The microblogging site Twitter has played a significant role in the local elections and AV referendum, according to freelance journalist and social media expert, Neal Mann.

Neal,  known as @fieldproducer to more than 10,000 followers on Twitter, talked about the relationship between Twitter and Politics in an interview with JUS News.

Neal said that both sides (left and right) have been “pushing hashtags, topics and arguments” through Twitter in both elections and the referendum, especially with the Alternative Voting referendum.

“Both the ‘Yes to AV campaign’ and ‘No to AV campaign’ have been across the border, pushing their opinions and their reasoning to the followers to get a debate going.”

Tips for politicians

Neal said from his own experience that social media took a long time to build up a reputation and the following, as a result it was very important to take good use of it if you have a large number of followers.

As for politicians, Neal suggested that they should treat social media in the same way they treat the real outside world. “Tweet people even unnecessarily, and try to engage with people!”

Neal has 10,405 followers at the moment with a lot of journalists from the BBC and the CNN.