The Twitter account known as @sirbonar, whose owner styles himself Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom, is, of course, a fake. 'Sir Bonar' tweets fatuously that his postings are subject to Chatham House rules (that is, secret) and burbles absurdly about government IT: he favours ID cards, opposes file-sharing, favours capturing as much data about British citizens as possible in a cheaper and greener 'G-Cloud' and sharing it throughout government inside a 'ring of soup'. He is especially fatuous on the subject of computer security. He also claims friendship with Lily Allen, who campaigned last year against music piracy.
And now the first year of tweets has been collected into The Twitters of Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom. There are two reasons to read it. First, it's actually pretty funny and does a good job of highlighting some of the absurdities of many of the government's IT policies. The second reason is that if you're unsure how to use social media, this book demonstrates every mistake you could possibly make.
Forget those well-meaning tutorials on how to use Twitter to promote yourself and your business. Just do everything the opposite of Sir Bonar, and you can't go far wrong.
The Twitters of Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom
By Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom
Ideal Government Press
231pp
ISBN: 978-1-4461-5332-1
£12
Wendy M Grossman
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