Are you listening, politicians? I didn’t think so!

There is a lot of talk about this election campaign and the fact it hasn’t been much of a ‘social election’, meaning the lack of Social Media involvement.

Ever since the Barack Obama campaign team leapt whole heartedly into using social media and other forms of digital communications to promote issues, communicate and raise funds for the Obama campaign, observers have been judging other election campaigns worldwide on how well they use digital communication tools to reach their audiences and deliver their messages.

The Australian Election of 2010 will, and should, go down as a huge lost opportunity for political candidates.

In my opinion, I perceive it as a slightly larger issue than just the election. And while I agree with the sentiments expressed by Karalee Evans (The Social Election) and Matthew Gain (Election 2010: The Battle for Twitter) a large chunk of this social discussion is focussed more on Twitter and to a lesser degree Facebook. My opinion focuses more on the overall use of digital communication.

Earlier this year after the launch of the MySchool website we purchased the domain www.mypolitician.com.au , a little tongue in cheek, but with the purpose of addressing how politicians could be rated on their performance, by their ‘Employers’ –  the community that they represent.

Planning started but was short circuited a little by the timing of the election and we launched the initial version immediately after the announcement, which predominantly focuses on political use of digital communication tools.

While the site is getting plenty of traction for this election, the site isn’t meant to be a onetime thing that disappears.

Its entire purpose is to help provide an overview on how well sitting members of parliament are doing in their electorates, as well as how well they utilise technology. During the election cycle it also lists candidates and contact points for them.

Our rating of how they use digital technology is based on how a range of tools are being used, including Twitter and Facebook, but also general websites (that can have many forms of interaction), blogs and YouTube to name a few. And while no method is perfect, as there will always be omissions, we can quite clearly state that the opportunity has been totally missed not only in this election but also prior to it, and one suspects after it.

Less than 10% of current incumbents are utilising the internet in any effective means. Participation in social media is limited to in most cases, broadcasting their message and rarely actually listening and responding in a positive way.

The overall approach from the major parties has been a cookie cutter approach to websites, where each of their candidates has a page about themselves, which offers a very limited view of their opinions and approaches to the community. This is highly reflective of the way the major parties control the message and manage campaigns and is to some degree to be expected.

While The Greens have probably embraced some forms better than others, even their approach as a whole is still limited. They have a higher representation of candidates that actively participate across all the mediums, as do some independents.

It is surprising that more independents with limited reach and budget are not taking up low cost options like blogs and simple social media platforms to outdo their opponents.

Since we first rated the majority of incumbents, Malcolm Turnbull stood out as a politician that has not only embraced the topical mediums such as Twitter and Facebook, but still manages to update his other digital properties as well. You can easily connect and communicate with Malcolm even if you don’t live in his electorate. Contrary to the two major party leaders, Malcolm has grasped this opportunity well in the last two years.

Other leading Top Pollies (by our measurement methods) include Bob Brown, Kate Lundy (who recently participated in a Tweeterview with a member of the public, not a journalist), Andrew Bartlett (a long time user of digital communication), Paul Fletcher and Stephen Jones.

It has been widely recognised that we live in an information age. The internet itself is now several decades old, and the overall concept that it is for young people is a lame and inaccurate response to why our predominantly older politicians are not embracing these communication methods better.

While it is acceptable to assume that the parliamentary process, and even some policy will lag behind in keeping up with technology given the complexity of debating and forming policy as well as enacting it, it is not acceptable that our representatives themselves are not doing all they can to keep up. In an information age it will become more important that our political representatives have a solid grasp on all the issues that they will need to make decisions on, and that they are mentally capable of grasping new concepts and understand things outside their standard backgrounds, than ever before. If it is expected of everyday people in their workforce to do so, it must be mandatory for politicians to also grab hold and ride this pony!

We don’t expect our politicians to be mechanics, but we sure want them to be able to drive a car, and while we don’t expect them all to be ‘Bill Gates’, we expect them to have a better grasp on how to utilise what are common and everyday communication technologies.

Whether they use a specific tool or not isn’t really the issue, it is more about how they engage their constituents, how they stay a relevant part of their communities whether at home or in Canberra, and how they can be engaged all of the time not just during an election cycle.

Web based technology offers them more time efficient and manageable options than having to be at physical locations. They can build their personal brand, listen and communicate regularly and consistently. The how and why could be a lengthy series given how far behind they individually are and the party marketing teams seem to be.

We look forward to integrating more rating tools and comparison tools once the business of this campaign is over, and introducing the same for the upcoming state elections, as well as making available more of the statistics we have gathered.

In 2010 it is extremely disappointing to see that quite frankly, the performance to date is hopeless. In MySchool terms – no one would send their kids to this school.

Well that’s what ireckon – what do you reckon?