The US presidential elections hammered home the huge impact a well-run social media campaign can have. But how much have UK parties taken this on board?
The team behind Barack Obama’s election campaign won a Titanium Lion award at Cannes last month and the PM’s wife Sarah Brown is making a name for herself by utilising social media tools such as Twitter. But a review for new media age by experts in social media, usability and e-democracy has shown the mainstream political parties still have a long way to go.
Some politicians are making impressive moves into using the web to help mobilise their campaigns and reach different audiences. The Government is also committing to getting everyone online in the coming years through its Digital Britain promises. But still it seems many parties are still just dipping their toes. Our review during June’s local and European elections found that although there are some moves to use social media to build the kind of ground-up support seen in Obama’s campaign, some sites don’t even have up-to-date blogs.
It’s part of a wider problem with the political establishment. According to a report released in February by political research and education charity Hansard Society, MPs still don’t understand new media. The report, which surveyed MPs on their use of digital media, revealed 8% don’t use email, while 77% don’t use social networking tools. One MP said of not using email, “It has both potential and risks and I’m disinclined to get involved now as I retire at the end of this Parliament.” Another reason given was that “the worst-off constituents getting the worst deal from society don’t have access to electronic communications and rely on the post”. But with the Digital Britain report pledging universal access to broadband, MPs will have to change these views.
Nevertheless, the recent elections saw a definite increase in online activity from all parties. The strategy for the Conservatives, according to Jeremy Hunt, shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the party’s spokesman for online campaigning, is to bring people closer to the party by providing engaging and motivating content. “Online activity represents a huge part of our efforts to get our message out,” he says. “We want to ensure anyone who wants to find out about our policies can do so quickly and easily, whether they happen to be on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or just searching on Google. Over the next year we’ll be giving our supporters better ways to campaign online, social media will transform the way people connect with the issues and causes they care about, and political advertising budgets will continue to move away from the traditional poster campaigns and into online media.”
The Labour Party also launched a raft of new media tools and strategies ahead of the European elections, including blog site LabourSpace. In February it announced an official system to integrate Labour MPs’ websites with Facebook and Twitter. A Labour spokesman said, “The key aim of our web strategy is to give our supporters the tools they need to campaign for us both online and offline. That’s the lesson we’ve taken from the Obama campaign and that’s the focus of our online campaigning.”
- Daniel Baldwin
Research assistant in the E-democracy Team at political research and education charity Hansard Society - Peter Ballard
Founding partner of usability company Foolproof - Robin Grant
MD of social media specialist agency We Are Social
new media age asked three experts to review the main UK political parties’ official online presence in the run-up to the European elections. Parties have started to use social media tools such as YouTube and Twitter, but when you delve deeper to a local level, the reviewers found content and enthusiasm dropped. Some sites hadn’t updated news or blog posts since March.
Our survey found that the Conservatives had the best presence online overall, offering high engagement. But all the UK parties will need to increase their efforts if they expect their efforts to make a difference in the forthcoming General Election.
The Conservative Party - 23/30
Grant, We Are Social: This is much more engaging, with links on the home page to social network pages, as well as a conversational Twitter feed. The Conservative Wall is a good way of harnessing content from supporters and there’s a blog that allows comments, although it’s separate from the News section which doesn’t. There’s good use of Google Maps to help co-ordinate events at a grassroots level. 9/10
Ballard, Foolproof: The Tories have clearly made a conscious decision to improve the quality of their site to reflect their aspirations for forming a government in the next General Election. Offering regional content is a great way to establish a connection at local level and the site makes a feature of this. It’s let down in the delivery, though, with much of the ‘latest news’ being months old - one instance in the East Midlands dated back to 2008. 8/10
Baldwin, Hansard: The overall tone is managerial and corporate, and this is echoed in the user experience. Slick graphics, good internal linking and logical information flow make it user friendly for undecided voters. It makes good use of digital media, particularly video. 7/10
The Labour Party - 18.5/30
Grant, We Are Social: This site is all about spreading the central message, with little opportunity for comments and conversation. The Twitter feed is all one-way communication and the link to the Labour Central blog yielded a 404 error when I visited. 4/10
Baldwin, Hansard: Offline and online activity is being driven by the site, but it’s more party-based activity than policy, looking to market itself through users, unlike Obama’s campaign which focused on involving the user. 7.5/10
Ballard, Foolproof: One of the main roles of party sites must be to recruit new supporters. The Labour offering doesn’t make it easy to find details about the party in your area. For instance, for Norwich North, where a by-election is due, there’s no information about it. While the site is big on trying to get people to register, it provides very little information or incentive as to why this would be a good thing. 7/10
Liberal Democrats - 18/30
Grant, We Are Social: No comments are allowed on the main site, and the social media presences are linked to from a Get Involved page rather than on the home page. But social media adoption is strong and engaging, with a blog network, Creative Commons-licensed content to share on Flickr, and active and conversational Twitter and Facebook profiles. Social aspects need to be much more upfront and integrated with the main site. 6/10
Ballard, Foolproof:The site looks dated and rather dull - it’s unlikely to hold much appeal for younger voters looking to inform their political opinions. The most recent item posted in the Latest News section was nearly a month old and campaign news was older. 5/10
Baldwin, Hansard: Party profile is the predominant theme of the home page. News stories and ‘successes’ dominate, hinging on politicians with strong profiles. Both central and local contact are facilitated. 7/10
Other party sites
Our experts also looked at the sites for some of the minor UK parties, but found no difference in their use of social media.
We Are Social’s Grant said of the UK Independence Party, “It has some innovative touches, like a social network for members on Ning and use of its leader’s personal Twitter account instead of a generic party one. But there’s little opportunity for wider social interaction or for users to contribute on the main site.”
Foolproof’s Ballard added, “The UKIP home page is very busy, which only undermines the serious nature of the site’s purpose and content.
Hansard’s Baldwin rated The Green Party. “It utilises social media more obviously than any other party website, making good use of social applications with links to the sites of MEPs, party members and candidates,” he said. “It encourages users to join party pages, and policies are succinct and easy to negotiate.”
