 10 site. On the face of it, many in the blogosphere and social media spaces were willing to give the site the benefit of the doubt when it was announced they would be using Wordpress et. al and many were genuinely interested in such a high-profile use of these tools.

However, Downing St and/or their agency completely screwed up. Allegedly plagiarised themes, test data on a production site, missing pages, broken links and questionable styling has created a storm of resentment.

It’s interesting to talk about “social media”, I think there’s an undercurrent of “social technology”, where people engage so much with a given service or platform it deeply irks them to see it implemented so poorly (in this case with Wordpress) or to be lumbered into without due regard for the social scenario that uses it (the one-way nature of No.10’s twittering and their YouTube presence).

Those who work in these spaces know the immense potential locked within social media, despite it’s quirks, eccentricities and bete noires, and to see rank amateurs exercising in a public space makes me, and many others, cringe and bury our heads in our hands.

By: Henry Elliss

Henry Elliss — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:33:30 +0000

To be fair to Golden Brown, it *may* be a mistake, but it’s a mistake that everyone else is making at the moment… WebCameron anybody?!

By: theredrocket

theredrocket — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:57:15 +0000

GB + new media = clutching at straws.

You’re right, there’s no connection and could be damaging to both himself and new media as a communications channel.

But is it possible for him to make it work, given that he’s trying to communicate to 60m people. Any feedback is going to be difficult to digest and return and intelligent dialogue. Maybe it’s something that should be done on a (comparatively) micro level, but MPs and individual offices..?

By: Daljit

Daljit — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:30:49 +0000

Hi Jonathan, thanks for the comment. The IBM thing was meant to be an attempt at irony, but perhaps I was being too subtle for once I think the issue with Downing St is that it is in a difficult position when it comes to Social Media as it can;t be seen to be campaigning for the Labour Party and when you are promoting a Labour PM the distinction is a difficult one to get right. That said, there are few excuses for not being down with the lingo.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:51:24 +0000

Nice post. I’ve been fairly open in my disappointment with the Downing St Twitter profile – it’s all broadcast and selective response. No engagement. No real feeling it’s a human being. Just one thing though – IBM as a leading youth brand?! The use of the word ‘tape’ in the Ts and C’s also reveals a lot.

In a word, well a few actually – the thing about social media is that it calls for total transparency. And transparency isn’t a word I’d really use in connection with the current government. All good learning though – If I was sat in the Conservatives press office – I’d be watching and learning from all the mistakes the PM and his team appear to be making and get it right.