Bristol MP is top social networker
A recent study conducted by The Independent has found that Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy is the most influential MP on the social media network, Twitter. The study, which used a combination of number of followers, mentions and outgoing links to stories to come to this result, was performed using The Independent’s new live Twitter politics feed, Livewire and listed the top 10 most influential Westminster Twitterers.Kerry, who has over 1600 followers on Twitter, is also a prolific blogger and was interviewed by the BBC Politics Show in May about using blogging and social media to communicate with people over the Internet.
Speaking about her use of new media she stated that:
“Most of the traditional ways of communicating with constituents are quite formal, and the flow of communication is in one direction only. The blog and twitter are good ways of trying to communicate with a wider audience, who might not otherwise engage with their MP, and also to try to get across a bit better what my views are on things, and what I am like as a person.
“Twitter is good because you don’t have to construct lengthy posts about a topic, you just have to say ‘busy doing this’ or ‘really happy about that’, and it gets a dialogue going.”
