It’s fun when the you can watch your city on BBC breakfast as you eat your muesli, and this week has seen the national media stray outside London and decamp here to Manchester.

Of course there’s rolling news rolling along with all the talking heads and political correspondents they can dig out but what’s much more interesting is the online buzz.

David Cameron might have said some rather disparaging things about Twitter but there are major politicians who tweet. I personally follow @MayorofLondon (Boris Johnson) and @JohnPrescott (odd combination I know but I like my tweets diverse) but sadly their tweets are generic and I suspect generated by an aid.

Far more interesting are the commentators, journalists and bloggers who have also massed in Manchester: @tweetminister has been great for all the behind the scenes info on who’s going where and with whom and @krishgm tweeting the journalists’ perspective has added an interesting angle and a heads up on whether it’s worth watching Channel 4 News later on.

As well as setting up twitter accounts both parties have begun to recognise the power of online with conference fringe events organised by Google on ‘Online Campaigning’. The summary of this emphasises that if it worked for Obama it could work for them and of course if we learnt anything from the recent US elections it’s that online interest and excitement can convert into votes.

I don’t know if it was because it was held in Brighton but I noticed a lot less twitter traffic during The Labour Party Conference, and as an article in The Times today points out, a couple of the most popular Labour blogs have been wound down in recent months with Conservative blogs coming to the fore.

I’m definitely not suggesting we judge election results on twitter and blog traffic but a quick look around the online social space seems to show which party people can be bothered talking about.