Council is first to 'Tweet' election

Monday, February 02, 2009

Newcastle City Council has become the first council to announce live election results through the Twitter service.

The results for the Fenham ward byelection were sent to followers of the council election as soon as they were announced. This meant anyone with internet access through a PC or mobile phone and a Twitter account could discover the results the same time as people actually attending the election night.

Newcastle joined Twitter in December 2008, so far it has posted more than 200 updates or 'tweets' mainly covering news, events and jobs.

Peter Holt, the council's director of communications and marketing, said: "We're always looking for fresh ways of keeping the people of Newcastle up to date with the things which affect them, and especially in engaging them in two way conversations when we do, and we think Twitter is a fantastic way of doing both of these things.

"As far as we're aware no council has ever 'tweeted' an election before, so Newcastle really is leading the way both nationally and potentially internationally."

The Twitter service – which lets users answer the simple question "What are you doing now?" in no more than 140 characters – has become a huge success with millions of users across the world. Famous "tweeters" include President Obama and Stephen Fry.