During the summer riots, there was much talk of the influence of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites and their role in helping to organise and promote illegal activity. Last week I was reminded at a much more mundane and practical level of the power of Twitter in my working life.
I woke up last Wednesday morning to see a tweet from Chuka Umunna, the Shadow Business Minister, saying he was going to be speaking at a private members debate on late payment. He included a link to the parliment website and, as I was in the office on Wednesday, I was able to watch much of the debate live. I must confess that I had not realised that such debates took place in Westminster, other than in the main debating chamber itself. This one on late payment had been called by Debbie Abrahams, the Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, who was clearly passionate - and knowledgeable - about the subject.
The contributions from several MP's we know including Lorely Burt, and others we didn't previously, presented some strong arguments supported by background knowledge that was - in many cases - impressive. What was particularly encouraging was their knowledge of the work being undertaken by the ICM and it was gratifying to receive many mentions.*
Afterwards, I exchanged tweets with Debbie and we are planning to meet to discuss how she and her parlimentary colleagues, along with the ICM, can drive more engagement with the Prompt Payment Code and point SMEs towards the practical advice we can offer through, for example, the Managing Cashflow Guides.
I've also recently had some interesting conversations via twitter with Richard Tyler, Enterprise Editor at the Daily Telegraph, and I'm conscious that - without it - I would have been blissfully unaware of last week's debate and missed a real opportunity to engage with people who can be influential. I know there are downsides to social networking but, for me, the upsides can be pretty impressive too.
*For those interested, our press release following the debate can be found here, the transcript here, and the video recording here.
To follow me and the Institute of Credit Management on Twitter go to http://twitter.com/philipkingicm and http://twitter.com/ICMorg
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