All a-Twitter on the campaign trail

Several political contenders on the international stage have used Twitter as a campaign tool, with varying degrees of success.

Those who use the short-message social networking service, the Twitterati, tend to get frustrated quickly by campaigns that they consider are merely pushing out PR messages, without any indication that there's a real human being behind the account.

Hashtags, by contrast, are a way for the Twitter user community to keep a distributed conversation going – by including a short tag like ''#<topic>'' in their messages, they enable others with similar interests to follow only the tweets relevant to that topic.

Since the federal election was called, the hashtag ''#ausvotes'' has emerged as the preferred way for Twitter users to mark election-related messages. An analysis of these tweets for the first full week of the campaign points to some interesting patterns.

Take, for example, messages directed at Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Both leaders have their own Twitter accounts – even if, in reality, it's most likely their staff who do the actual posting. Many other users have directed support or criticism to them by including "@juliagillard" or "@tonyabbottmhr" in their messages.

Interestingly, the Prime Minister has established a commanding lead over the Opposition Leader – in terms of #ausvotes tweets received (not counting retweeted messages), Gillard leads Abbott by 74 per cent to 26 per cent to date.

Of course, this is not exactly Twitter's equivalent of the ''preferred PM'' beauty contest that we know from the opinion polls. Those tweets are as likely to be positive as negative. But it's intriguing to think that they may reflect the Twitterati's assessment of who is more likely to win the election: after all, who'd want to be seen talking to the eventual loser?

A useful insight into the Twittersphere's attitude to the campaign also comes from what messages users retweet – that is, pass along to their own networks. Unsurprisingly, news of the election itself ranked highly: indeed, @juliagillard has already won one contest with nearly 200 retweets of her tweet: "The election will be on 21 August. With your support I will move Australia forward. JG"

Twitter has also been used for a few more or less tongue-in-cheek public service announcements:

• ''RT @abcqanda: Use twitter to get voters enrolled. Deadline tomorrow. Retweet like crazy.''

• ''RT @Hashtag-Police: #ausvotes refers to the upcoming Australian election. #ozvotes refers to choosing a new Wizard.''

At the same time, parties big and small had a much harder time getting their messages passed along. The @LiberalNSW's message ''It's the SAME LABOR! Please retweet and show your support!'' and the Greens' @senatormilne's alert that ''Abbott is ignorant on #climate action - India already has a tax on coal'' managed only some 20 retweets each, marginally ahead of the @aussexparty at half that level: ''Supporting @aussexparty in the #election? Please let everyone know with the hashtag #vote1sex''.

Some journalists and commentators have also seized the opportunity to engage in a little informal opinion polling – @catherinedeveny's message ''RT this if you would vote for a party who promises to remove tax-exempt status for religions'' was passed along 110 times, for what it's worth.

Of course, we're still in the early days of the campaign. Along with the political organisations, Twitter users are still working out where this social media tool fits into the day-to-day business of electioneering. For now, the comics seem to have it – one of the most retweeted messages by some margin was @unsungsongs' play on Labor's ubiquitous slogan: ''I propose from now on we simply abbreviate 'Moving Forward' to #MoFo''.

The Coalition didn't come off unscathed, either – @electionsoz2010 stood up for Australia: ''News: Tony Abbott names new Minister for Women: Mel Gibson''.

Even the ABC's election analyst, @antonygreenabc, reported on a new milestone: ''Julia Gillard today passes Earle Page to become Australia's 25th longest serving Prime Minister''. Meanwhile, @courtney-gibson wondered about the constitutional dimensions of a Twitter election: ''Under the terms of our Constitution does the GG get to approve the official hashtag?''.

But Twitter is a fast-paced beast. As the parties finally outline their election policy platforms, we're likely to see discussion under the #ausvotes tag become a good deal more pointed.

Associate Professor Axel Bruns is a social media researcher in the ARC Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation at Queensland University of Technology. His blog is at http://snurb.info/.

This is part of an ongoing series of articles by Australian academics on key issues during the election campaign.