The business of Twitter followings, and the apparent lack of soundness of some politicians’ numbers, continues as Political Scrapbook has unearthed a suspiciously large rise in the following of publicity seeking Tory MP Louise Mensch.

But an earlier Scrapbook target, housing minister Grant Shapps, has now come before my examination, and his numbers are equally revealing.

Shapps, while holding down a ministerial portfolio, manages to do an awful lot of following and unfollowing on Twitter.

Scrapbook recently asked “Is Grant Shapps Using A Robot To Get More Twitter Followers?” but the scale of the numbers was not dwelt upon. When his numbers for the past month are put under the spotlight, however, you can see he couldn’t be managing this in person.

Grant Shapps’ account followed 184 users between June 25 and 26, and then followed another 189, 396, 102 and 161 over the next four days.

And the day after that, his account unfollowed a whopping 1,360. And then the cycle repeated itself: over the following six days the Shapps account followed 334, 330, 135, 276, 188 and 175 accounts, before then unfollowing 542 the next day and 915 the day after that.

This is an ongoing pattern. The chance of Shapps having accomplished these tasks himself is not unadjacent to zero.

And what of the effect on the Shapps Twitter following?

This, in the meantime, showed a pleasingly upward trend, from around 53,000 to around 55,000, no doubt propelling the account’s owner onwards and upwards into the stratosphere of Parliamentary Tweeters. So the answer to the Political Scrapbook question appears to be a resounding “Yes”.

Perhaps it is time for the housing minister to come clean about how his Twitter account manages such an enormous number of follows and unfollows while its owner goes about his full time job.

About the author
Tim is a regular contributor to Liberal Conspiracy. He blogs more frequently at Zelo Street
· Other posts by Tim Fenton


Story Filed Under: News ,top

Reader comments

Reactions: Twitter, blogs

1. spencer bungard

   How Grants Shapps MP gets his Twitter followers http://t.co/3DYJgO0m

2. marc blank-settle

   Another interesting take on inflated Twitter numbers, based on a Tory MP (he followed/unfollowed me recently too) http://t.co/0b2cKdcF

3. Jason Brickley

   How Grants Shapps gets Twitter followers http://t.co/bVV10Cdd

4. Nicholas Ripley

   How Grants Shapps gets Twitter followers http://t.co/qm3dtqzE

5. leftlinks

   Liberal Conspiracy – How Grants Shapps gets Twitter followers http://t.co/fLQBrca2

6. Helen Undy

   How Grants Shapps MP gets his Twitter followers http://t.co/3DYJgO0m

7. Noxi

   RT @libcon: How Grants Shapps MP gets his Twitter followers http://t.co/BGgU41yI

8. Connie Maybree???

   How Grants Shapps gets Twitter followers | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/TH3aGQPr

9. Lee Hyde

   How Grant #Shapps gets Twitter followers http://t.co/uNy2s2gH /by @zelo_streets via @libcon ft 'My' MP @grantshapps

10. James Harrison

    .@Jenny_Edwards @grantshapps Still hanging on in there? Here's what your up against, Jenny! http://t.co/8koPO0IC #NaughtyRobots

11. How Grants Shapps gets Twitter followers, Buy Twitter Followers | 1 Million Fans

    [...] Tim Fenton July [...]

12. Nouveau Liberal

    How Grants Shapps MP gets his Twitter followers http://t.co/3DYJgO0m

13. Lanie Ingram

    How Grants Shapps MP gets his Twitter followers http://t.co/3DYJgO0m

14. GB

    How disappointing, seems the Minister of State for Housing 'n' stuff is a 'Twitter ninja'… http://t.co/zoDnnBpd and http://t.co/OOs5q2CZ

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