Search results matching tag 'David Cameron'

Brown boosts his social media reputation

255762 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:35:00 GMT

It isn't all bad news for Gordon Brown. Those chumps at News International (my word of the day) might have dumped him, but his keynote speech at Labour Party Conference did much to improve his social media reputation and hit back at some of the negative coverage.

This is more from Yomego and its new social media reputation measurement system that I blogged about earlier this week. It found that across Twitter, facebook and the blogging community Brown boosted his reputation by 17 points. Considering the flak he was taking, akin to a rough night over Germany, that's an achievement. From a starting score of 42.59 out of 100, Brown moved to 59.81, according to Yogemo.

It audited the Prime Minister’s social media reputation the week before and then again the morning after the speech was carried out and it showed that noise levels were certainly up and that sentiment levels had also improved significantly, indicating that the speech was well received on social networks.

Clearly as Steve Richards, managing director of Yomego says Gordon Brown had a lot of ground to make up with Britain’s 30m online social network users when he stood up to make his speech.

"Before he started, Conservative Party Leader David Cameron rated a score of 62.49, 20 points ahead of the Prime Minister. But both had much to learn from other world leaders, with US President Barack Obama scoring 77.79 and French Premier Nicolas Sarkozy achieving 66.15."

How important any of this will be is really hard to tell. I sometimes worry that social media is a bit of a bubble, but then increasingly we see that bubble burst into the wider world. So while I possess a degree of skepticism about the impact Twitter and blogs et cetera might have on the a general election campaign I also think that six months down the line we might be surprised.

I also agree with a lot of the sentiment appearing on blogs yesterday that the long predicted decision by The Sun to dump Brown will be less significant than some think. Time will tell.

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Gordon Brown needs to consider his social media reputation

255762 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:28:00 GMT

Following on from Friday's post on Labour's Twitter lead, research says that Gordon Brown has a lot of ground to make up with Britain's 30m online social network users as he looks to make his keynote speech at the Labour Party conference this week.

Of course, his social media reputation is not the only thing he and Labour needs (a fight back would be nice, but not the place).

Social media agency Yomego carried out a Social Media Reputation audit (a new service it is launching) of the Prime Minister's online reputation looking across the spectrum at Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, Twitter and YouTube alongside other social spaces such as blogs, comments, ratings, reviews and user-generated content.

While the party might have more MPs Twittering and engaging with social media, David Cameron's reputation in the world of Twitter, Facebook and the blogging community is ranked 20 points higher, which is of course ironic give what he thinks for instance of Twitter ("Too many twits might make a twat.") although he really should come clean about Facebook as well (I'm just sitting here drumming my fingers waiting for that one).

Out of a possible 100, the Prime Minister scores 42.59 in the audit, which measures the volume and newness of social media chatter and whether it is positive or negative.

To be honest the recent week's that Brown has been having that is almost better than expected. From here on out, and with his speech this week, the party and Brown have to get that higher.

According to Yomego, in Brown's case there was lots of noise, but opinion was almost universally unenthusiastic with his "sentiment" score lower than that achieved by British National Party leader Nick Griffin (seriously? I find that hard to believe, but that is what the agency says).

Tory leader David Cameron rated a score of 62.49 with the level of noise on social media networks achieving similar volume and recency to the PM, but the overall sentiment rating more than three times better than his Labour counterpart. Well the Tories are between 13 and 15 points ahead in the polls depending on who you look at so that is going to happen.

A ray of light for Brown comes from the Liberal Democrat who should be soaking up the anti Brown/Labour chatter, but while leader Nick Clegg scores a respectable 54.13 he is let down by a low noise rating. You mean no one is talking Clegg? Apparently he is not exactly inspiring the Lib Dems to new heights as the party's recent conference appeared to demonstrate (either that or Lib Dems don't chatter/make much noise in social media).

Steve Richards, MD of Yomego, says that the audits carried out so far have underlined how important it is for brands (political parties) to manage that social media noise and sentiment around them.

"The noise around your brand may be deafening but if that noise is overwhelmingly negative, its reputation will suffer real damage. Conversely, if positive sentiment about your brand is drowned out by your competitors, you won’t see the benefits.

"For politicians, with nearly 30m people in the UK alone regularly using a social network, social media reputation is an important barometer for measuring whether their message is getting through and how it’s being received. That’s particularly true as we enter the party conference season and all parties start gearing up for a general election next year."

Other stuff thrown up by the audit, but not strictly earth shattering (but here you are) are the high scores achieved by Barack Obama who scored 77.79 (shocker - he is the social media king, or president as he likes to be known) and French Premier Nicolas Sarkozy achieving 66.15. Does he Twitter? Do the French? I'm sure they do, but weirdly I don't think I have ever followed/been followed by someone from across the channel. The rest of Europe yes, France no.

I digress, um here's a bit of how they did the Social Media Reputation audit, which Yomego says is a first measurement system combining quantity and quality, with insight and will be officially launched at Mipcom 2009 (5th – 9th October).

The result is a total score out of 100, representing an average of the level and freshness of noise generated and the nature and recency of sentiment behind what’s being expressed.

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Cameron turns the airwaves blue

1704826 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:15:00 GMT

Potty-mouthed Tory toff Dave Cameron caused some mild controversy on Absolute Radio after using two swearwords that are now commonplace in most wokplaces, seminaries aside, and tame to what you'd hear in most schoolyards.

Its breakfast DJ, Christian O'Connell, was delighted with Dave's outburst and so must have been the station's management. It gave the station, once known as Virgin Radio, some much-needed publicity.

I used to listen to Virgin Radio occasionally (more of an Xfm man) but have still yet to sample Absolute - I'm not clear what it stands for and what its position is. Virgin Radio had a close association with live music and events and although Absolute claims to be the same I haven't yet seen this in practice.

But now I know that it's the home of sweary Tories I might give it a try as I'm all for liberating swearwords. Apparently Vince Cable has got language worse than a navvie and a foul-mouthed exchange would surely liven Question Time up.

Alan Sugar gets a peerage and Esther Rantzen is to blame

1704826 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:57:00 GMT

Quite what business prowess Alan Sugar will bring to the government I'm not sure. After all when he finally off-loaded Amstrad it was for a tenth of what it was valued in its heyday in the 80s.

His time in charge of Spurs can hardly be described as a great success (I've been told) while subsequent Amstrad innovations, such as the @-mailer, fell rather flat.

I'm stating the blindingly obvious but he's been brought into Government because he's got some celebrity (while for him, his new top-level contacts may prove useful for his 'exciting' Amscreen division as recently hired by the NHS, much as he uses some of his vacant properties in The Apprentice).

Career politicians have shown that they cannot be trusted but have we really got to the stage where there is greater faith in people off the telly? This, Esther Rantzen parading around Luton mulling over whether to stand, and David Cameron using Carol Vorderman as a maths csarina, suggests that some people think so.

Never mind the disregard for politicians, doesn't this show the politicians disregard for us? See You Next Tuesday - I'm off on hols.

Election 2010: The Digital Media Battle

2175094 — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:15:00 GMT

We should all welcome Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s return to YouTube this week. He was criticised by Cabinet colleagues (aka our ‘Communities’ Minister, Hazel Blears) and widely ridiculed by the media for his ‘MP expenses’ video late last month. But Brown knows only too well that we now live in a world of 24/7 digital media and he needs to use these tools to get his message across directly to the British people (he’s doing something right - apparently the 10 Downing Street twitter site is the UK’s most favourite). Of course, Parliament is the hub of our democracy and policy statements should be made first in the ‘chamber’ (but few people watch or listen to proceedings). Door-to-door campaigning is very personal but it is also time-consuming and effective on a one-to-one basis. So, as the political fighting (and in-fighting) intensifies in the run up to the European and local elections next month, another ‘war’ is beginning to emerge: the politics of digital media.

The truth of the matter is that the Labour Party (the party of government) hasn’t quite grasped the concept of social media: it is in ‘catch up’ mode. This is because it has been the party of power for over a decade and is restricted by the limitations of the civil service which has yet to truely embrace the enabling power of the internet. It is trying though with the appointment of a Digital Tsar – although bizarrely this was widely criticised. It also has difficulty coping with a media where the ‘message’ cannot always be controlled. However, there are many examples of Labour MPs and other elected representatives who are embracing the media as a way to engage and interact directly with their constituents. Many now have blogs, twitter feeds, Facebook pages etc. However, the Conservative Party has stolen a march in this area, using social media more effectively as a campaigning tool. David Cameron has used webcameron from day one of his leadership. The number of Conservative-leaning blogs (such as Iain Dale or ConservativeHome far outweigh those of the political Left, although there is LabourList but even this is experiencing troubles). The Conservative blogs are also not afraid to criticise the party’s leadership (although remain broadly loyal). The Conservatives also had the ingenious idea of buying key ‘budget’ search words directing people to the Party's website during live coverage of the Chancellor’s statement . This is a new step in political battle to get your attention.

The politics of digital media is set to become one of the largest battlegrounds in the next UK General Election (odds on May 2010?) as campaigning evolves from television and newspapers to social networking sites and other ‘direct’ and participative approaches. We’ve all heard about Barack Obama’s use of social media during last year’s US Presidential Elections. He’s set the standard. Let’s now see how British political parties overcome the restrictions on party election broadcasting to get their message over to you and me directly on your PC, iPod or mobile.

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We're all pleased about the Gurkhas but steady on Dave Cameron

1704826 — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:33:00 GMT

Victory! There's something particularly sweet when the House of Commons defies the will of the Government (probably because it's such a rare occurrence) and genuinely Does The Right Thing, so the vote on the Gurkhas yesterday was electric.

I realise that I've been a little unfair - unlikely bedfellows the Daily Telegraph and the Mirror both campaigned for fair treatment for former soldiers, a subject that also united MPs from all political persuasions who understand the simple principle that if you are good enough to die for this country then you are good enough to live here.

Dave Cameron however seems to have got a bit carried away with it all judging by this clip from Sky News's website when he appears to make a lunge at national treasure Joanna Lumley. While not quite tongue against teeth, it's embarrassing enough.

Send in the net police: power to the people!

1919324 — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:26:00 GMT

I can’t claim to know the ins and outs, but I’m sure we’re all aware that there is an evil worm virus attacking computers the world over. It is apparently the most evilest of worms to have ever been invented and it keeps changing to make it a slippery blighter to catch. Interestingly, Microsoft is invoking mob behaviour by offering a £172k reward to anyone with a lead. It’s like Crimewatch dot com.

Microsoft aren’t revolutionaries in this regard, other companies have used the internet user base to keep other people in check for some time now. YouTube, for instance, relies heavily on the public reporting of inappropriate content. Amazon and Expedia are other examples I’ve noticed recently of self-monitored user content. The internet is too big for companies to manage the vast amount of user content and computers don’t (yet) have the common sense to pick and choose what is and isn’t appropriate.

Therefore, with a middle person to offer final judgement, employing the aid of the millions of web users seems like one of the most logical methods of controlling the internet. Indeed, the advertising industry is already adopting this method through self-regulatory bodies like IASH. Is this the way the internet is to continue moving, the ultimate form of democracy? If it is, the most important element is that middle-layer. Someone, or a group of someones, to act on the responses of the masses.

An example of the middle-layer being wrongly implemented is Wikipedia. True, there are some moderators on the site that are responsible enough, but there are a large number of other moderators that aren’t. Emphasised by the creator Jimmy Wales publicly dismissing large chunks of content on the site as inaccurate and an embarrassing episode between Gordon Brown and David Cameron over the age of Titian. Of course, Wikipedia has no real revenue stream to cover the cost of employing the efforts of a complete middle-layer. Although I work in advertising, I applaud sites that can survive without it – but can Wikipedia? I like it being free, but I would sacrifice viewing ads to enable the site to employ a decent middle-layer, thus improving its overall quality.

In actual fact, every time self-policing has the correct middle-layer, it does work. In Microsoft’s case of the worms, the middle-layer will of course be the police; they aren’t expecting a genuine mob of virtual torch wielding geeks to surround the virus creator in a massive battle in World of Warcraft. I don’t think anyway…

The point of this post is simple: people are hard to manage and managing billions in the future is going to be a little tougher. Understatement. It is reassuring to see the foundations being put in place now, at least in the UK, because in ten years time we won’t want to realise we built this house on sand.

Brand Cameron: lightweight like a Rose

255762 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:52:00 GMT

They say you really see what people are made of in a crisis. David Cameron and Gordon Brown are both proving this to be true this week and the bright breezy young Tory leader is to be found lacking.

While only a few weeks ago David Cameron was strolling around with a great deal of swagger, and not a little arrogance, this week with the Tory Party conference in full swing, although it is difficult to tell as it's getting about as much attention as the Liberal Democrats garner, the story is different.

The bright and breezy Cameron, or simply Dave to the electorate, is proving to be something of a rose wine. The chosen drink of young women on summer time breaks from their usual tipple. Rose is, of course, perfect for when the weather is fine and the going is good. It is terribly appealing in all that warm sunshine rather like David Cameron.

But the going is no longer good. It is October, getting wintry and grim, and much more than the odd tree is being stripped bare as banks fall and international capital teeters like a man on stilts while an anxious crowd of onlookers stare on helplessly.

Looking again at David Cameron who has never appeared to be strong on the substantive, being short on policy and ideas, is proving he has very little to offer the electorate. He has no response to the world financial crisis, which is surely ironic given that his party has a long list of bankers on its friends and family list.

It was faintly embarrassing to watch him talking on Channel 4 News last night about the issue. He talked about "exciting plans" to transform the economy, having transformed his party, and again on the Today Programme this morning was heard saying that it was character and judgement that were needed not experience to fix the economy.

Exciting plans? I'm not sure, but it doesn't sound like quite what we need just now although there is no clue, as ever with Cameron, quite what these might be anyway.

What we appear to need is exactly what he says we don't: experience and knowledge and the reassurance that comes with that. Character and judgement are fine qualities if you are starting out (maybe leading your revamped party), but when the chips are down (and our bankers seem to have thrown them all about) it is experience that surely counts.

Gordon Brown who has spent a decade as Britain's chancellor of the Exchequer has always been accused of being quite sober and serious, more like that single malt stiff drink that is required when things are not as bright and breezy as they once were.

Brand Brown is coming into his own and, slowly, demonstrating the leadership needed in a crisis, which will not be over in a day or a week as we dip into recession and money becomes tight and people look back down the road already travelled to some of the policies that led us here through the 80s and 90s.

Maybe selling off all those energy firms (windfall profits for some/high bills for others) and demutualisation of the building societies (Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock, to name but two) were not such great Thatcherite ideas after all.

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Light the blue touch paper

2182355 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:10:00 GMT

Starring on the new Conservative Party website, overhauled ahead of the upcoming party conference, is the Blue Blog where, according to David Cameron's first post, "you'll see posts from me, the Shadow Cabinet, MPs and candidates and Members of the Party".

It's odd that it has taken this long for the Tories to get a blog going, especially as the party was pretty on the ball with Webcameron, but given Dave's bland first post, we haven't been missing much.

What catches the eye is the blog roll, which has to be the most contrived reading list I've ever seen. From BuzzMachine and Comment is Free to Guido Fawkes and Mumsnet, no worthy stone is left unturned, while Boris Johnson's musings are conspicuous by their absence - surely essential reading for any Tory?

Instead of showcasing the breadth of ideas being absorbed by the party, as it's no doubt intended to do, the list merely serves to reinforce the style over substance arguments Cameron battles constantly.

Let's hope future content will offer a little more insight.