The Premier’s Wikipedia page has been revised 39 times between July 2012 and July 2014 for suspected vandalism.  Mr Palmer’s page was hit 22 times.

In comparison, Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney and Treasurer Tim Nicholls have flown under the radar with no reported instances of suspected vandalism, while Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie had 10 over the same period, four in October 2013 when the anti-gang laws were introduced.

The pages of southern state politicians don’t seem to receive the same attention – a review of edits of New South Wales Premier, Deputy-Premier, Treasurer and Attorney-General showed no edits.

In Victoria, Premier Denis Napthine’s page has had nine revisions for suspected vandalism since taking over the job in March 2013 while his deputy Peter Ryan’s page has chalked up one.

Annastacia Palaszczuk leads state opposition leaders with one revision, the same as federal Kennedy MP Bob Katter.

For the most part, Wikipedia volunteers themselves flag potential vandalism or issues with pages and fix them as part of maintaining the site’s professionalism.

But it’s just another reason politicians now have social media staffers in their employ.

Leader of the social media research group at Queensland University of Technology, Axel Bruns, said there was a delicate balance to the job.

"It doesn’t hurt for staff themselves to keep an eye on these things themselves and report them to the people who are actively engaged in maintaining relevant pages and certainly some misinformation or misrepresentation can occasionally slip through and staffers and politicians themselves, of course, are fully in their rights to flag these sorts of issues," he said.

"Where it gets problematic is where, if they start themselves, changing those pages, particularly with a view of presenting a particular side or removing any references to controversies and adding things that they think they have achieved.

"So it is a fine line between simply correcting genuine misinformation or genuine vandalism and going in yourself and trying to change how they are being portrayed in a space like Wikipedia."

And that balance isn’t just for information sites such as Wikipedia, Professor Bruns said, as more and more of the politically minded sought to differentiate themselves through online profiles.

"For politicians, social media has become another tool of the trade," he said.

"In the same way that doing interviews with journalists or putting out press releases is a tool as well – it is all part of the mix.

"I think they can help in some cases; a politician can put their own point across or get to make a name for themselves. We see this in a number of very successful campaigns which have used social media very effectively.

"Cathy McGowan in Indi in the last federal election, who won a seat from a sitting shadow minister in the Liberal Party, Sophie Mirabella, going against the very significant swing towards the Liberal Party, she used social media very, very effectively. But she also did a lot of local campaigning.

"So it is part of the mix, but not the whole campaign."

This is where those staffers come in.

"If you can manage to show a bit of your real personality, to be more than just a politician, to be more than a person in a suit or a hi-vis vest, then that is a good use of social media, it shows you have a life outside of politics, that’s rounding your persona in a way that doesn’t get seen in other forms of news reporting," Professor Bruns said.

"Having said that, of course, there is a real difference between rank and file candidates and political leaders.

"With political leaders I think it is generally understood that, for the most part, they are not doing much of their social media activities themselves.

"They have staffers putting up photos and updates on what they are doing and so on, so I think generally the public understands the prime minister or the leader of the opposition won’t have time to do their own social media."