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British civil servants urged to tweet
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British government civil servants are being urged to use the micro-blogging service Twitter.
The service may restrict its posts to 140 characters, but the British Cabinet Office needed 20 pages to explain how to use Twitter.
The document describes the use of the micro-blogging service as "a low-barrier to entry, low-risk and low-resource channel relative to other corporate communications overheads like a blog or printed newsletter". It calls on civil servants to produce between 2 and 10 tweets a day in an "informal, 'human' voice' to promote "comprehension of and engagement with our corporate messages."
Twitter is already used by the Prime Minister's office, the Communities Department as well as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a means to update the public on new developments in government as well as creating a forum for debate.
Though some companies and governments have shunned Twitter, it has become an important tool in getting the message out. Governments and government officials who also use Twitter include Spain and the Prime Ministers of Denmark, Norway and Canada. President Obama used the service extensively during his election campaign and the White House also tweets.
In recent months health agencies have used the service to update the public on the spread of A/H1N1, more commonly known as swine flu. The Centers For Disease Control (CDC) has used Twitter since February to update the public on the A/H1N1 virus, tainted food products, and other issues of public health.
Airlines in the West also use tweets to update travelers of flight deals and other travel information. JetBlue has more than 960,000 Twitter followers and 35 staff members dedicated to updating its feed. And recently the American carrier United Airlines used the service to apologize to one of it's customers after a guitar was damaged in transit.
The British government has made several attempts to embrace modern technology including appearances by the prime minister Gordon Brown on YouTube. By using Twitter, the British Cabinet Office says it wishes to “demonstrate commitment to and understanding of digital channels with exemplary use of this emerging channel".
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