We spoke about @BBCElectionBot to Rebecca Gregory-Clarke, a Producer from BBC Connected Studio who has been working with BBC News on the project
What is it?
BBC ElectionBot is an automated tweet service that sends the election results from your closet matching constituency straight to your Twitter feed. Just tweet it the first half of your postcode, and it’ll reply with voting results and a link for more info. Easy peasy.
Why did you make it?
We thought it would be nice if people could get election news in a way that suits them best. People are using Twitter more and more to find out about important events. BBC ElectionBot makes it really easy for them to find out the results in their local constituency.
We also wanted to build on the idea we had for the @BBCWeatherBot, which works in a similar way.
Why is it special?
Twitter is a popular platform that lots of people are already familiar with. Thanks to BBC ElectionBot, social media-savvy citizens can now use it to ask for election information from the BBC. This makes it easier for people to get news about their constituency, even if they don’t know where to find it online. s are also sent a link to a page with location-specific information, so they can find out more on the BBC website.
Who is the audience?
The audience is likely to be people who are using Twitter already. They may already be merrily tweeting about the election, and BBC Electionbot will help them to find and share information.
However, some parts of the audience may not normally see Twitter as an obvious tool for getting BBC information. By introducing them to BBC ElectionBot, we can show them that there are many ways to bring a bit of the BBC into their lives.
What do you hope to learn?
We’d like to find out if there is an appetite for this kind of tool amongst our audience. We’d also like to know if people would be interested in other BBC Twitter bots that might work in a similar way.
