Politicians are flocking to Twitter, says report

POLITICIANS are increasingly using social media to engage with voters, a report has found.

The study, Connected Politicians, shows that 92 of the total 108 MLAs in the Assembly by the end of the last mandate had a Facebook profile, while 90 had a Twitter account — 84 of which had been active in the month before the research was carried out.

Nationalist politicians have emerged as the most popular on social media, with more followers than Unionist representatives, although MLAs who are not affiliated to the main five parties had much larger followings than MLAs in these parties.

However, report author Alan Meban said politicians showed less enthusiasm for having their own websites. “Although we have seen a very definite move towards embracing all things digital, only 51% of all MLAs at the end of the last mandate had a personal website” he said.