With Ukraine experiencing a boom in social networks, local politicians are racing with one another in opening accounts on fashionable Facebook and Twitter.
The list of those who already have profiles or fan pages, run by them or by their press spokespeople, is long.
Among them are President Victor Yanukovych (his profile is run by his press service), former Verkhovna Rada speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk (posts himself), former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (her Facebook account is run by her press people, but she tweets herself) and Deputy Prime Minister Boris Kolesnykov (also run by his press-service).
Pensioners are most likely to vote but least likely to use Facebook and Twitter, cutting politicians’ interest in Internet.
Some politicians are skillful in using Internet to instantly spread their message – and even make news.
Parliamentarian Vladimir Aryev, in particular, managed to fuel a national scandal through his Facebook page.
In February, while on a business trip to America, someone cast a vote instead of him in parliament. On his Facebook profile, he displayed a picture showing that the voting card was in his possession.
Many politicians, however, still don’t know what to do with social media. Their messages posted or sent are dry, or their profiles contain little personal data.
In one of his March posts on Facebook Oleksander Turchynov, Tymoshenko’s former first vice prime minister, was annoyed with cabbage costing more than bananas.
“What else do we need to prove that Ukraine is quickly turning into a banana republic?” he asks.
According to Ukraine’s political advisers, the most successful politicians on the Internet are Yatsenyuk and Tymoshenko.
They maintain their profiles themselves.
They are exceptions.
Most often it’s not the politicians themselves, but rather their spokespeople, who take the time to post messages and update the sites.
Yatsenyuk attracts Facebook users by getting personal sometimes.
He has recently complained that one of his daughters is suffering a lot from the absence of buckwheat in shops. Prices on buckwheat, one of the nation’s most popular staples, have skyrocketed.
Any politician in Ukraine gets a smack in the mouth from his opponents as soon as he says a word.
– Vladimir Petrov, media manager
Tymoshenko, too, told her fans what she gave to her friend Sasha as a birthday present.
Sasha appeared to be Turchynov and the present –“an action plan in extreme situations.”
Opposition politicians explain why they have started using social networks actively.
“This is a chance to explain one’s views at the times when opposition’s statements are totally blocked by the media,” said Turchynov, who maintains personally accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
However, despite the progress that some politicians are making on social networks, “technically none of Ukraine’s politicians has mastered social media’s potential for political purposes,” said political consultant Taras Berezovets.
Tymoshenko’s profile on Facebook, as opposed to the one on Twitter, mainly promotes her videos and lists her favorite patriotic songs and singers.
Kolesnikov’s account includes a list of his favorite movies, including “Moscow Doesn’t Believe In Tears,” “The Godfather” and “The Omen.”
It also does not contain any fresh posts made by him.
“Any politician in Ukraine gets a smack in the mouth from his opponents as soon as he says a word,” said media manager Vladimir Petrov, who used to work for Yatsenyuk’s press service, explaining why Ukraine’s politicians are still reluctant to open up and take part personally in online political debates.
The hesitation is why Petrov continues being a ghostwriter for many politicians.
However, Yatsenyuk and Tymoshenko now say they do their own posts and blogs after their press services made some well-publicized mistakes.
In the first message of one of her blogs, Tymoshenko congratulated Ukrainians on the post office holiday.
“This day I would like all of us to remember how excited we used to be when we found a colorful card in our mail box,” Tymoshenko supposedly wrote in one blog.
“How, when children, we used to fight with brothers and sisters over who opens an envelope first.”
However, as Ukrainska Pravda journalist Serhiy Leschenko noted: “Tymoshenko doesn’t have any brothers or sisters.
One goof by a Yatsenyuk PR specialist was much worse.
One of his employees forgot to log off after he had posted a message ghostwritten for Yatsenyuk and sent the following message under the politician’s name to one user: “All in all, I come up to your mother and take a leak into her mouth.”
It’s important to blog yourself so accidents don’t happen.
– Arseniy Yatsenyuk
Yatsenyuk told the Kyiv Post that the incident taught him that “it’s important to blog yourself so accidents don’t happen.”
Political analyst Denis Bogush said that Ukraine’s politicians are not going to be able to find most of their potential voters online – yet.
According to a survey conducted by TNS Ukraine last year, only 18 percent of people from 12 to 65 in bigger cities (more than 50,000 people) use the Internet daily.
“During election campaigns politicians target pensioners,” Bogush said, noting that older people are more reliable voters but also less likely to use Facebook or Twitter.
Kyiv Post staff writer Irina Sandul can be reached at [email protected]
