Digital Democracy: Will Social Media Influence How We Vote in the General Election?

The General Election is just around the corner, but do you know who you’re voting for yet? The manifestos have been released and the debates have aired, but a surprising amount of people are turning to social media to help them decide who to vote for.

 

Two in three online adults now have a current social networking profile and politicians now recognise the power of Facebook and Twitter when communicating their message. So could the 2015 general election be the year that social media changes our country? Certainly.

 

It’s Free – Leafleting, signs and even public debates all cost money to create, whereas social media is completely free (well, apart from the cost of your Wi-Fi connection). The only investment it requires is… time. Social media platforms like Twitter allow politicians to reach thousands of people in their constituency for a fraction of the price as other marketing methods.

 

Get the Real Person Out There – Let’s face it, politicians don’t always have the best reputation, but social media can help.

 

An online presence which promotes both political points and personal elements can show voters who a candidate really is.

 

Whether they have children, where they live and what they do in their spare time are all important factors in humanising these figureheads. After all, we’re more likely to vote for someone who is relatable, aren’t we?

 

Appeal to Our Youth – Teenagers these days are attached to their mobile devices 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So social marketing makes the perfect solution for informing young voters about their options through short to-the-point snippets.

 

Listen to the People – The role of a local MP is to represent their area and the issues that the residents feel are important. Social media monitoring is an easy way of finding exactly what people think and which issues are most important to them.

 

It’s still beneficial for politicians to get out there and pound the streets to speak to people, but geo-targeted keywords will give an insight into what people are saying online too.

 

Communicate with Voters – Once MPs know what issues are important they can then engage, and maybe even impress, potential voters by replying to the points raised. How shocked would you be if you got a reply from a tweet about politics!?

 

 

So how are the political parties doing with social media so far? All the parties have accounts, but are people responding positively to these modern changes?

 

Well, according to ElectUK, the Tata Consultancy Services app which tracks social media mentions of the general election, the Conservatives are seeing the best results.

 

Within 24 hours of the Conservative manifesto being released the party’s share of Twitter mentions rose 5% on its monthly average. This in comparison with its nearest competitor, Labour, is much higher. However, Labour has a considerably larger monthly average.

 

At the same time, positive sentiment increased by 7.7% for the Tories, but only 3.8% for Labour.

 

But who’s ahead in the Twitter follower count?

 

Labour – 204k followers

Conservative – 151k followers

Liberal Democrats – 92k followers

Greens – 130k followers

UKIP – 97.4k followers

Plaid Cymru – 17.7k followers

SNP – 88.3k followers