*UPDATED* Brian Paddick reaches out to Londerners via Twitter

Hot on the heels of Lynne Feathestone MP and No 10 Downing Street twittering I received an email last night from the Lib dem's Head of Innovation, Mark Pack, telling me that the Lib Dem mayoral candidate, Brian Paddick, is holding the world's first interview using Twitter.

Mark's email told me:

"Liberal Democrat Mayoral Candidate Brian Paddick is taking part in an exclusive interview on Twitter, the popular text messaging service, the first time this has been done by a UK politician.

Brian Paddick will be offering an exclusive interview to all of his ‘followers’ on Twitter.  Users who have signed up to follow Brian Paddick on Twitter will be able to text a question and answers will then be sent to the questioners and posted on his official website."

I was struck by two things:

1. the emphasis of Twitter as a text messaging service
2. the offer of an exclusive interview with brian via Twitter

I wondered why Twitter was being sold as a text messaging service when it is soooo much more. I suspected it was due to sell the idea of Twitter to a wide audience. Alan Johnson's deputy leadership campaign manager, Stuart Bruce, confirmed as much to me via Twitter this morning.

The second point is more subtle and seems to indicate the Paddick team's lack of understanding that Twitter, like other social web tools, are shifting the balance between organisations and their stakeholders.

The simple fact that Paddick is on Twitter means he is open to conversation with his 'followers' - so why set up a specific 'exclusive interview'? Or perhaps they are using the story as a neat media hook!

Either way, Ken Livingstone isn't on Twitter and despite the Tories new media savvy Boris and his team consider online debates as not involving "real people". At least Paddick is opening up a new front for direct engagement with his followers/supporters.

*UPDATE* Stephen Waddington reports back via Twitter that he posed a question 20 hours ago and is still awaiting a response.

Technorati tags: Brian Paddick,  London mayoral elections,  Lib Dems, Twitter

Comments

[Mark Pack]

What the announcment said (see http://tinyurl.com/35ntdm) was, "Anyone signed up to follow Brian Paddick on Twitter can ask him a question between Thursday 3rd and Tuesday 8th April".

So Simon's being a little overkeen in complaining he's not had an answer yet :-)

Of course, any questions sent in earlier will be looked at too anyway.

[Simon Collister]

Apologies for not making that clear, Mark.

However, I think Brian should be aware that the very nature of Twitter is that people expect real-time two way communication hence my point in the post that 'setting a window for Q&As' appears a bit odd.

Still, full credit for exploring the medium!

[Stephen Waddington]

@Mark - Stephen NOT Simon, please

@Simon - Fair play Paddick's announcement states that he'll respond between 3rd and 8th - see my blog for an update. It's a bit of anti-climax to be honest.

[Mark Pack]

@Stephen: apologies!

@Simon: in answer to your Twitter re Tweetscan, Brian doesn't but some of the staff working on the campaign are using it

[Chris Norton]

Interesting post Simon. It will be interesting to see which of the other politicians start to follow suit with this. I can understand why only a few of them are currently using it but if the wider masses start to adopt twitter too the tweets could make for intersting reading. We all know how great twitter is for a good old rumour.

[Will]

Can you tell me a little more about how Twitter can be used better by politicians?

[Simon Collister]

Hi Will. Drop me an email (it's in the About section section top-right) and I'll happily talk to you about using Twitter effectively. cheers!