1. Elections and New
Media
By: Will Bevin-Nicholls and Reza Fallah

2. Introduction
•
Internet use has grown from 16 million users in
1995, to 2,749 million users in 2013 - and is
continuing to grow.
•
Because of this it has become a key tool in elections
all over the world, from India to the U.S.A.
•
Social media has allowed a flow of information more
quickly, and widely than ever before.
•
The internet has changed political participation - it is
now a lot easier to reach a wider audience.

3. US Elections 2012
Source: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/822499/thumbs/o-PRESIDENTIAL-ELECTION-2012-facebook.jpg

4. US election 2012 digital activities overview
4-17 June 2012
Source:
http://www.journalism.org/2012/08/15/how-presidential-candidates-use-web-and-social-media/
Obama’s total Facebook page likes: 31.1m vs. Romney’s
total Facebook page likes: 10.2m
But its not about numbers, its about performance

5. US election social media performance
• Obama’s campaign has made far more use of direct
digital messaging than Romney’s.
•
The economy may have dominated both candidates’
digital messaging, but it was not what voters showed the
most interest in.
•
Neither campaign made much use of the social aspect of
social media.
•
Obama’s digital strategy targets specific voter groups (18
different constituency groups, as it did four years ago,) to
a greater degree than Romney’s (9 groups since
August).
•
•
Romney Makes Smart Use of Facebook Marketing.
Obama appears on ‘AMA’ (Ask Me Anything) section on
Reddit but dodges tough questions.

6. The Obama 2012 re-election
campaign
•
A database was created containing information about
potential voters.
•
Potential voters were invited to join the Obama reelection site via Facebook and Facebook-Connect.
•
The Obama Campaign employed the use of new
software known as Vote Builder.
•
By the end of the campaign, Obama had 22.7 million
Twitter followers and 32.2 million
•
Facebook likes, compared to Romney’s 1.8 million
followers and 12.1 million Facebook likes.Obama's
31.1 (in 2012) million Facebook fans.

7. The Obama 2012 re-election
campaign
By the end of the campaign, Obama had 22.7 million
Twitter followers and 32.2 million Facebook likes,
compared to Romney’s 1.8 million followers and 12.1
million Facebook likes.

8. The Obama leadership
campaign
•
Young people dominate social media, but even if no
one under the age of 30 had voted for Obama, he
would have still won in every state but two.
•
The 'I voted today’ badge on Facebook during the
leadership elections increased voting turnout buy
around 5% - around 1 million extra votes.
•
The most effective way of increasing turnout is face
to face canvassing, which increased turnout by
about 8%.
Source: http://paytonandco.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/socialitical-logo-final.png

9. Indian general election 2014

10. Indian general election
2014
•
There are 62 million Indians on the social media, some 97
per cent of them are on Facebook.
•
The number of social media users is likely to grow to
about 80 million by mid-2014
•
social media could have a “high impact” on 160 of the 543
constituencies in the next election
•
Candidates use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even
Google Hangout
•
Shashi Tharoor: “I think it can be a game influencer, but I
wouldn’t go beyond that at this stage … social media
happens to offer an additional way, not a substitute for any
of the traditional means of campaigning." Is he right?
sources: http://www.charleneli.com/2012/10/obama-vs-romney-in-social-media-whos-using-it-best/
http://www.journalism.org/2012/08/15/how-presidential-candidates-use-web-and-social-media/

11. The 2010 UK General Election
Source: http://media.salon.com/2010/05/uk_election_update_tory_lib_dem_coalition_back_on_track-1280x960.jpg

12. The 2010 UK General
Election
•
•
Named the 'social media election'.
•
Social media helped party activists to organize more
efficiently. Software imported from the
•
U.S helped to create three times more face to face contact
than the previous year.
•
Twitter became a core tool for both politicians and the
media.
•
600 candidates became active on Twitter with 198 members
of the new parliament active still.
•
The Election normalized the use of social media as source
material.
A higher turnout was contributed to social and digital media
– particularly amongst 18-24 year olds.

13. The 2010 UK General
Election
•
Although television remained the dominant medium
– young people got most of their news
•
online. This increased its importance to newspapers
and broadcast news.
•
People felt social media provided a more
transparent election campaign.
•
•
The rise of Political Blogs...
...And Facebook.

14. Conclusion
• Social media is a key to success in
modern elections
• Politics is becoming more and more
involved with social networking
• Its not about numbers
• Facebook is not the dominating network
in this area

15. Thank you!