How politicians should use Twitter

I’ve written before about politicians and their woeful use of Twitter and social media generally, but I have to admit this tweet yesterday  from well known ‘salad dodger’ Eric Pickles in response to the George Osbourne ‘shamburger‘ episode was masterful:

Putting final touches to the LGA speech #lgaconf13 pic.twitter.com/ls9ZWDz3rM

— Eric Pickles (@EricPickles) June 27, 2013

In case you happened to miss it, here was the previous tweet from George Osbourne that caused so much controversy:

Putting final touches to the speech #SR2013 pic.twitter.com/jk3FYmqVnm

— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) June 25, 2013

In my mind the Chancellor made the mistake of trying just a bit too hard to try and make himself appear normal when anything but the cheapest of burgers was going to be seized on by the press and commentariat as being a ‘posh burger’ and proving how out of touch politicians are, especially when Osbourne’s tweets are usually so dry and dull with no insight into any personality or genuine individual opinion.  Credit where its due though, at least George hasn’t deleted his original tweet and has also retweeted and congratulated Eric’s humorous response.  He’s learning…