Greener Desktop

It’s well known that the Rudd campaign was the first federal election campaign to use social media effectively. The year was 2007 and the slogan Kevin 07 rang thick. Not just through old media but online as well. Obviously this wasn’t the first time the internet had been used to help reach potential voters. Websites, blogs and display advertising have all been used in the last few campaigns. I remember seeing banner ads for Howard’s campaign as far back as 1996 when he took on the then encumbent Labor party. The difference in 2007 was that the dialogue changed. It went from being one way communication to a conversation that listened to and engaged with the voting public. It also quite likely won them the election. There was a huge swing towards Labor much of it coming from young, first time voters. Who obviously felt engaged by a party and potential prime minister who was willing to listen.

The offering in 2007 was a little thinner than it is now in 2009 despite a global financial fuck-up (GFF) that has led to little new innovation online for almost the last year. There was the Kevin 07 videos on Youtube, the Facebook group, the blogs .. and of course to tie everything together there was the kevin07 website.

It really did seem as if this was a prime minister that you could really talk to, accessible and willing to listen.

Since the election and over his one and a half years as PM, Kevin, or his hoard of minions has been adding KevinPM to every major social networking site and media sharing service out there but has the feeling of accessibility remained? I say no. Your average tech-savvy punter these days expects his favourite movie star, pop singer or minor celebrity to have an account on twitter, Facebook and Flickr. We expect there to be someone out there following them with a camera and although we like to tell ourselves that despite a hectic schedule they all send their own tweets and upload their own videos to youtube we secretly know there’s a flock of assistants there to do it for them.

The problem with Kevin is that he’s gotten tired of tweeting and uploading his happy snaps. He’s slowed down and seems to view keeping his social network updated as more of a chore than a good way engage with the public. After going from twittering a few times a day our beloved PM can now barely manage a couple a week.

As you can see from the graph below Kevin has been steadily losing interest in twitter, tweeting less and less each month.

Kevin Rudd's Tweets are falling

Malcolm Turnbull (leader of the opposition) on the other hand has been increasing his monthly activity steadily and is running at almost 3 times the number of updates that Kevin Rudd is managing.

Malcolm Turnbull is gaining ground on Rudd

It’s sad to see this happen and I think it will do some damage to his credibility with those who take social media seriously. Here’s hoping Kev didn’t just think it was all a fad and starts building up his Facebook friends list again. Oh and we want to see some more of his favourite tunes on Myspace too. On the other hand maybe Malcolm Turnbull will fill the gap and take the lead. However, if he one day becomes prime minister will he do what Kevin has done and lose all interest in interacting with the constituency.

UPDATE: Looks like since I wrote this article Kev has started tweeting a few times a day. Who knows, maybe he’s listening after all.

Help by asking Kevin to keep in touch with us:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinruddpm/
http://www.youtube.com/user/pmkevinrudd
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kevin-Rudd-and-Labor/5652334737
http://www.myspace.com/officiallaborspace

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