What is going on with Andy Burnham's social media?

[msagent]

I swear every post I see is following a formula:

• personal anecdote
• link to current issue
• why this means I understand you
• how I'm going to change the world
• join us in doing so

The way they are written makes me cringe. Almost poetic and overly emotive. Maybe it just doesnt work on me.

Anyone else just want some normal?

Nope.

Maybe give an example for those of us who don't bother with SM

What's normal then? Surely showing what the issue is, how he understands how it feels and what he's doing - is exactly what we should want?

I can't stand it. I don't want to see the PM doing Tiktok videos.

A friend of mine who works in marketing once said to me, 'if something doesn't work for you, it probably wasn't meant for you' and I think that probably applies here. From what I understand, by all the objective measures, Andy Burnham's social media strategy is exceptionally successful for a politican - he's got really strong statistics for reach and engagement, especially among young people, and I imagine that's probably at least part of why he is so much ahead of all the other political leaders in the polls on personal favourability.

The focus these days is on feelings and not facts. Same across social media. ‘Your words are violence’ etc. This is how ‘the left’ operate these days, with emotion and anecdotes. I can’t really pinpoint when this particular tactic came in, but I don’t remember it always being like this. Maybe when Corbyn used to talk about specific constituents in PMQs? I don’t think Blair was particularly into feelings in the same way the current Labour Party is.

Yanbu

It is how "the right" operates, too, and they have generally been better at using social media (not least since Musk bought Twitter and tinkered with algorithms...).

Im with you op, pulling pints etc. makes me cringe.

Oh that’s so interesting, because I tend to think of feelings and emotionally powerful narratives being pushed over and above facts as much more of a right wing thing. I suppose I’m thinking of Michael Gove’s “we’ve had enough of experts” and the leave campaign more generally, where I think it was widely perceived to be a failure of remain’s argument that they focussed on facts, while leave won the emotional argument. But I guess maybe it’s simplistic to see Brexit as a left/ right divide... I’m genuinely really interested in when this shift happened, and what drove it.

Have a LOOK at Russell Kane’s parodies

Just for context I am and always have been a labour voter. I quite like him. Just not his social media posts.

An example:

My gran Kitty had an engagement ring she'd worn her whole life.

After the war, she walked three miles out of bombed out Liverpool to put a deposit down on a house. This was the house where I was born, and it changed the fortunes of our family.

Years later when she needed care, that ring was ripped from her finger and stolen in a care home.

And the modest savings she'd built up over a lifetime, starting from that house? All taken to pay for it.

I was a new MP back then. I watched what it did to my mum, and I made a promise to fight for something better.

That was 25 years ago. If anything, it's worse today.

I know so many of you have lived this.

Selling the family home. Watching savings disappear. Fighting a system that should be there for the people you love.

I won't let that carry on.

So we're going to build a National Care Service. Care that starts in the home, that is free at the point of use. Care that's about people, not profit.

It will protect your home and your savings. And no one will pay care charges out of their basic state pension.

We're laying the ground work now, with Louise Casey advising us on exactly how to do it, so we can introduce it in the next Parliament. It will be fully funded, and not through borrowing.

Just as Labour built the NHS, this is about fixing something we've been told for decades can't be fixed, and giving people peace of mind in later life.

And I won't stop until it's fixed.

I don’t see the issue with that post. He is trying to show why he is making certain changes and why it means a lot to him. He’s clearly engaging with young people and its working. Middle aged women, maybe less popular but some of us like that style of engagement. Certain more relatable than other politicians.

He did the door to the north one I think, it was pretty good

That twit’s whole schtick is folksy guff. He doesn’t look like a PM at all. He looks like a hopeless vicar trying to encourage ‘the youth’ to come and play ping pong at the church hall on a Thursday night.

It’s got nothing to do with where he comes from, which team he supports or his accent. It’s all a crap performance.

Harold Wilson was unashamedly northern in voice and outlook, and for the common man and woman, decades ago. But he didn’t play games with his image, debase his office or patronise the electorate like Burnham does.

Just don't watch them then? It isn't compulsory.

I know what you mean OP, they are formulaic which makes them seem disingenuous.

Total nonsense.

Total truth.

Surely it’s subjective. You like him but not everyone will relate to his SM style.

He’s back

It’s just the way it is now
Even LinkedIn is like this

Okay, some people don’t do it, but he chooses to do it so that’s that

why does it bother you?

Oh my word.

That's funny.

I love Russell Kane…his take on Andy Burnham is just hilarious