Q: How many Twitter accounts do you need if you’re setting up a new @GovUK organisation? A: 8 if you’re @DVSAgovuk https://t.co/BLtrAsCsnn
— Richard Taylor (@RTaylorUK) April 6, 2014
On the 2nd of April 2014 Minister Stephen Hammond launched a new Government agency, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).
Mr Hammond’s new organisation has been launched with eight twitter accounts:
The presence of eight corporate twitter accounts isn’t even the most strikingly unexpected element of the organisation’s Social Media Use Policy. The weirdest policy is that on retweets, which states:
On Twitter, we will retweet if the request:
- is to publicise a message of congratulation on a follower’s pupil (or family member if the follower isn’t an approved driving instructor) successfully passing their driving test
I wonder if this is some kind of easter-egg designed to test if anyone reads social media policies; or if it’s an attempt to promote the existence of the new organisation by encouraging people to submit their requests for messages of congratulation to be retweeted.
As at the time of writing no-one has put this new policy to the test.
Mr Hammond created the new body by merging the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) and the Driving Standards Agency (DSA). By my calculations that means Mr Hammond has manged to save an “O”, a “S” and an “A”.
DVSA’s eight twitter accounts are accompanied by two blogs and three facebook pages.