Episode Details
Back to EpisodesWe almost made political history on Twitter, until they pulled the plug
Description
I’m joined by Stuart Bruce, who is internationally recognised as the PR Futurist. He is a thinker, strategist and hands-on practitioner in modernised public relations, communications and corporate affairs. Stuart specialises in AI, communication technology (CommTech), measurement and evaluation, and crisis communications. He helps organisations embrace digital transformation and future-proof their communications in a changing world.
In this episode, Stuart tells the story of how he tried to bring Twitter into mainstream political campaigning during Alan Johnson's 2007 Deputy Leadership bid. It was an ambitious and forward-thinking move that nearly made history, but a sudden change by Twitter threw the plan off course.
• Joined Twitter on January 2nd, 2007 when the platform was brand new
• Nearly became the world's first political campaign to use Twitter with a senior figure, beaten only by John Edwards by two weeks
• Used Twitter primarily to generate media coverage through innovation, successfully getting a full page in The Guardian
• Planned to leverage Twitter's SMS functionality to send free text messages to 200,000 Labour Party members
• Twitter discontinued their SMS service between printing campaign leaflets and their delivery to members
• Key lesson: don't rely on free services for important campaign communications
• Few complaints received due to Twitter's limited adoption at the time
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