A week ago, I started writing something about the use of social media by governments. I had been impressed to see the number of places in which the White House has a presence. In May, it joined Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Now it is also on Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, iTunes and LinkedIn. Number 10 is on Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
Today I wanted to finish the piece and looked again at these sites. As well as updating the figures for friends/fans/followers on each, I was able to work out the growth rates during the past seven days:
The most surprising result is that Number 10 has more Twitter followers than the White House - more than one and a half million - although the White House numbers are growing faster (1.6%). If this week's growth is typical, it will soon catch up.
MySpace confirms its reputation for being on the wane by actually losing friends on its White House page during the week. And the White House on LinkedIn has an impressive 32% growth, although from a low base.
Number 10 has a presence on Facebook, but it is an app rather than a Facebook page, which means it doesn't count fans. The app wasn't working last week, as someone helpfully told Number 10 on Twitter. They were thanked for their message in a return tweet by a Number 10 insider (so they do read what you say).
Finally, it might be worth mentioning that the Iraqi government has just started its own channel on YouTube.
All shades of government seem to be asking themselves: why bother with the media when you can communicate direct with the people?
