SNP leader uses social media platform to ‘slap down’ stories about her, helping her party punch above its weight, claims Bruce DaisleyTwitter’s European chief has hailed Nicola Sturgeon as the most savvy UK politician on the social media platform.
Bruce Daisley, vice-president of European operations at Twitter, added that both Sturgeon’s SNP and the Greens have “punched above their weight” in the runup to the general election.
“Nicola Sturgeon is superb on Twitter and has been able to slap down things that have been said about her,” Daisley said at the FT Digital Media conference on Tuesday. “That ability to respond has served her well.”
Daisley gave the example of Sturgeon’s immediate response to a piece in the Telegraph claiming that she was backing the Conservative party because she did not want Labour to win.
“She responded immediately and stopped it becoming a major news item, and certainly making a news item on mainstream TV,” he said. “There are some stories that might have taken hold [before the rise of Twitter] that haven’t now.”
Daisley said that the SNP had been clever in its use of Twitter. For example, during Jeremy Paxman’s TV interviews of Ed Miliband and David Cameron the SNP spokesman responded to all the questions in real time using the hashtag #TheWiderDebate.
Videos created relating to the discussion the SNP instigated were seen more than 400,000 times and the party gained 300 members.
He added: “We are definitely seeing some of the minority parties get their message out strongly, the Greens and the SNP are punching above their weight.”
Daisley also referred to Twitter as the “medium of truth” that quickly debunked stories.He referred to the Daily Telegraph, which ran a pro-Tory front age story about a letter signed by 5,000 small businesses. Within hours of the story’s publication, it was revealed that it had been organised by Karren Brady and managed by Conservative party headquarters.
“Within two or three hours that story was dissected and analysed for what it was,” he said. “The veracity of things tend to get checked pretty quickly. Twitter can be a subversive second screen to what is going on,” said Daisley. “We’ve seen that subversive element playing its part.”
Daisley said at the 2010 election about 60% of MPs were on Twitter; this time, it is pretty much 100%.
He said that there were 27m votes cast in 2010, and with 15m Twitter users the 2015 race is the “first social media election”.
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