Tweeting the big night

The election is nearly upon us and, whilst this does not seem to be the first truly online election as some had predicted, there will be a number of tools available during election night allowing people to track what is going on both at the local and national level.

Sites such as BBC News, The Guardian, and The Times will have liveblogs and a number of political blogs will also provide coverage. For the first time in a UK general election, Twitter will be used by candidates, journalists, bloggers, and even a few ordinary citizens throughout the night. Below are a few ways that you can follow the election online through Twitter.

The #ge2010 hashtag has been created for users to search on and see tweets related to the election. This has already been used widely during the election campaign and should feature prominently on the big night. Tweetminster, The Guardian, and the New Statesman will be attempting to map voter turnout through Twitter by asking people to tweet the first part of their postcodes and the hashtag #ukvote.

At constituency-level, PoliticalBetting.com have attempted to introduce standardised hashtags in order to organise conversations around a particular area. Searching on these keywords will allow people to be able to track what is going on in a particular constituency on Twitter. Adoption of these hashtags has so far been relatively patchy, but if they are active in your area they may prove to be useful on the night. Twitterfall, which pulls in tweets containing specified keywords in real-time, could also prove to be useful on election night.

In order to follow particular candidates, you may find it helpful to search by postcode on Tweetminster for candidates on Twitter in your area. Some may be tweeting as the results are coming in through the night.

Perhaps most importantly, be sure to follow the trending topics in the UK. The big news and themes will develop naturally over the night, and Twitter's trending topics may direct you to some of the more interesting, offbeat, and humourous stories.

Freddy Fallon, Researcher, Digital Democracy