Three years ago, if someone had said the word ‘hashtag’ to me, I’d have thought they were playing some kind of drug induced version of my favourite childhood game. Hashtags certainly didn’t exist at the time of the last general election here in the UK – a time where politicians fervently communicate their policy in any way they can – be it kissing babies, buying a new duck house, or knocking on doors.

And so we find ourselves in 2010 – the year of Obama’s healthcare bill, and once again the general election is gaining on us fast. Only, this time, politicians are coming to the campaign trail to find it looking subtly different to how it’s been in the past. The reason?

The explosion of Social Networks

A great man once wrote “all the world’s a stage” – a sentiment that really holds true to social tools like Twitter. The ability to have a very public conversation that crosses race, class, gender and country borders as proven itself to be incredibly powerful – as protests in Iran, earthquakes in China, and even plane crashes in the US have proved over the past couple of years.

Twitter’s way of tagging events and locations is simple – which makes it really quite genius. A hashtag – for those not in the know – is a word or short phrase (with the spaces removed) associated with a specific thing, with a hash put before it. For example, #g8summit and #rdgtweetup refer to the G8 Summit, and the Reading Tweetup events. If you want to tag a location, then #rdg is the tag for Reading, UK; #ldn for London; and so on.

Combine the global reach of Twitter, the very public nature of the conversation, and the ability to use hashtags to refer to a specific event or place. Add in a dash of upcoming general election. Stir. What do you end up with?

Soapbox, or melting pot?

The freedom of speech that Twitter affords people is fantastic – never before have I been able to catch up with what people all over the world are doing while I’m in bed, on the train, or on safari in Africa. It’s no surprise then that Twitter has been jumped on by advertisers, fanatics and anyone with an agenda they’re passionate about. It gives those people who have something they feel that they need to tell the world a place where they can actually do that.

The ability to choose not to follow someone if you find them offensive, disagree with what they’re saying, or just plain don’t find them interesting is really powerful – and has been key to Twitter’s success. Without this ability, I’d have an unmanageable list of people talking about all kinds of things, all of the time. Of course, where that model falls down is hashtags.

Like many people, I use TweetDeck to keep track of hashtags, as well as replies and message – and one of the tags I follow is the #rdg tag. I’m a ‘community spirit’ kinda guy, and I like to know what’s going on locally and contribute. Sadly, I’ve noticed the #rdg hashtag being abused more and more by off-topic conversation, advertising robots, and – sadly – politicians trying to discredit each other.

Last night, after a not insignificant amount of said twitter smear campaigning (smittering, perhaps?) I sent one of the offending politicians an @ reply asking him to respect the tag. The reply I got (on the right) was, while not from the politician himself, nothing but fair – and indeed was the reason that I spawned this blog post. I was wrong to single out one offender – and simply tweeting criticism at people isn’t going to help make things better at all.

Make Yourself at Home

And so it’s my hope that, during the political storm that’s sure to be heading our way in the lead up to this year’s general election, our local (and national) politicians can respect the etiquette (nay, twetiquette) of this global community of people that they’re tapping into during their campaigning.

Would you go around the town knocking on everybody’s door three or four times a day, telling them the same thing over and over, or telling them why they shouldn’t listen to that other person?

There are some politicians that make use of social networking tools really well. Tom Watson, an MP for Labour, is just one example of how conversation is power, and that you don’t need to ‘spam a hashtag’ to get your voice heard or your point across.

We’re not saying you’re not welcome here. All we ask is that you respect the convention, respect each other, and listen.

After all, Twitter is the people who use it.