Britain publishes Twitter guide for ministers

The British government has published a guide to help ministers understand how to use the social networking site Twitter, with the aim of extending its news and corporate messages online. With government departments such as the Foreign Office and Downing Street already tweeting, the 20-page guide details how ministers should provide an "informal" and "human" voice. The guide, written by Neil Williams of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), asks ministers to tweet "a minimum 2 and a maximum of 10 tweets per working day, with a minimum gap of 30 minutes between tweets to avoid flooding our followers." Ministers are also encouraged to tweet with credibility and bear in mind relevant issues while avoiding commercially or politically sensitive information. Campaign messages are not appropriate unless there is a current element involved.