In this year's election campaign it was clear the social media was going to be utilised by all the political parties to increase their membership and support. When the campaigns first started all parties took to Facebook and Twitter to reach a greater range of people and interact with them. Younger voters are also better engaged online and statistically less engaged physically.
We tracked the trends at 9am on election day and 9am on results day to show you the differences:
As always with trends around National events, there is lots to be learnt from the way Facebook and Twitter are utilised. To help you sift through the tactics, we've selected some hashtags for you to showcase the best of the election day online.
#GE2015
This is a general hashtag tha was used widely all day yesterday. it stands for General Election 2015 and has been a consistently high trend throughout the day. This is a prime example of two hashtag tactics:
- Create a short and memorable hashtag which won't take up too much space in a tweet. People always have a lot to say on Twitter and this is particularly true with politics thrown into the mix- don't limit poeple's space, allow them as much space as possible to say what they want
- Create a hashtag that is instantly recogniseable and that can be used universally. For GE2015, we know instantly that it stands for 'General Election' and it can only apply to the election here in the UK.
How mobile is revolutionising #GE2015 broadcasting http://t.co/6V8jQisLaw #CosmicUK
— Cosmic (@Cosmic_UK) May 7, 2015
#Democracy
This hashtag has been used throughout the day today, not only does it celebrate our democracy but it also encourages young people and women to vote in honour of those who fought for the right to vote. This emotive hashtag utilises people's emotions making it more shareable.
Today we pay respect to the suffragettes who once held their meetings in the RHS Vincent Square Hall we work in today. Thank you. #democracy
— The RHS (@The_RHS) May 7, 2015
#VotingMatters
Takes a similar stance to #Democracy and is backed up by the #IVoted hashflag. It is letting people know that every vote matters.
Fantastic post from @pollytoynbee on why #votingmatters: Every vote counts – to waste yours would be near-criminal http://t.co/BI11sYGa5u
— Hayley Jordan (@hayleyljordan) May 7, 2015
#GenerationVote
This hashtag encourages young people to vote and not to waste their electoral right. The aim is to encourage people-power and peer pressure to pull through and bring more young people to the polls. A catchy hashtag is always a good idea, and one that appeals to a younger audience is even better as it's much more likely to go 'viral'.
#BustingTheStereotype extra barriers brought in and over 400 members of #GenerationVote have already had their say! pic.twitter.com/IScc1aHzbu
— Bath SU (@BathSU) May 7, 2015
Polling Station
Although this term is not a hashtag, it was trending on Twitter all day, people are checking in and casting their vote. Here is some advice about taking your dog with you. Checking in somewhere and talking about your day-to-day business lives can be an effective way of humanising your brand to communicate better with your client base.
Don't forget you can take your dogs into the polling station to vote. Don't tie them up outside ! pic.twitter.com/pJgWF03xsa
— DogLost (@DoglostUK) May 7, 2015
#IVoted
Both Twitter and Facebook have developed their own way of helping users to share whether they have voted. Facebook has set up an automated status, all you have to do is click the 'vote 2015' link and it will take you to a page that shows you how many other people have shared this on Facebook proving they have voted. You can then join the statistics about the types and ages of user who voted. Giving people the chance to talk about their lives and experiences can be a great content marketing tactic. Why not invite your client base to contribute to your blog or social media feed?
The Twitter equivilent of this Facebook tool is the #IVoted hashflag. This creates a small box with a tick in it next to the hashtag '#IVoted' indicating to other users that you've cast your vote.
Hashflags are being used on Twitter to talk about specific parties and if you use them. Twitter first used hashtags in last year’s world cup. This was a great idea as not only could people show who they supported with a hashtag but it also showed the country’s flag.
Twitters have used hashflags for all the parties in the election. You can click here to view all the hashflags for this year's general elections. Using visuals to back up your message is another exciting content marketing trick which more and more people are drawing attention with. Cool graphics can be eye catching and useful to use across all social media networks. If you don't have Photoshop or similar software to create graphics on www.canva.com can be a gerat alternative. It allows you to use templates and add your own pictures and text which can then be saved at the optimum size for social media posts, blogs and a variety of other publishing formats.
It wasn't only Facebook and Twitter that got in on the general election action, Siri was also enjoying herself. We tried asking siri who we should vote for and this is what she advised:
Input interpretation:
Who should I vote for in the upcoming elections?
Result:
The best people for the job.
Here at Cosmic we can help with Social Media, if you’d like to learn more about how we can help, get in touch with the Cosmic team on 0845 094 6108, e-mail us on info@cosmic.org.uk or send us a tweet to @Cosmic_UK!