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Labour's Twitter Tsars
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In the first of a series of posts throughout the party conference season, and as a result of ongoing press coverage about politicians using social media to promote themselves and engage with voters, I have begun to undertake some thorough analysis of how MPs are using twitter.
The above is a map of Labour MPs on twitter, showing who follows who. The blue circles represent MPs and the arrows show who they are friends with. The bigger the circle, the more friends they have; and the closer they are to one another the closer their friendship groups.
The data behind this map shows that the title of Labour ‘twitter tsar’ should be awarded to Ed Miliband, not Kerry McCarthy. Although Ed Miliband has 21 fewer followers, popularity in social networks is not everything. In the network of MPs he has a higher degree of ‘betweeness centrality’ – he acts as more of “bridge” between MPs and so has a higher level of potential to spread messages amongst all of them.
So if you want Labour MPs to take up an issue for you on twitter, Ed Miliband is the man to talk to.
Next week I’ll be mapping Tory MPs and the following week I’ll look at all the MPs on twitter to see if any conclusions can be drawn (excuse the pun!), analysing who MPs follow other than their peers.
Social Media and the Labour Party:
- 42 Labour MPs on Twitter
- Most influential Labour MP on twitter: Tom Watson
- Most potentially influential Labour MP amongst Labour MPs: Ed Miliband
- Labour MP with most followers outside MP cliques: John Prescott
- Hazel Blears has one twitter MP friend: it’s Tom Watson
League table of Labour MP’s twitter influence
(according to Twitter Grader)
|
Minister |
Following |
Followers |
|---|---|---|
|
Tom Watson - @tom_watson |
1410 |
5385 |
|
Kerry McCarthy - @KerryMP |
1298 |
2722 |
|
John Prescott - @JohnPrescott |
69 |
6805 |
|
Sadiq Khan - @SadiqKhan |
1481 |
2840 |
|
Tom Harris - @TomHarrisMP |
374 |
2073 |
|
David Lammy - @DavidLammyMP |
300 |
2845 |
|
Edward Balls - @edballsmp |
265 |
2930 |
|
Edward Miliband - @EdMilibandMP |
881 |
2122 |
|
Jim Knight - @jimknightmp |
275 |
1495 |
|
Andy Reed - @andyreedmp |
137 |
950 |
|
David Miliband - @Dmiliband |
27 |
1434 |
|
Siôn Simon - @sionsimon |
815 |
1333 |
|
Ben Bradshaw - @BenBradshawMP |
53 |
1383 |
|
Eric Joyce - @ericjoyce |
311 |
816 |
|
Harriet Harman - @HarrietHarman |
73 |
1981 |
|
John Denham - @Johndenhammp |
1 |
1089 |
|
Kevin Brennan - @KevinBrennanMP |
54 |
1049 |
|
Liam Byrne - @LiamByrneMP |
53 |
983 |
|
Frank Field - @frankfieldteam |
5 |
718 |
|
Linda Gilroy - @LindaGilroyMP |
45 |
613 |
|
Anne Snelgrove - @annesnelgrovemp |
76 |
677 |
|
Celia Barlow - @CeliaBarlowMP |
405 |
780 |
|
Sarah McCarthy-Fry - @smccarthyfry |
200 |
593 |
|
Virendra Sharma - @VirendraSharma |
190 |
673 |
|
Hazel Blears - @HazelBlearsMP |
10 |
644 |
|
Andrew Gwynne - @Andrew_GwynneMP |
106 |
433 |
|
David Wright - @DavidWrightMP |
75 |
482 |
|
Derek Wyatt - @wyattd |
135 |
511 |
|
Linda Riordan - @Linda_Riordan |
52 |
472 |
|
Elliot Morley - @elliotmorley |
12 |
4644 |
|
Ian Cawsey - @iancawsey |
37 |
395 |
|
Parmjit Dhanda - @ParmjitDhanda |
359 |
469 |
|
David Kidney - @davidkidney |
146 |
411 |
|
Gillian Merron - @GillianMerron |
14 |
380 |
|
Gisela Stuart - @GiselaStuart |
62 |
383 |
|
James Plaskitt - @JamesPlaskittMP |
37 |
385 |
|
Anthony D Wright - @tonywrightmp |
216 |
350 |
|
Alison Seabeck - @alisonseabeck |
190 |
263 |
|
John Spellar - @spellar |
14 |
235 |
|
Paul Clark - @paulclarkmp |
157 |
209 |
|
David Drew - @DavidDrewMP |
13 |
155 |
|
Michael Foster - @MikeFosterMP |
10 |
153 |
|
David Chaytor - @chaytord |
1 |
161 |
|
Margaret Moran - @margaretmoranmp |
15 |
150 |
MP list taken from TweetMinster, week commencing September 21st 2009
Image by Josh Feldberg
