In the past, all one needed to get ahead in politics in Lebanon was a tidy private fortune and a couple of televisions stations. While that remains largely true, lawmakers in Beirut appear to finally be embracing a more cost-effective way of staying on message: Twitter.

The past few weeks has seen a flurry of high-profile users turning to the micro-blogging site as a way of connecting with the public and disseminating information. Prime ministers past and present, political officials and ambassadors have all thrown their hat into the 140-character ring. It is a development to be monitored as well as welcomed.

The beauty of Twitter is its accessibility. Users of varying significance and credibility – from the lowliest social activist to the likes of Queen Rania of Jordan – are treated as equal and able to access information that traditional media has in the past rendered reachable to only an elite clique.

That politicians are belatedly turning to the service restores the link between MP and constituent that has been neglected in Lebanon for far too long. In spite of valiant efforts from civil society groups to promote accountability, lawmakers still do not sufficiently represent voters that got them into power in the first place.

But to brave the relentless and unforgiving Twitterverse is to expose oneself to a slew of suggestions and accusations, to criticism as well as praise. Most of all, the use of social networking allows politicians to hear gripes and grievances from the source.

Whereas politicians in many countries have long realized the importance of social media – U.S. President Barack Obama has 11 million Twitter followers – Lebanese figures have been relatively slow on the uptake. By contrast, Lebanon’s civilian population has a disproportionately high percentage of Twitter users, in spite of its cripplingly slow Internet connection.

The lament of declining political awareness among younger folk is a frequent one. But as Lebanon’s social networking figures clearly demonstrate, the latest generation are perhaps more aware of current affairs than the one that went before it.

It is therefore right that individuals in public office at least attempt to connect to young people, not as potential voters, but as an increasingly savvy and influential sector of society. This needs to be monitored, of course, so that Twitter or Facebook don’t turn into online versions of print and television propaganda outlets.

Although the National Audiovisual Council recently suggested it was seeking ways of examining online content, sites such as Twitter are best modulated by their users. If people are unimpressed by what you tweet, they will turn away.

In 2011, if public figures want to speak to new audiences, they must do so in a way that is discernibly different from days gone by. As they are about to find out, there is no place to hide. You are what you tweet.