You twitter! Civil servant's instructions to ministers on how to send 140-character messages are 20 pages long

By Kirsty Walker
Updated:


Woman looking at Twitter

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With the economy in a hole, you might have thought the Whitehall mandarins of the Business Department had enough to do.

But one senior civil servant has found time to produce a 20-page strategy paper - on how to use Twitter.

The document sets out how Ministers and Government departments can best get their message across to the public using the fashionable micro-blogging website. 

Users can post 'tweets' - short updates of up to 140 characters - which can be read by their 'followers' on the site.

Neil Williams, head of corporate digital channels in Lord Mandelson's business department, admitted that his guidance might be considered 'over the top'.

But he insisted that sending regular tweets was an essential form of communication with the public.

His 5,382-word Twitter strategy document advises departments to spend an hour a day posting between two and ten tweets.

Mr Williams says the messages should be limited to issues of relevance or upcoming events rather than just campaign messages. He adds that ministers should be encouraged to add their own personal insights or updates about their daily activities.

He also advises that tweets should be 'human' because 'Twitter users can be hostile to the overuse of automation'. They should also be 'timely' to keep in with the 'zeitgeist feel of Twitter'.

Mr Williams added: 'While tweets may occasionally be "fun", their relationship to departmental objectives must be defensible.'

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Andy Burnham

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He adds that Twitter could be used for 'crisis content' in which the Twitter feed becomes a primary channel alongside the official website for up-to-the-minute guidance and advice in the event of a major incident.

Twitter is already used by Downing Street, the Foreign Office, the Department for Children, Schools and Families and even Cabinet ministers.

Mr Williams noted that Downing Street spends '20 minutes on its Twitter stream with two - three tweets a day plus a few replies: Five-six tweets a day in total'.

Mr Williams's own Twitter strategy translates into 36,215 characters and spaces and would need roughly 259 separate Tweets to communicate to other users.

Mark Wallace, campaign director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'It is ridiculous that taxpayers' money has been squandered on writing a guide to Twitter for civil servants.

'It is a simple service that loads of ordinary people have picked up easily by themselves.

'It is sadly typical of Government that they think everything needs a strategy, a guidebook and a coordinator at taxpayers' expense, no matter how simple it is.'

But former Labour minister Tom Watson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Generally, departments Twittering is a good thing because it allows them to build their own communities of interest and get their message out.

'You give interesting links, you give informative information, you give a flavour of what the departments are doing at the time and what the issues are.'

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