Politicians don’t get social media

Twitter is all the rage. Everybody who’s anybody seems to be hopping onto the bandwagon. It kind of reminds me of how it was like when Facebook was all the rage about a year ago and the same with blogging, about a year before that.

And where the masses are, the politicians are sure to follow. Last week, the Obama administration hopped onto the social media bandwagon by setting up a White House presence on the three major social networking services: Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

That Barack Obama would be the first US President to fully embrace social media is no surprise. He is, after all, a tech-savvy politician. In the build up to his run for office, Obama’s team leveraged Web 2.0 services to the hilt, using blogs, Facebook and YouTube amongst others to connect with the voters.

And when he came to office, the official White House site, www.whitehouse.gov, was revamped to make it more user-friendly and in tune with the times. For example, there is actually an official White House blog (www.whitehouse.gov/blog).

But as savvy as Obama and his team may be, they still don’t really get what Web 2.0 is all about. The content on their various social media presence is largely recycled material from his various appearances and press releases. It’s not original stuff and it’s not interactive.

Not to be outdone, our very own Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has a spiffy-looking website of his own, www.1malaysia.com.my, which hosts a blog, YouTube videos, Flickr photos and yes, Twitter!

But Najib, or rather his communications team (nobody expects the US president or the Malaysian prime minister to do their own social networking), don’t get social media.

If you are keen to follow his Tweets, his handle is @NajibRazak. At the time of writing, he has 1,101 followers and he is following nobody! That’s right, zero.

In other words, he (or rather his communications team) is using Twitter – the poster child for interactive, Web 2.0, social media – as a one-way-street, message-dissemination tool.

When I blogged about this last week, I got this comment from one of my readers:

“I always find it very funny when I read Najib’s Tweets. It’s just what he does, and nothing to do with his thoughts. (He) keeps on sharing his schedule. This is a lame use of social media. These guys need to understand that Twitter is not a replacement for mass SMSes.”

At the time of writing, I noticed his latest three Tweets were

5.30 pm – Schedule appointments
4.30 pm – Meetings
11.30 am – Workshop on KPIs

I nearly fell of my chair laughing. His communications team clearly hasn’t got a clue. But then again, neither does Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim’s team.

I first noticed he was on Twitter when his team started to follow my Tweets. His original handle was the very official-sounding @mbselangor14, and when I first checked last week, he had 27 followers and was following 71 people. His total number of Tweets was zero.

To test how savvy his team was, I sent a Tweet welcoming him (or should I say, his team) to Twitterville, and wondered aloud whether his team would respond, adding that I know Najib’s team won’t.

And of course they didn’t. Like I said, they don’t have a clue.

After I blogged about it, a member of his team contacted me and asked for some tips. I referred them to my social media blog, ftwmedia.wordpress.com. (Yes, you can visit it too if you want to learn more about social media).

They have subsequently changed his handle to the more informal-sounding @Khalid_Ibrahim. At the time of writing, he has two updates. That’s an improvement over zero, I guess.

Takeaway point here: Don’t hop onto any social media bandwagon just because it’s the hot new thing. Do it only if you really understand the medium and really want to use it the way it's designed to be used. Form over substance always backfires.

Oon Yeoh invites you to read his blogs, join him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, view his Flickr photos and watch his YouTube videos through www.oonyeoh.com.

Comments

[LMLeong]

so it was you who prompted change in Khalid_Ibrahim's tweets! FTW!

[davidlian]

Maybe his team is using Twitter as a way to remind him of when he's appointments are? Innovative use of twitter FTW.