As the long anticipated General Election approaches, it will be interesting to see how the social media revolution will impact on campaigning.
The media circus that accompanies every election is already gathering pace with much posturing from all parties, not to mention an acceleration of ‘PR spin’ – a much used and misused phrase which does little to reflect the real day-to-day work of the public relations industry or, indeed, to enhance its image. But, I digress – for the first time, the election will see a new, untried communications channel enter the political arena with the plethora of social media networks spawned since the last election in 2005.
Back then, Facebook and MySpace were just for techies and geeks, while Twitter and LinkedIn hadn’t even been launched! The digital landscape has changed beyond recognition in the last four years. Social media networks are now mainstream communications tools and the ability to use them effectively a la Obama, could prove crucial in the UK too. For example, the recent announcement by The Sun that it would be supporting the Conservative Party was greeted with generalindifference – the national press simply do not wield the power they once did.
There is no doubt that the battle to dominate the blogosphere has already begun, however, the British political parties have a long way to go to approach anything-like the sophistication of the Presidential social media machine. At the recent CIPR Northern Conference , keynote speaker and blogger Alistair Campbell said that he had emailed Peter Mandelson during the recent party conference to tell him that he was ‘trending on Twitter’ – Mandelson’s response was a large question mark!
The power of the Twitter phenomenon can be tracked as it evolved from a channel which reported the news in the style of traditional media, into a medium which was breaking world news stories in real time – its role in the Mumbai siege of 2008 marked a turning point in its role and influence. Since then, its popularity has burgeoned as it has played host to the world’s largest ‘popularity contest’ with various celebrities vying with the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Ellen DeGeneres and Britney Spears for the No1 spot.
While all of the parties are paying lip service to embracing social media, are any of them actually harnessing its powers? A quick visit to Twitterholic showed the following interesting stats in our political leaders’ beauty parade:
Gordon Brown ranked 83,381th with 608 followers (March 2009); David Cameron ranked 39,527th with 1,277 followers (Feb 2009); and Nick Clegg ranked 886,320tghwith 24 followers (April 2009)
To put this into context, Barrack Obama is currently running a few places ahead of Oprah Winfrey at No. 6 with 2,612,615 followers!
There is no doubt that the power of social media is moving up the political agenda – who would have believed back in 2005 that the prime minister would use YouTube to address the nation? Although whether or not this was a wise choice is debatable.
Personally, I feel that the growth of social media is a positive move for the humble voter. Not only do immediate news channels like Twitter increase transparency, they also give individuals greater influence. Apparently, PR agency Fishburn Hedges worked with Channel 4 News to use Twitter to extend public participation during the recent round of party conferences. Their ‘twitter fringe’ or ‘Twinge’ initiative aimed to change the traditional fringe meeting by using the network to encourage wider audience discussion from people outside the meeting. In this way, social networks are able to act as a conduit for public opinion and discussion which can only be a positive development for the democratic process.
Top 10 Political Blogs
As well as the main parties’ blogs (Labour List, ConservativeHome and LibDem Voice), the following are some of the most useful for would-be pundits:
