The Media School

Research finds UK politicians atwitter

25 September 2009

They might be trailing the Conservative Party in the opinion polls but when it comes to using Twitter, the Liberal Democrats and Labour are kings of the House of Commons.

Research by experts from Bournemouth University and the University of Plymouth has revealed that nearly 67% of all tweeting MPs belong to Labour ahead of 18% for the Liberal Democrats. The Tories are relegated into third place with just 12%.

When you factor in the proportion of MPs that each party boasts, it is clear that the Lib Dems are leading the way when it comes to embracing the popular social media site. And yet overall, just 51 of our 645 MPs are classed as regular Twitter users – among them Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families; Ben Bradshaw, Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, former Tory party leadership contestant Peter Lilley and John Prescott.

The figures have been released following a joint research project by Dr Darren Lilleker of Bournemouth University and Dr Nigel Jackson of the University of Plymouth into how politicians are engaging with their constituents using Social Networking Sites and modern media.

Together they have identified three main indicators of the parliamentary tweeter:

Gender – women MPs compose just 19.4% of the Commons but they make up 29.4% of tweeters;
Party – Labour has 54.2% of all MPs, and provides 66.7% of tweeting MPs. The Liberal Democrats have 9.8% of all MPs, but provide 17.6% of all tweeting MPs. The Conservatives have 29.8% of all MPs, but provide 11.8% of tweeting MPs.
Portfolio – 43.1% of tweeting MPs are either Government Ministers or Official Opposition spokespersons.

MPs tend to use Twitter as a means of promoting their activities in their constituency or when they are in Westminster, and again, the research has identified several trends:

On average 27% of MPs tweet to help build a positive impression of themselves as a professional and as an individual;
14% of MPs’ tweets support their constituency service role;
Only 11% of MPs’ tweets are partisan in nature which means that MPs are more likely to raise their own profile than that of their party.

“So far the number of tweeting MPs is fairly small, but Twitter may be a more effective means of enhancing an MPs representative role than weblogs or social networking sites,” said Dr Lilleker. “Because Twitter is quick to update, MPs can use it to regularly explain what they are doing on behalf of constituents. In a time of public scepticism towards politicians, Twitter may be more effective than other non face-to-face communication channels, but only if MPs’ tweets are seen as worth receiving.”