Political marketing has changed significantly since the rise of social media and the best example of this change has been Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The campaign used social networks both in activating voters as well as in collecting donations. Starcom Mediavest Group’s (SMG) Research Department studied the social media scene of the leading British political parties and their leaders before the General Election in May 2010.
On the verge of the UK election, the two main political parties were attempting to dub Obama’s strategy by harnessing social media. Labour used Twitter to collect online feedback and to launch The Change We See campaign using Facebook and Flickr. Conservatives, on the other hand, deployed digital as a support platform for their traditional media campaign, including for example a series of Facebook video interviews with their voters and broadcasting David Cameron’s speeches and debates on YouTube’s WebCameron. Both the main parties and their leaders have profiles on Facebook and Twitter, and, on those platforms, the Tories had a lead over the Labour in terms of fans and followers.
Chart 1. Before the First Election Debate in April, Labour commanded just over half of the online share of voice but both Tories and Liberals steadily increased their shares when approaching the Election Day.
As SMG’s preferred social media listening tool, Whitevector helped the agency to look closer whether these actions had any real impact on the outcome of the election. In the study, SMG looked at how online discussions regarding the main parties and their respective leaders changed in the past months (November 1, 2009 – April 30, 2010).
According to the study, the ruling party Labour commanded just over half of the online share of voice until March. However, as the Election Day closed in, the analysis shows that both the Conservative and the Liberal Party steadily increased their shares of online conversations (Chart 1).
Chart 2. In terms of sentiment, there wasn’t a clear preference towards Brown or Cameron before the First Election Debate. However, the discussion sentiment about Clegg improved dramatically after the debate.
When exploring the sentiment associated to the party representatives, SMG uncovered some evidence of political apathy towards the main party leaders in the UK. By looking at the percentage of densely positive or negative tone of online discussions around Brown and Cameron, there seemed to be no clear preference towards either leader (Chart 2).
Chart 3. Nick Clegg earned significant discussion volumes by succeeding the in election debates.
However, as the First Election Debate was broadcasted on April 15, it seems that the attitudes towards the candidates changed. You can see in the chart above (Charts 3) that the day before the debate, Gordon Brown was discussed the most in social media whereas during and after the debate, number of online discussions about Liberals’ Nick Clegg almost doubled. Also the Sky News Debate on April 22 produced a significant number of converstions about the Liberal Party leader. BBC’s Prime Ministerial Debate on April 29, on the other hand, created a major buzz about Gordon Brown.
When looking at the sentiment figures of the First Election Debate, Nick Clegg also achieved the biggest increase in positive discussions towards him, increasing 93 % during and after the event. David Cameron recorded positive and negative opinion at 44 %, while findings from the same sample showed that Gordon Brown received a 74 % rise in positive discussion, although negative discussions were also up 53%.
Before the Election Day, SMG’s analysis suggested that the Conservatives were a step ahead of Labour and the Liberals in the social media world. However, according to the social media sources, Nick Clegg came out as a clear winner from the debates. Finally, it was David Cameron and the Conservatives who took the right to rule Britain.
The key to use social media successfully in political marketing seems to be to reach and engage the voters as effectively as possible. Thus, SMG sums up the learnings also brands can get from politicians’ use of social media:
- Listen. Social media can really empower your brand and help it become part of everyday conversation. Use social listening tools, such as Whitevector, to monitor your audience’s conversations and to pin point the real influencers.
- Create. After listening to your audience’s discussions, create relevant and engaging content to suit your target audience’s passion points and thereby provide chances to become involved with your brand.
- Amplify. Place your social media content in front of the right users and influencers, giving them the opportunity to weave it into their everyday online conversations.
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