Incisive Media uses social media to bring you top class coverage of the election for the financial and IT sectors

- David Worsfold
- 09 Apr 2010
- Indicative reading time: 2 minutes

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It has been said many times already that this is the first election of the Twitter age, a shorthand reference to the significant role that social media is expected to play in the political battles of the next four weeks.
There has been alot of sepculation about its possible impact. One of our own recent Incisive Media events, the Search Engine Strategies London conference, devoted a whole session to hearing what the three main parties are doing. There are many differing views about its likely impact but impact it will have so we have decided to join the social media election frenzy. Incisive Media has set up a special Twitter account - @incisivelection - which pulls all of our election coverage into one place. This will provide some of the very best reporting of the key election issues affecting the entire financial services sector and also the IT sector. Every item in the Twitter feed will have a direct link to the relevant story - there will be none of the clutter that some people associate with Twitter.
One of the great advantages of pulling all of our coverage together in this way is that our own editors will be able to get an instant view of what is being published across Incisive Media's many websites and be able to pull in or link to stories relevant to their specific markets quickly and easily.
As to the likely broader impact of social media on the election, today has already seen proof that it is going to be a significant factor.
Firstly, the Electoral Commission announced this morning that every Facebook user in the UK will be sent a message tomorrow reminding them that they must register in order to vote and will be providing a direct link so that they can sign up.
Secondly, we have seen the first Twitter casualty of the election with the Labour candidate for Moray in Scotland, Stuart MacLennan, being sacked for some wildly inapproprate remarks on Twitter. If you didn't already know he was a Labour candidate you might have wondered whether he was representing the BNP so offensive is the tone of them. He naively believed he had crept under the social media radar, something no-one can do for long.
I doubt very much that he will be the only politician whose career is cut short over the next few weeks because of the existence of social media. It adds another fascinating dimension to an already unpredictable election.

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