The PR industry is calling on the main political parties to do more to protect their reputations online after new research has revealed potentially damaging oversights in their social media campaigns.
A study by search agency Tamar tracked the digital campaigns of Gordon Brown and David Cameron over a two-month period and found that both Labour and the Conservatives were failing protect the reputation of their leaders online.
It found that Google results pages were heavily populated with highly negative and unofficial websites on searches for Gordon Brown or David Cameron.
The research also revealed that neither leader had opened a personal Twitter account: @gordonbrown turned out to belong to someone with absolutely no connection to Downing Street whatsoever and @davidcameron was in the process of closing down at the request of Tory HQ.
PR professionals have reacted to the study by warning that it wasn't enough simply to have a Twitter account or Facebook page in order to harness the power of social media.
As many in the PR industry know all too well, social media campaigns require a lot of hard work and careful management to get the desired results.
But the rewards can be spectacular, as the Democrats proved in their savvy use of digital channels in their US election campaign of 2008.
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