Twitter

Is there anything more likely to make the heart sink than the news today that the Government recommends its departments to join Twitter?

It’s like buying a cool T-shirt and finding out your Dad’s got the same one at home – it doesn’t look right, but he still insists on wearing it…

Using Twitter is just not going to work. The report issued via the Cabinet Office suggests that Departments Tweet “issues of relevance or upcoming events” – and that these Tweets are decided after “quick discussions of potential tweets at daily meetings, as well as e-mails between officials and digital media staff about potential content for tweets.”

Oh dear. The fact that Twitter is supposed to be a two-way conversation, not a one-way street, seems to have passed them by. Add in the elements of Twitter that make it so unique – the spontaneity, the quick-fire banter and never has a communication channel been less suited to an organisation. What about Following? Who will decide who the departments should follow? And who will approve the Tweets – and approved they must be – like a news release, anything on Twitter is in the public domain as a government response. It’s an accident waiting to happen…

photo credit: adria.richards

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