Comments on: Take comfort from the Social Media political onslaught.

By: Pauline sargent

Pauline sargent — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:27:06 +0000

Hi Fran

Wow…. delighted to be a random winner. Love these cushions. Can I get a Facebook one please. And your right the comments were great as indeed was the twitter coverage in the lead up to the election. I’d love to see the constituency #hashtags kept active, so we can keep follow what our TDs are doing, enage with them & interact on local & national issues.
You never know by the next election the constituency hashtags may be on every poster.

Huge thanks to you & to Heli for the cushion

By: Fran

Fran — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:36:42 +0000

Due to the number and quality of the comments we have decided to choose the winner at random. The lucky winner is… Pauline Sargent. Congratulations.
Pauline has the choice of a Twitter or Facebook cushion.
We would like to thank you all for you comments and hope that you will enter our competitions in the future.

By: Fran

Fran — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 12:51:14 +0000

Thanks JL for the comment.
I agree that much of the social media ‘conversations’ have been one way, with the parties ‘pushing’ their own messages. It would be nice to see some of the personality of the candidates coming out, after all they are human………. I hope.

By: JL Pagano

JL Pagano — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:33:04 +0000

No reasonable person will blame you for using social media to push your political agenda, just don’t make it a one-way street. Make a point of engaging with people who challenge you in a respectable manner. And the odd tweet or facebook post that reminds people you’re an actual person won’t hurt either

By: Fran

Fran — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:07:22 +0000

Thanks again for all your comments.
@Pauline I agree that the parties and candidates have more of an awareness of social media, but I’m still not sure that they want to use and engage with people long term. It would be an excellent tool for them to use particularly for people in their constituency.

@Emily Unfortunately they don’t stay clear, their “advisor’s/consultants” tell them otherwise. The Fine Gael social media campaign has been badly received, judging the tweets in my stream and comments on Facebook.

@Christina “just apply yourself to dedicating time to listening to people” I think this is the crux of the problem, they haven’t and they won’t spend the time listening or engaging with the public. If they did dedicate some energy into a coherent social media policy, I think it would pay dividends for them. I don’t think may of them are willing to ‘invest’ the time or effort.

@Ruth Now that’s the €85 billion question. I would say it’s been proven that some TD’s have been”quite miserly” with statements filled with honesty and truthfulness.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 09:57:40 +0000

Be honest!! Though that seems to be something all politicians lack

By: Christina Giliberti

Christina Giliberti — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 09:40:29 +0000

Hi there,
My top tip is to meet the people head-on online. Don’t shy away from arkward questions or block questions. Be as honest and transparent as possible. Provide open Q&A’s, list on a tab all of your intentions for the country, ask ‘fans’ to suggest ideas for improvements and where they feel funds are lacking in the community. You don’t have to do anything out of ordinary, just apply yourself to dedicating time to listening to people.

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:54:57 +0000

Unless you know what your going with social media, (by the looks of things most of you don’t) leave it alone. You come across as idiots. If you can’t do that, use it to expand on your promises by answering the question “how are you going to do what you promise”.

By: Pauline sargent

Pauline sargent — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:45:16 +0000

Hi Fran

Great post & I think if anything this election has sparked the politicians interest in social media & the many benefits of using it. And fair play to the ones trying to use twitter.

My tips for this election would be
1)to use the #hashtags properly. As in the #ge11 one & your constituency # as in my area it’s #dubsc.
2) Respond to the people who have taken the time to tweet you directly.
3) Don’t broadcast just engage.

After the election, I’m with Dawn I would like to see regular tweet ups in my local area & tweets about important local meetings or decisions being made that the wider community that we could get involved in. It could be a great communication tool & could generate greater awareness of local issues if used well.

Pauline

By: Fran

Fran — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:28:34 +0000

Catherine, thank you for your comment.
“Guilty” as charged. The restriction on the number characters can encourage poor punctuation and ‘text speak’ when you are trying to convey a message, mind you I’m not a politician, so I’d hope they’d be more diligent than me.