So No 10 has risen to the challenge of social media by developing a Twitter strategy!

It’s a bit like saying you and I have a developed an innovative plan for common sense or breathing (Step 1 Breathe in, Step 2 Breathe out, Step 3 Go to Step 1).

Using Twitter shouldn’t be forced – it should be as natural as talking or riding a bike. You get in there, get a feel and go with the flow.

What’s exposed the banalness of this approach is the leak of what appears to be a tactic (not a strategy) – giving lobby journalists ‘Twitter exclusives.’

Excuse me?

So instead of providing them with a press release, you’re going to give them a tweet?

And instead of engaging outside the Westminster bubble, you’re going to give these ‘exclusive tweets’ to the very people who are as much as part of the political establishment as the cabinet ministers?

Surely the better way would be to continue with the basics – good, engaging and interest content distributed to as many people as possible. Handing them out to the favoured few will rightly be seen as elitist and a bit fake.

What’s been the most interesting tweet that’s come out of Downing Street so far?

This!

No rabbits in the red box this week – but there was a cat… And also a big boost for #aspirationnation twitter.com/George_Osborne…

— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) March 23, 2013

It doesn’t appear contrived, it’s mildly amusing and it makes a political point with humour!

Labour on the other hand, really seems to be getting the hang of Twitter and the t’internet.

Interweaving hashtags into speeches to make them trend – #downgradedchancellor was a belter

Growth down, borrowing up, families hit, and millionaires laughing all the way to the bank #downgradedchancellor twitter.com/Ed_Miliband/st…

— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) March 20, 2013

Inventive little memes!

howlongwillittakegeorgeosbornetobalancethebooksatthisrate.com

And being prepared to have a laugh at your own expense.

Ok, ok.. Because it would be rude not to..!RT @edballsmp: Ed Balls

— Ed Balls (@edballsmp) April 28, 2013

Now that’s not a major strategy. That’s just an understanding of the medium and that you can’t control Twitter.

It’s a constant stream of news, cat pics and bragging! The people decide what trends. It’s the best embodiment of the free market there is!

The best ‘strategy’ is to watch and listen to what they’re saying and when the time’s right, add something of value to the conversation.

Politicians watching and listening to the people?

Now THAT’S a challenge!

P.S. I really hope #edballsday becomes an annual event. But next year we need something new. Ed has revealed his Karaoke classic is Endless Love – the Lionel Richie/Diana Ross duet.

Get Ed and Yvette to do that at their next night out at Lucky Voice and that’s going to top iTunes.

Ok. I’m starting the hashtag #edlesslove

Only 364 days to go people!

It was a tweet from my friend @jackstorry

He found the most classy and inspirational resignation letter I have ever seen.

This is brilliant – twitter.com/ee_stu/status/…

— Jack Storry (@JackStorry) April 16, 2013

It turns out Chris Holmes’ decision to leave the Border Force Agency to follow his dreams for his family has struck a chord with almost everyone who’s seen it.

So I tweeted it out

@mrcakeuk Such a brilliant and classy resignation letter. I wish you all the very, very best!

— David Prescott (@DavidPrescott) April 16, 2013

His brother-in-law Stuart Jackson also decided to give it a push too.

So, my brother-in-law has resigned from his 9-to-5 job in spectacular fashion. Jerry Maguire meets Masterchef. twitter.com/ee_stu/status/…

— stuart jackson (@ee_stu) April 16, 2013

Stuart has currently had more than 1,600 retweets in an hour, whilst I’ve had 320.

Now we discover the cake maker is on Twitter here as @mrcakeuk. And he’s been overwhelmed with interest.

@danielsamuels Incredible! I put the photo on my personal FB page and somehow it went viral. I’m overwhelmed by the positive response!!

— Mr Cake (@MrCakeUK) April 16, 2013

@foodjournalist Hi there! I had a busy day’s cake making planned and now things have gone properly mental so best way is info@mrcake.co.uk

— Mr Cake (@MrCakeUK) April 16, 2013

And if you head to Reddit, you’ll see the picture has had over million views and more than 1,200 comments. It was first posted by givethisguygold at midnight.

My favourite Reddit comment has to be “This is gorgeous, but it’s driving me crazy that the text is almost running off the edge on the right, but has plenty of space on the left. Align things better, Mr. Cake!”

And the classic follow up: “We asked for a custom margin!”

The key to any successful viral campaign is that sense of overwhelming awe you get when you see something with such remarkable social value. The desire to instantly share and make someone else feel the same.

I wish @mrcakeuk all the very best because after the heartbreaking tweets we saw last night from the appalling tragedy in Boston it’s wonderful to share something so honest, decent and witty. It’s also reassuring to know that in some small way, we are all making one man’s dream come true.

And that’s what social media is all about.

Being social.

p.s. If you’d like to order a cake then the site is mrcake.co.uk except give it a few minutes.

Why? Because it’s crashed with all the demand!

Every Thursday night, Twitter trends with politicians who can only dream of such digital engagement.

Let’s face it, the words “Caroline Flint is trending on Twitter” are pretty strange bedfellows. But thanks to Question Time’s strong social TV presence it now happens. Regularly!

So when the BBC reported at 12.57 today that Question Time would also be broadcast half an hour earlier from 10pm on BBC 5 Live it seemed a HUGE mistake.

Wow! Question Time to go out live on Five Live half an hour before TV. Could that ruin it’s Twitter following? bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

— David Prescott (@DavidPrescott) March 27, 2013

Why? Because it would kill the golden goose by making it anti-social!

For example, when you watch X Factor on ITV1 +1 you have to stay off Twitter as the plots, twists and reveals spoil the viewing.

So putting Question Time on earlier, will reduce the allure of watching it on TV and following it on Twitter because Five Live listeners will have tweeted their views 30 minutes before.

It could cannibalise BBCQT’s TV viewing figures. Hardcore tweeting fans will migrate to radio because they want to be first with the tweets.

And that could lead to the show’s guests failing to trend when Question Time eventually airs on TV.

But thankfully it seems BBC News got it wrong and hastily rewrote the story twenty minutes later. Five Live will simulcast the show with TV at 10.30 but will discuss the issues of the day from 10pm and analyse the programme after it goes off air.

This is a pretty good idea to extend a successful show across another network. It could even lead to people joining the radio debate from 10pm on Twitter.

Along with @BBCExtraGuest (where a commentator tweets with others at #bbcqt) the show’s producers know how social is really making the show.

And when the worlds of social and mainstream media, it can be very entertaining. When John Prescott was dared by people on Twitter to make an on-air mention of @dimblebot (the parody Dimbleby android) and in return raise money for Children In Need, this happened…

But what they should really do is go out live with a 30 second delay and take tweeted questions.

Now THAT would not only drive up ratings but make it the ultimate social TV experience. And at a time when more and more people are switching off from conventional politics, anything that sparks engagement in the democratic process should be encouraged.

And no-one would like live tweeted questions more than David Dimbleby. He’s secretly on Twitter and loves how successful the show has become so social.

Bill Clinton can testify to that. His 32 minute speech to the Democratic Convention to introduce Mike Dukakis as its presidential candidate, which was scripted by Duke’s team, was ridiculed be everyone for being way too long.

Including the convention delegates. When Clinton wrapped up by saying “in closing”, almighty cheers filled the arena. Watch it here!

That could have killed anyone’s presidential ambitions, but Bill used humour to diffuse it, going on the Tonight show to take the mickey out of himself.

When asked by Johnny Carson if he regretted the lengthy speech, he said: “I wanted so badly to make Michael Dukakis look great and I succeeded!”

By the time he took out his saxophone and did a passable rendition of “Summertime” with Doc Severinson and the NBC Orchestra, America warmed to him.

Frederick Allen, a CNN political analyst, said: “Clinton proved that being a good sport is the first step to political rehabilitation.”

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Fast forward 25 years, and Marco Rubio – another youthful and aspiring presidential hopeful – finds himself in the same position. His live GOP response to Obama’s State of the Union is remembered for the most unfortunate case of cotton mouth.

Rubio made light of it on his Twitter feed, tweeting this under the hashtag #GOPresponse

But his backers found an inspired way to help fund his exploratory committee for a future presidential run.

The Reclaim America PAC stated: “If you donate $25 or more today, we’ll send you a Marco Rubio water bottle.

“Send the liberal detractors a message that not only does Marco Rubio inspire you…he hydrates you too.”

They’ve sold upwards of 4,000 water bottles, raking in more than $100,000.

He may not prove to be the next Comeback Kid but his team has shown that when it comes to facing up to a PR problem, they’ve got some bottle!

And being able to ridicule yourself actually pays!

It was a big day for RIM. The key messages were prepared. This was a new start and Blackberry 10 was being launched in six cities simultaneously.

And to kick it off, a round of BBC interviews. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, the first rule of media interviews is to answer the question. But on his 5 Live Breakfast interview with Nicky Campbell, Bates, who was on to promote the launch of Blackberry 10, refused to answer the question “What did you learn from iPhone.”

As Nicky added with increasing exasperation: “It sounds like your reading from the press release.”

You’d have thought his media handlers would have taken him aside and given him some pointers before going on BBC Breakfast with Steph West.

Maybe they did. But if so, Bates wasn’t listening to advice or the questions. Steph repeatedly asked, in reference to Blackberry’s declining share of the global smartphone market from 90% in 2008 to 6% now, ‘What went wrong.’

If you don’t want to watch the car crash, look away now.

Steph even had fun tweeting after the interview…

As someone who media trains for a living, and used to be a BBC producer, you must at least attempt to answer the question, especially when the alternative is to waffle on and make the interviewer increasing agitated.

These questions should have been anticipated. It would have been good to admit that they had learned from the iPhone. Listening and learning is good. Admitting where you went wrong, earns respects amongst consumers and the City.

Bates should have been taught to do ABC – Acknowledgle, Bridge and Communicate. So Bates could have:

Acknowledged the question ‘What went wrong’ with : “Well, we led the market but other innovators came on the scene…”

Bridged to what he wanted to say: “…but competition is good and that why we’ve learn from it…”

Communicate! Key message, key message, key message! : “and that’s why Blackberry 10 is going to power us through the next 10 years because it’s a fantastic new operating system.”

I hope Bates hasn’t had his fingers burnt over this but the reviews aren’t great! Communicating and engaging with the media is vital for his business.

Unfortunately, a multi-million pound relaunch has been overshadowed by an MD who was scared to admit that we all mistakes.

And THAT was what went wrong.