Britain releases guidelines for civil servants who tweet - The Globe and Mail

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Jill Lawless

T he British government has told civil servants: Go forth and tweet.

The government published guidelines Tuesday for its departments on using the microblogging service Twitter.

In contrast to Twitter's limit of 140 characters per message, the document runs 20 pages, or more than 5,000 words.

It tells civil servants their tweets should be “human and credible” and written in “informal spoken English.”

It advises government departments to produce between two and 10 tweets a day, with a gap of at least 30 minutes between each “to avoid flooding our followers' Twitter streams.”

The advice says Twitter can be used for everything from announcements to insights from ministers, and in a crisis could be a “primary channel” for communicating with the electorate.

The document warns against using Twitter simply to convey campaign messages, but notes that “while tweets may occasionally be 'fun,”' they should be in line with government objectives.

It also says departments should not follow any Twitter users who are not following them, as this could be interpreted as “Big Brother” behaviour.

The guidelines are the British government's latest attempt to embrace the ...

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