In the recent European parliament election UKIP took the
most seats of any party, 24, even managing to take a seat in every constituency
across the country.
UKIP are now the second most followed political party on Facebook. In taking that spot, behind The Conservatives, UKIP overtook Labour,
who’ve had a combined 40 years as the ruling party in Britain.
Beyond that UKIP are dwarfing the engagement rates of the
other parties, scoring a huge 87% engagement. Their growth is astronomical, increasing followers by 85%
between the 29th of April and 26th of May alone, compared
to the Conservatives’ 7.82% and Labour’s 3.95%.
UKIP's Facebook page buzzed with positive support, one commenter saying - "I don't recall any other political party making its voters feel a connection to each other in such a positive way".
Simply: UKIP gained
fans and engaged the ones it already had at a completely unmatched rate.
While the content of UKIP’s messages was heavily criticised,
it was able to build widespread furore and attention into momentum with which
to push the campaign beyond the apathy surrounding the three major parties
(although I think that should be ‘two’ now). UKIP’s passage on social media was
not a smooth one, as seen by the hijacking of ill-advised hashtag #whyimvotingUkip
but repeatedly the party was able to use opposition to project itself as a viable
challenger brand.
It continued its brand-like tactics by using targeted calls
to action socially, unlike the other parties, and using bold, largely
unsupported statements, in a way traditional political promotion would shy away
from.
Way To Blue’s data from 16th to 22nd of May shows how UKIP managed to gain 198,000 mentions socially. I think we can
assume many of them were negative, but over 2,000 professed an intention to
vote for the party. Meanwhile Labour, who were unlikely to have fielded as many
accusations of racism or sexism, managed only 70,000 mentions with only 945 of
those suggesting that’s how the user would be voting at the polling box. By this point the Lib Dems had fallen off the
map altogether, behind The Green party.
Perhaps most shockingly, as someone who’s seen a
not-exactly-warm reaction to UKIP, they weren’t the party to the garner the
most negative sentiment, or the least positive sentiment; those dubious honours
fell to Labour (47% negative) and the Conservatives (8% positive). The filter bubble effect of social media with regards to Ukip is discussed brilliantly in this article.
It was a bumpy road for UKIP on Twitter, losing the odd MEP to controversial tweets, but the data shows the fervour created managed to
balance engaged support against some pretty stinging opposition. Beyond that UKIP were able to be much more brand-led in having a figurehead of Nigel Farage that
consistently grabbed headlines in a way the other parties and their leaders
failed to. The result mirrored a Europe-wide swing to the anti-EU far-right (and sometimes far-left) that could
have implications way beyond any level of electioneering.
Putting aside the content, UKIP’s execution and delivery outshone the
other parties, creating compelling content for its audience and projecting a
resolute brand. Farage’s promise of a “political earthquake” was delivered
wholly on social media and that phrase alone reflects the whole campaign – not particularly
reasoned or nuanced, but impactful and attention-grabbing.
Realistically if you can make half an audience love you and
half audience hate you you’ll likely end up better off in a popularity contest
than the options that no-one particularly feels much towards either way. Or to borrow Dan Wieden's famous phrase - "Move me dude!".
Advertising legend Dan Wieden (of Wieden + Kennedy) discussing his principles of brand communication.
Beyond this one event though the question must now be asked –
could social media bring about the end of politics forever seeking the most
attractive middle ground instead relying on heavily engaged niche audiences
instead? With a hundred years of two-party politics it seems almost
unprecedented – but that’s exactly what social brands do.
