Originally uploaded by fiannafail

A hands-on demonstration by Micheal Martin, TD.

OK, that’s a cheap shot, but it’s certainly a hands-on demonstration in not preparing material for dissemination that potentially involves, erm, dissemination.

Fianna Fail, as part of their new online engagement, have a gleaming new Flickr page, with pics up from the recent Ard Fheis. And somehow, SOMEHOW, this made-for-juvenile-caption-competition beauty slipped through the filter. It’s so obvious it’s nearly not worth pointing out, but think along LOLPOLZ lines and you’ll see what I mean.

Further down the photostream is another beauty, where Noel Dempsey sneakily gives the electorate the finger, right under the boss’s nose.

Social media are a fabulous way to connect with constituents and potential voters, etc, but although the medium is shiny and new, some of the old rules still apply. Checking your outgoing material for stuff that can be used against you is job one. In press releases this includes wrong figures, typos and other errors. In pics, it’s things like unwittingly showing your subject in a compromising position, or one of the lovely juxtapositions that photographers love (A basketball hoop creating a halo for Bertie being a famous one).

There’s also the question of immediacy. The likes of Twitter (Being consumed en masse by US Senators) mean real-time communications with governments ministers, unfiltered by press handlers and message managers. Green TD Ciaran Cuffe is a prime example of how to communicate online via his blog and Twitter page. But even Ciaran isn’t immune to the kind of rush of blood to the head leading to a quick, seemingly innocuous post that could be spun negatively in tomorrow’s papers.

To the right is a tweet that appeared today, easily spun into: ‘Green TD jokes about own office’s energy standards.’

It’s a no-brainer for a tabloid or other journo to make a story out of this and offer Fine Gael or Labour a pot shot at the Government for free, particularly because Ciaran compares his own poorly-insulated office to that of An Bord Pleanála, another govt agency. And with the likes of Sky News appointing Twitter correspondents, these tweets will get picked up more and more often.

Web 2.0 and social media offer businesses and politicians, and anyone else for that matter, endless new avenues to get their message to the population. But if that message is flawed or poorly managed it’s just more ways to shoot yourself in the foot.