UK politicians sent out almost a million messages on social media site Twitter in 2013, with one MP tweeting more than 17,000 times, according to a new survey.
Top tweeter was Liberal Democrat president and MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale Tim Farron, whose 17,421 messages amount to one every 20 minutes throughout the year, assuming six hours of sleep a day, said social media monitoring service Yatterbox.
The platform recorded a total of 921,731 tweets by UK politicians over the year. Labour was the most active party with 398,168 tweets between them, the Conservatives a distant second on 245,707, and the Liberal Democrats third with 94,675. In a sign of how swiftly the political world has adopted the medium of the 140-character message, total tweets by MPs were up 28% on the previous year and 238% higher than in 2011.
Most active Labour tweeter was Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy with 12,739 tweets, while Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant was the most vocal Conservative politician on Twitter, sending 12,160 messages.
For MPs – unlike most other Twitter users – the biggest tweeting occasions of 2013 were the Budget and Autumn Statement, with the latter just clinching top spot by 5,317 tweets to 5,128.
Ben Carson, head of product at Yatterbox, said: “The level of engagement by politicians on social media has exploded in the last two years. With nearly a million tweets between them over the last 12 months, it is now beyond doubt that social media is a critical part of how an MP communicates with the outside world.”
Parliament’s top 10 tweeters, according to Yatterbox, were:
1. Tim Farron (Lib Dem, Westmorland and Lonsdale) – 17,421
2. Julian Huppert (Lib Dem, Cambridge) – 13,781
3. Stella Creasy (Labour, Walthamstow) – 12,739
4. Michael Fabricant (Conservative, Lichfield) – 12,160
5. Jamie Reed (Labour, Copeland) – 11,144
6. Tom Harris (Labour, Glasgow South) – 10,676
7. Tom Watson (Labour, West Bromwich East) – 10,577
8. Greg Mulholland (Lib Dem, Leeds North West) – 10,370
9. Angus MacNeil (SNP, Na h-Eileanan an Iar) – 10,210
10. George Galloway (Respect, Bradford West) – 8,986
MPs' use of Twitter explodes
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