PEACE, ORDER

AND
GOOGLEABLE
GOVERNMENT
 PEACE, ORDER AND
GOOGLEABLE GOVERNMENT
FEBRUARY 2011

Introduction
A lot has happened over the last year in social media and
politics. Prime Minister Harper experimented with an
asynchronous video interview; the Liberal Party incorporated
“Stop punching the keypads and start representing your
live audio streaming and real-time text chats in Michael
constituents...a message to ALL political twits.1” Criticism of
Ignatieff’s cross-Canada community town hall meetings; and
my February 2010 report House of Tweets: Twitter and the
Jack Layton discovered the power of social networks and
House of Commons was decidedly blunt. Yet the House of
the sincerity of the digital world when he announced his
Commons and its members once functioned without
prostate cancer diagnosis.
electricity, radio and television, computers and the Internet.
Just imagine the outrage when telephones landed on the The social web has become a key tool in Canadian provincial
desks of our federal politicians. and municipal elections, by-elections and now leadership
races. The media reported that Twitter was a significant
Politics has always been heavily driven by relationships and
character in the story of Naheed Nenshi’s election as the
communication. That hasn’t changed. Technology has; and
new mayor of Calgary – a welcome relief for digital
with it, the many ways in which politicians are able to stay
communications folks who’d tired of hearing Barack
connected with
Obama’s name anytime
constituents anywhere,
someone thought of
“anywhen”. There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run.
politics and social
-- Gordon Lightfoot, The Canadian Railway Trilogy

The social web has media.

shrunk the
communication supply chain. In these few years of rapid
change, we’ve come to expect to be keystrokes from the
people we elect. Canadians call up the websites and social
networks of our elected officials looking for MP positions on
specific issues and to locate contact information we can act
on in the moment. Sometimes our efforts are rewarded with
an enlightening virtual visit; often they’re not.
So, why a new report? Why now?
The role of search engines, social networking, and creative
content is always evolving. Tools including blogs, Flickr,
YouTube, Facebook and Twitter provide new and more
powerful ways for politicians to connect with their
constituents, share their points of view and react quickly to
news in their own words -- this is a real opportunity for
politicians to showcase their talents, triumphs and
personality. The public no longer waits for the evening
newscast, the morning paper or the monthly mailer from their
MPs. Journalists also follow online conversations. The
chatter informs (sometimes even results in) news stories. In
fact, Tweets, blog posts and other digital updates are often
quoted when MPs aren’t available for comment.
Which brings us to the return of MPs to the House of
Commons at a time when the media and political watchers
are buzzing about a possible spring election. A perfect
opportunity to take stock of what our politicians are doing,
and not doing, within the digital culture.
This report gives a glimpse of how MPs are slowly adopting
seven major social networking tools to communicate and
build relationships with Canadians. It’s based on ongoing
research and monitoring. If I’d published as much as I’ve
discovered and included comprehensive suggestions on
what politicians could do to improve their digital impact,
Peace, Order and Googleable Government would be a book.
1 Comment left by Lucifer’s Hammer on Jane Taber’s article How MPs use Twitter.
Mark Blevis
Tel: (613) 762-9704
Email: markblevis@gmail.com
Blog: http://markblevis.com
Twitter: @markblevis
Peace, Order and Googleable Government by Mark Blevis is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License. Based on a
work at markblevis.com. Permissions beyond the scope of
this license may be available at markblevis.com.
Websites
likely to trust neglected sites. In the
digital world, currency is well... curren Some MP
Tim Berners-Lee introduced the world
¢y. Routinely updated websites get websites that
greater weighting in search engine
to websites in 1993. By 1996, the
geekiest among us were creating results. They also suggest to site caught my eye
visitors that the MP’s communication
personal web pages to share
system is working.
information and stay connected with
friends. Today, websites are the most
Gimmicks can also be problematic.
basic online real estate, like a digital
Two MPs have websites with auto-
constituency office, where Canadians
play animations of themselves walking
have come to expect current policy,
across the screen and introducing the
events and contact information. This
visitor to their website. People who do
makes it even more surprising that 17
their web surfing at work or in public
(5%) of the 305 current MPs don’t
places are likely to scramble to close Bernard Bigras
have websites, have posted “under
those sites when a voice http://bernardbigras.com
construction” notices or suffer from
unexpectedly jumps out of the
broken sites. One MP has let his
computer speakers.
domain name lapse (never let them
see you expire). A website needs to be the MPs digital
home base. It should be attractive,
One of the many challenges of the
easy to navigate, arranged to highlight
web is shelf life; how quickly styles
important information, written in clear
and standards evolve. Many MP
language and optimized to help
websites are based on standard looks
search engines such as Google direct
and layouts prepared by their parties.
relevant traffic to the site. Most Bev Oda
The new NDP green theme is by far
importantly, it should be easy to find. http://bevoda.ca
the most eye-catching. The Liberal
Each MP should have a “vanity”
Party updated the look and structure
domain name (e.g. http://
of their common look and feel. The
markblevis.com) for their website.
Conservative party template is looking
very dated and in need of a refresh.

Not all MPs are using

the party-prepared
themes. Many have
invested in eye-
catching sites that Bryon Wilfert
punch up important http://bryonwilfert.ca
and timely information,
and provide links to
other online properties
such as Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube and
Flickr.

Some sites feature

outdated content; as
much as two years
Olivia Chow
old. Visitors are less
http://oliviachow.ca
Blogs
Blogs (web logs)
came into
existence in 1999
and gained
popularity in the
political world
beginning in 2002. These low-barrier-
to-entry, do it yourself sites allow
individuals to publish content in an
organized, categorized and
sequenced manner. Some blogs are
personal journals, others niche-
specific digital magazines.
It’s easy to get nostalgic about old formats,
but there’s no historical justification for this.
Blogs updated since MPs returned to the HoC
The following MP blogs have been
updated since January 31. Most of
the content is official. The Bloc
Québécois has a single feed for all of
its MPs so I’ve indicated it here only
once.
It’s not entirely surprising that few some of the many political benefits to
politicians have blogs and even fewer blogging.
maintain them. For the purpose of my
research, blogs were only considered Maxime Bernier used his blog to post
if they incorporated Really Simple a clarification of his stance on the
Syndication (RSS), a type of Quebec City Coliseum. It was a direct
distribution method that allows blog response to a journalist who Mr.
followers to receive content using Bernier felt misrepresented his view.
special software, rather than having to The post was timely, a quick read and
visit the blog site to determine if new written in the first person – all qualities
content is available. To be considered that make for an effective blog post.
“current”, authors must have By the way, Mr. Bernier maintains both
published at least one new article in English and French versions of his
the last three months (since blog.
November 1, 2010). A very loose
Glen Pearson, who often inflects his
definition, I know.
blog with personal views in a
Blogs allow MPs to conversational tone, published a great
communicate directly post relating life as a politician to life
with the public, in their as a family man, tying it together by
own words. In this way, pointing out he returned home to
blogs empower MPs to discover his beloved porch swing was
be their own media already packed away for the winter.
outlet.
While it can be time consuming,
Fifty-one MPs (17.7%) blogging is a great way to publish
have blogs, only 19 points of view, timely updates and
(6.2%) have posted even the odd personal musing to
fresh content in the last demonstrate to readers the author is
three months. Almost all human and involved – something the
MP blog content is public doesn’t always recognize in
official statements. their politicians. Also, a regularly
updated blog can help increase an
Two blog posts in MP’s site rank in search engines such
particular demonstrate as Google.
-- Richard Branson, Business Stripped Bare, page 112
BloCgue Québécois Dan McTeague
Irwin Cotler Maria Mourani
Rick Dykstra Brian Murphy
Ralph Goodale Joyce Murray
Mark Holland Glen Pearson
Gurbax Singh Malhi John Rafferty
Keith Martin Brad Trost

If a picture is worth a thousand words,
photo sharing is probably one of the
simplest and most important ways for
politicians to keep their constituents
up to date, share their busy schedule,
and reveal their authentic selves. This
is true whether the MP uses their
smart phone to snap photos of events
and activities, or has a staff
photographer do it for them.
Launched by a Vancouver couple in
2004 (and acquired by Yahoo! In
2005), Flickr has become the de facto
photo-sharing site for Canadian
federal politicians. I’m happy to say
that those who use it generally use it
very well.
Thirty-eight MPs (12.3%) have posted
new photos in the last three months. A
further 26 MPs have Flickr accounts;
2011 W
http://w
Michael Ignatieff makes his Flickr photos available under a Creative
Commons attribution-share-and-remix license. This allows others to
include his photos in their blogs, videos, reports, etc... provided they
credit the Flickr account and photographer (whose name appears in
Mr. Ignatieff’s photo descriptions).
some neglected since
2007.
Liberal MP Jim
Karygiannis gets
special mention for his
29,261 photos (there
can be too much of a
good thing) putting him
well ahead of second
place photo-sharing
MP Michelle Simson
(6650 photos). Rick
Dykstra has a great
collection of photos
from a full spectrum of
events. Albina Guarnieri
gets bonus points for digging into her
old albums and sharing pictures from
her formative years in politics.
Just as important as posting the
photographs is proper labelling.
Overall, MPs do a passable job of
titling and describing the photographs
r Socie
- A lz heime
ries
fo r Memo o to s /i gnatie
a lk /ph
kr.com
ww.flic Photo
and identifying the people in them.
Still, some politicians post photos with
the camera-assigned name leaving
the viewer guessing about the story
the photograph tells.
Sharing is an important part of the
digital culture. Most people who
produce online content look for other
content to include in their own
creative projects. By protecting their
photos with the default message “All
Rights Reserved”, almost all
politicians are missing a great
opportunity to have their photographs
considered by those content
producers. Only one MP has given
permission for others to share his
photos. Michael Ignatieff’s photos
have been made available under a
Creative Commons license, a Some
Rights Reserved model which allows
Mr. Ignatieff to retain copyright while
making his photos available for others
to share under specific conditions
nto
without fear of reprisal.
ty Toro
/
3 9 9 0 56804
ff/5
y B a rrack While Flickr is the photo repository
e
: Rad
tool of choice, many MPs with Twitter
accounts are including “real-time”
photos taken with smartphones in
their Tweets. These are
complementary methods that allow
MPs to reach two different audiences.
Both are near-effortless ways to share
their stories.

With a Little
Help From My
Friends
While I can do without the fanfare at
the front of the video, I rather like that
the famous performance of With a
Little Help From My Friends by Prime
Minister Stephen Harper and Yo-Yo
Ma at the 2009 NAC Gala is part of the
PM’s YouTube channel. It’s real. There
should be more of that in online
political content.
You Can Leave
Your Hat On
Kudos to Canadian politicians for
trying new ways to reach and connect
with Canadian citizens. To those who
suggest the efforts weren’t without
mistakes, I remind you that the digital
culture evolved from all of us going
through the same process. If we don’t
give politicians a chance to “get things
wrong”, they’ll never have the
opportunity to “get it right”.
According to a recent eMarketer
publication of summarized data,
Canadians love their online video. We
watch and share more video than our
friends in (separately) the United States
and United Kingdom. While there are
many online video sharing services,
YouTube is by far the most widely
known. It was created in 2005 and
bought by Google a year later for a
whopping US$1.65 billion.
Politicians have not yet recognized the
full potential of online video. While 125
MPs (40.6%) have YouTube accounts
and 89 (28.9%) have posted new
videos in the last three months, very
few MPs are exploiting the opportunity
to operate their own media channels.
Almost all the videos (I’ll guess about
90%) posted by MPs are individual
segments from Question Period or
television news. There is very little
made-for-web content. However, the
total views metric of the various
YouTube channels reveals MP videos
get more views when they show
something the average Canadian can’t
see in the media.
Short video reports and interviews are
peppered throughout some YouTube
channels, among them are Meili Faille
and John Rafferty. Olivia Chow’s “Green
House Tour” video has been watched
more than 42,426 times. James Bezan’s
somewhat controversial horse-and-
long-gun-registry video is the type of
purpose-built political content that gets
views. Unfortunately, it also got the
attention This Hour Has 22 Minutes and
was subsequently pulled. This is
significant not because it highlights a
case of social media trouble (remember,
many non-digital events have been
lampooned by This Hour, Rick Mercer,
The Air Farce and other political satire
programs) but because I feel the video
was aligned with the culture of digital
engagement. Perhaps it was too early
to the party.
In my view, made-for-the-web video
content is going to become an
extremely important way for MPs (and
especially political candidates) to
communicate with their supporters,
voters and the media.

The grand digital gathering place for
federal politicians is Facebook. There,
MPs have established themselves in
three primary features of the site:
personal profiles, Facebook Groups
and Facebook Fan Pages. Each
feature brings certain capabilities.
I’ve elected not to scrutinize personal
profiles since they tend to be geared
to personal relationships and, in some
cases, rightly secured from public
access. It’s worth noting 133 MPs
(43.2%) have personal Facebook
profiles.
Facebook Groups make it possible to
create and manage online special
interest groups. Groups come with
certain restrictions which make them a
less effective tool for political
purposes; nine MPs (2.9%) currently
have Groups registered, only two
(0.6%) remain active.
Fan Pages are the tool of choice in the
political Facebook toolkit. There are
205 MPs (66.6%) with Fan Pages, 116
(37.7%) are active. Some active Pages
have as few as 27 fans (Andrew
Scheer) and others as many 39,050
fans (PM Harper). Naturally, high
profile MPs such as party leaders
boast the most numerous and active
“fans”.
Some MPs have cultivated large and
active Facebook communities. Most
MPs are using Facebook Fan Pages
as broadcast channels. Some,
including Glenn Thibeault,
occasionally join established
discussion threads. User Cash Tastic
recently left a comment on Olivia
Chow’s very active Facebook Fan
Page saying “Could you please make
more Facebook posts that aren't
tweets? Tweets make for pretty
garbled reading, and if I wanted them,
I'd be on twitter.” This confirms my
long time belief that each digital
gathering place should be managed
independently and be filled with
content that appeals to the purpose of
that community. Facebook and Twitter
are very different.
Facebook communities can be
amazingly demanding to manage.
Depending on the level of
engagement, questions and
comments can come in at such a rate
that makes it difficult to keep up let
alone respond in a meaningful way.
That’s at the best of times. When crisis
strikes – and there is such a thing as
good crisis which can be just as
overwhelming as the bad variety – it
can be completely overwhelming for
any number of people to keep up.
There’s also the challenge of having to
“police” off-topic contributions,
unsolicited promotional statements
and advertisements – SPAM. That
required effort may explain why some
Facebook communities have been
dormant since the last federal election.
It’s my observation that the MPs who
are most successful in building and
activating communities are those who
routinely post fresh content, respond
to queries and keep their community
up to date with information that can’t
be readily found elsewhere. Engaged
online communities are largely driven
by valuable and timely information --
and occasionally entertainment. So,
it’s best to build the community and
have it at the ready now, when you
may not need to activate it, rather than
during an important debate or election
when you do.

Of all the major social networking sites,

the professional networking service
LinkedIn is probably the least suited to
political careers. So, I only mention here
in passing that 56 MPs (18.2%) have
LinkedIn accounts with which they have
done little or nothing to build complete
profiles or establish connections with
others. Some accounts boast as many
as 446 connections, while others have
none.

Four MPs have published written

recommendations of others on this site.

One MP’s LinkedIn profile misreports his

party affiliation.

Of all the major social media
platforms, Twitter is perhaps the most
misunderstood. It was launched in
2006 under the premise that users
wanted to share what they were doing
at any given moment with a group of
friends. It sounds incredibly mundane
and has been accused of being such.
However, as is the case with many
social media tools created with one
purpose in mind, the user community
built on the idea and changed it.
Twitter is now one of the most
important real-time communication
tools. It’s become the go-to place for
breaking news and has played an
important role in emergency
communication, advocacy,
information sharing, technical support
and general staying-in-touch.
Twitter has a reputation for causing
immediate public relations crises for
those who use it. While there are
many such examples, Twitter, indeed
social media, does not hold the
monopoly on crisis. I often suggest
that the Liberal sponsorship scandal
and the Helena Geurgis airport fiasco
did “just fine” without digital tools.
Things do spread much more quickly
online. I’ll give you that.
One of Twitter’s greatest strengths is
that it’s a public tool. Twitter can be
indexed by search engines meaning
results of a particular Google search
are likely to include relevant Twitter
accounts and up-to-date content.
This means a properly configured
Twitter profile and relevant tweets can
help strengthen a politician’s digital
footprint.
Twitter use by MPs has evolved since
House of Tweets was
published February
2010. Active use of
Twitter has grown since
then from 62 MPs (20%)
to 101 (32.7%) at the
time of this report. There
are 160 MPs (51.9%)
with Twitter accounts.
Many haven’t used them
in quite some time, or at
all.
What hasn’t changed
since last year is the
confusion regarding
Twitter influence. Many
still measure influence by follower
count. That’s certainly one metric.
However, the size of the network is
not nearly as significant as its level of
engagement -- having a network that
responds, shares and acts based on
the relationship with the hub of the
community. Services like Klout.com
have developed algorithms to
measure the influence and reach of
Twitter accounts. Individuals with
higher Klout scores are thought to
have a more meaningful connection
with their Twitter communities. True
Reach is a metric that determines the
size of an individual’s engaged
audience.
For example, @TonyClement_MP has
7,848 followers, with a Klout score of
62 and True Reach of 3,000. This
means MP Tony Clement has a
respectable amount of influence and a
reasonably attentive audience. By
contrast, @PMHarper, the official
account of PM Stephen Harper has
80,698 followers (the most among
Canadian MPs), a Klout score of 58
and True Reach of only 9.
Since he started Tweeting in March
2010, Tony Clement has set the bar
high for Tweeting MPs. Mr. Clement
Tweets a nice blend of information,
entertainment and political value. Like
many, he’s experienced some of the
dizzying highs of social media
success and flirted with the
dangerous waters of digital missteps.
However, he’s navigated the culture
very well.
HoC Firsts
Here’s a little trivia on the increasing role of digital in
Canadian politics. I present to you first appearances in the
House of Commons (according to the full-text searchable
Hansard database).
Google
Google’s first official mention in the House of Commons was
made by Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla on September 9, 2009.
“With regard to government spending on Google adWords
since January 2006: (a) how much has each department
spent; (b) what keywords were chosen; (c) what daily limits
were set; (d) what was the cost of each keyword; and (e) how
many clicks were made per keyword?” (40:3 Hansard – 66;
2010/9/20; question 241)
Facebook
Bloc MP Nicolas Dufour introduced Facebook to the House
of Commons on October 20, 2009 when he said “Let us take
for example the social networking site Facebook. This is a
new technology that has been in place for a few years
already.” (40:2 Hansard – 96; 2009/10/20; 1215)
It’s interesting to note that Mr. Dufour was 17, just shy of
legal voting age, when
Facebook was launched in
2004.
Gotta get on our way cuz we’re movin too slow
Twitter -- Gordon Lightfoot, The Canadian Railway Trilogy
Mere minutes after MP
Dufour introduced Facebook to QP, Twitter earned it’s first
mention in the House as Liberal Hon. MP Ujjal Dosanjh stood
up to announce “Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I wish
to inform you and the House that I inadvertently tweeted
about matters that I ought not to have tweeted about; that is,
the in camera proceedings of the defence committee. That
was an error on my part and that entry will be deleted at the
earliest possible opportunity, which is right after I get out of
here.” (40:2 Hansard – 96; 2009/10/20; 1505)
YouTube
On March 15, 2010, Bloc MP Paule Brunelle said “Mr.
Speaker, last week the Prime Minister decided once more to
control how one of his speeches would be broadcast, to
thumb his nose at traditional media and to post his response
to the Throne Speech on the popular website,
YouTube.” (40:3 Hansard – 9; 2010/3/15; 1410)
Conclusions
Federal politicians need to increase their digital influence
between elections and issue-specific campaigns. They must
continue to develop their online skills, using them to create
and strengthen constituencies of support which can be
activated when needed. Election time is not the time to start.
MPs need to be more methodical about their use of social
media, remembering that each digital outpost (Flickr
account, YouTube channel, Facebook Fan Page, etc…)
reflects well, or poorly, on them. Each property must be
maintained with relevant and current information and should
serve as a beachhead for their primary digital headquarters –
their website.
It’s not necessary, nor is it always possible or practical, to
establish a presence on many different social networking
sites. However, doing so means making a commitment that
all channels be unique rather than redundant. If it’s worth
doing, it’s worth doing in a way that gives supporters and
potential supporters a reason to follow MPs in multiple
places.
Bravo to the MPs who are experimenting with the new digital
tools and culture. You are the ones willing to take risks to
discover new territory. It can be scary. Progress often is.
This report is a glimpse into my ongoing research
and monitoring. I continue to share findings,
statistics, recommendations and personal
musings on my blog, markblevis.com.
Email me if you would like to receive updates:
markblevis@gmail.com
Mark Blevis
Tel: (613) 762-9704
Email: markblevis@gmail.com
Blog: http://markblevis.com
Twitter: @markblevis
Peace, Order and Googleable Government by Mark Blevis is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada
License. Based on a work at markblevis.com. Permissions
beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://
markblevis.com.