Social Media in Traditional Political Party Campaigns: Is There a Winning Formula?

Abstract

Although many politicians and single-issue/protest parties have used social media to build support and prosper at election time, traditional European parties have in most cases failed to follow suit. This leads one to ask the question: is social media simply not suited to traditional parties? We argue that, given its ubiquity, social media must be a part of any party's armoury. And it can be, yet parties have failed to thrive in social media due in part to their general decline at a time of dwindling memberships and flourishing alternative political movements: their ‘product’ is less enticing than it has been in the past. In addition, we argue that the following three elements, although key to social media success, are often lacking: strategy, resourcing and appropriate mindset. Assuming all the pieces are in place, two areas warrant particular attention from parties: mobilising supporters in order to reach beyond their own networks, and using data in order to microtarget by localising and personalising communications output.