Cheltenham Liberal Democrat MP Martin Horwood takes over the @Chelt52 Twitter account next week, to share his views with the town’s online audience.
@Chelt52 is a social media culture project launched on Twitter by Liam McKinnon and Sophie Fryer in October 2013. The project passes a virtual ‘baton’ to organisations, businesses and individuals from across the town, who take the reins of the @Chelt52 account for one week at a time.
With 52 participants in all, spanning the course of a year, @Chelt52 is portraying the diverse lifestyles that make Cheltenham unique.
Martin Horwood is already a prolific Tweeter (@MartinChelt). His week on the account comes hot on the heels of his recent grilling of Prime Minister David Cameron in PMQs – and his fallout with UKIP’s Nigel Farage on the subject of immigration. Horwood’s @Chelt52 week is 7 – 13th April.
Founders Liam McKinnon and Sophie Fryer, who both work locally in media and marketing, said:
“We’re delighted with the way @Chelt52 has taken off and it’s great to have Martin Horwood involved. We haven’t had anyone from the world of politics yet so it should be an interesting week with lots of views shared”.
Horwood added:
“I have really enjoyed reading the tweets of other @Chelt52 participants and I am thrilled to be part of such an innovative and fun social media campaign.
Obviously I love Cheltenham and I think this campaign is a fantastic way of highlighting what an interesting and unique town it is.”
Previous @Chelt52 Tweeters include Gloucestershire Constabulary, Ellenborough Park and Cheltenham Design Festival.
The project is approaching the half-way mark of its inaugural year and Tweeters still to come over the next few months include popular local band Thrill Collins, Cheltenham Town Ladies Football Club and Leapfrog PR. The full schedule can be seen atcheltenham52.co.uk/schedule.
@Chelt52 has recently reached an audience of 5,000 followers and plans for a second year are in place.
