There are less than two months left until the 2015 general election, and it is looking to be one of the most closely fought battles for leadership in a long time. Labour is currently only one per cent ahead of the Conservatives, reaching 34 per cent in the latest voting intention poll.
Social media is increasingly taking centre stage as a platform for engaging the electorate.
A study released by Twitter yesterday suggests that the social platform could be a vital tool for political parties to drum up support as 45 per cent of 18-34 year olds surveyed said that they joined a political or social cause that they found out about on the website. Moreover, 34 per cent said that they use Twitter as a source for information about politics or the general election.
With the 18-34 demographic making up approximately 35 per cent of people in Hackney, should the borough’s parliamentary candidates be using Twitter more to engage with their electorate?
The Hackney Post analysed the Twitter activity around the currently known candidates for both Hackney North and Stoke Newington and Hackney South and Shoreditch for one week. Both the candidates’ profiles and other Twitter users’ engagement with the candidates in mentions, retweets and favourites between 10-17 March were analysed to see who was winning on Twitter.
Who’s most likely to reply to you?
Labour scored high on this one. Replies made up 67 per cent and 78 per cent of Meg Hillier’s and Diane Abbott’s tweets, respectively. But Green Party candidate Charlotte George for Hackney South and Shoreditch beat them both. Replies with other Twitter users make up 81 per cent of her tweets.
Hover over the bars in the chart below to see what percentage of candidates’ tweets were replies.
Candidates without a Twitter account and those who didn’t reply to any tweeters have both been excluded from the chart.
Green candidate Heather Finlay, UKIP’s Angus Small and Brian Debus, from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Party, are currently not on Twitter. A spokesperson for the Green Party in Hackney said: “As you know the Hackney Green Party is very active on Twitter through Charlotte George and our main account.
“At the moment Heather is not on Twitter but she is extremely active with her constituents through face to face meetings, phone calls, emails and canvassing and she has a direct phone number for constituents to contact her on any time along with replying to any enquiry swiftly.”
Other parties could not comment on why their candidates are not using Twitter in their campaigns.
Meanwhile, Conservative candidate Jack Tinley, the Lib Dems’ Simon de Deney, and independent candidates Russell Shaw Higgs and Gordon Shrigley are all on Twitter, but didn’t reply to anyone this week.
…but who gets the most retweets?
Mr Shrigley fared better here, and scooped up the prize for the most retweets of his tweets.
But he was still no match for Diane Abbott.
When favourites, mentions and overall engagement were added to the mix, her tweets were interacted with the most. See the infographic below to see who was most popular with tweeters this week.
“By no means necessary”
According to Adam Sharp, Twitter’s global head of news, government and elections, “more than three-quarters (78 per cent)” of MPs are on the social platform.
Alex Krasodomski-Jones is a researcher from think tank Demos that is partnering up with The Sunday Times to analyse the impact of digital campaigning on the election. He said that he is “not sure” whether Twitter can be used as a metric for election success.
However, he argued it could be beneficial for politicians and parliamentary candidates who are not on Twitter to join the social network.
“It offers a new exciting opportunity for politicians to communicate directly with constituents. It’s by no means necessary, but it’s an option for those who choose to use it,” he said.
“They have to use it as an engagement tool though by listening and replying rather than just broadcasting. If you are a politician keen to engage with the Hackney young electorate, for example, it could be a good way of doing that.”
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