Steady there, don’t get too excited! Yes, it’s true, the three political leaders of the UK have signed up to Google Plus: David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg.
Don’t hold your breath for insightful posts on how the UK will move forward in difficult times though. It seems that all three of the leaders will be using their social presence on Google+ to try to convert people in their circles into active voters. Yet, who can blame them? Google will soon be approaching 30 million users after only a few months running (in an invitation beta phase I remind you) and this member base will keep growing at an exponential rate. A report carried out in 2010 also revealed that over 50% of adults online read and / or received some sort of information about the election during the political campaign.
So here’s a small profile on each one of them and their Google Plus profiles:
Don't expand those comments if you are sensitive to hate...
With 2,071 followers, David is leading the Google+ race for now but it’s only early days. As the picture caption suggests, there isn’t too much love for Mr Cameron in the 48 comments seen above and some are incredibly offensive (Stream Filter might be useful here). If will certainly be interesting to see how he handles this negative attention and whether he replies at all.
Comment made on Google Plus: “Anything that makes politics more open and accessible is to be welcomed, and I am proud that Britain politicians are leading the way when it comes to embracing new methods of engaging people online, from e-petitions to the latest developments in social media.’’
Ed shows the others how to use social media properly.
In second place with 1,431 followers, Ed Miliband is using Google+ in a way it should be. With a variety of photos uploaded, multiple posts (relevant to current events) and interacting with other users, it seems that Ed is popular with the rest of the Google Plus community. His opening post received 21 shares and 51 (positive) comments, it will be interesting to see whether this type of feedback continues.
Comment made on Google Plus: “Labour is determined to be a party that looks outwards, not inwards. That means talking to people, but also listening and responding to them too. That’s what I’ve been using social media for, and that’s what I’ll keep doing.”
A pretty stale profile at the moment...
Nick Clegg is in last place with a single post but surprisingly 82 comments made on it. Most of these people are attacking Nick through the social network though so we’ll just have to see whether he continues to use Google Plus.
Comment made on Google Plus: “The Liberal Democrats are always open to new and innovative ways of communicating with voters, so creating a Google+ account was an easy and logical step.”
I’m entirely neutral on all political aspects but will you guys be adding any of the above leaders to your circles?
…I know I’ll be removing them from mine as soon as I hit the “Publish” button!
9 comments for “Politicians Arrive to Google+”