The proliferation of social media into our lives has presented new opportunities for politicians across the globe. Much like their counterparts in the business world the political classes seem equal parts scared and obsessed by facebook and twitter. It has never been so easy to connect with voters, removing the necessity to deal with that murky profession journalism, and speak directly whilst appearing vaguely human. At the same time not all responses will be positive. Look at a tweet from David Cameron or George Osborne and the majority of responses range from pithy observations to crass insults. The potential advantages of social media are clear for politicians, but an already cynical electorate is clearly very suspicious of their use and its ability to really influence has not yet become clear.
Across the pond social media has already had a very real and tangible impact. Barack Obama was swept into office in 2008 on the back of unprecedented enthusiasm founded on a completely new and innovative election campaign. Obama's popularity soared on the back of a clear message of hope and change which spread like wildfire across facebook and twitter. They encouraged lots of small scale donations and a large volunteer team to give a real sense of community to supporters. Obviously the fact that the alternative was John McCain, an elderly war veteran with limited appeal to younger voters and Obama was seen as a fairly 'with it' and cool for a politician helped greatly to make this the first election where social media played a pivotal role.
Obama employed a raft of so called digital gurus that hepled garner this impressive web presence. High flyers from the large technology companies were drafted in to provide advice and build an extremely complex system of recognising potential voters and tailoring prospective campaigns to individual areas to maximise effectiveness. By all accounts this was very successful and signalled what appeared to a sticking point of future elections. In spite of this, by 2012 enthusiasm for Obama had waned after the hope had dissipated and there was limited evidence of actual change, aside from landmark healthcare reforms. A new generation to politics had now become as disillusioned as their forebearers and the impact of social media was limited compared to 2008.
The never ending desire to maintain the special relationship in Britain has meant politicians are eager to follow suit in the battle to utilise social media. Both Labour and the Conservatives failed to garner a significant web presence at the 2010 elections, other than being derided, but they are persevering anyway. David Cameron hired key Obama tech adviser Jim Messina to help with the forthcoming election. Messina has been tasked with cultivating a web presence, obtaining donations and building a voter database. Given the average age of prospective Tory voters it may difficult to build a following that has a significant effect on the next election. The increasingly widespread use of social media in adults may offer a glimpse of hope but other forms of media are likely to have a more significant impact. A recent study illuminated that Cameron dominated the social media space during conference season which will encourage his camp, especially as most commentators thought Ed Miliband gave the more assured performance. Perhaps the area with most potential is building a database to analyse voters and then deliver specific campaigns, the public may not conciously engage with campaigns via social media but the they will certainly be analysed.
Whether social media will yet play a role in the next election is unclear, but the main parties will be doing their utmost to gain influence through these channels. The increasing use of social media amongst older users may provide an outlet that can be exploited and could well be the focus of Labour and the Tories efforts. Younger voters, the most virulent users of social media will likely remain skeptical of politicians attempts to seduce them. Even the student focused Lib Dems have failed in this regard, with their only impact of note being the viral video of Nick Clegg autotuned and apologising for raising tuition fees. Regardless of the limited impact of social media so far, party election broadcasts and billboard advertisements seem an outdated method of keeping control of an election campaign and cultivating a clear message to voters. The focus towards social media from politicians will become stronger as time goes on as it increasingly permeates our lives.
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