So as everyone will be aware, it was Budget day today. Now of course Budget day is going to result in a large number of graphs to show information. I see the need for the graphs. What I don’t see is the need for the National Party Twitter account to tweet, at last count, 16 images that look like Powerpoint Slides.
I am not going to screen grab and link to them all. However, I will say this, whoever thought it was a good idea to tweet 16 Powerpoint slides in 8 minutes really needs to be told what works on social media. Social media is about conversation, not about broadcasting, unless you are the PM who thinks Twitter is full of “trolls” and “bottomfeeders”. Social media should be used to drive views to the party page, The best way to do this is to use simple, easy to understand, interesting graphics. Graphics that are going to appeal to people, encourage them to share them. The account should also be prepared, on days like Budget Day, to have people ready to answer questions on policy, or the data that is being tweeted.
There are plenty of ways to host PDF/Powerpoints/Slide presentations online, and link to them in tweets, that don’t involve flooding peoples timelines with uninteresting graphics. The link in the tweets, ntnl.org.nz/1sCYDoh, linked to a site that was well suited to pushing out the message via social media:
What I don’t get is why go and annoy people on Twitter by flooding their feed with these tweets, then link it to a site that is designed to encourage them to share content? Why not just tweet an appealing image with a link to the site to encourage visits?
When your social media actions result in the president of the youth wing of your party apologising on Twitter, you know you have probably done something wrong.
There seems to be a split personality behind the National Party Social media presence. They have a website with great, icon based, direct links to MPs social media accounts, a Budget day website with graphics ready for people to share easily. But on the other hand they have a Twitter account that sends 16 tweets in 8 mins, all of which are bland, uninteresting Powerpointesque slides, an account that doesn’t reply, a party leader who has a view that social media is a broadcast medium and sees fit to describe Twitter as “full of trolls and bottomfeeders”. If National want to get the best return out of their social media presence, they need to all get on the same page, and treat social media like they would any other media, have a coherent plan and stick to it.
