Social media: the real election battlefield in 2024?

If you haven’t seen the news or the footage of a dripping wet Rishi Sunak, firstly, where have you been? Secondly, maybe you’ve missed that a General Election (officially now known as #GennyLec) is headed our way. After months of speculation and many expecting the election to be called in the autumn, we’re heading to the polls on Thursday 4 July.??

The Brands2Life Social team will be covering the action minute-by-minute in what is set to be a fierce campaign. But as always, I’m interested to see what will happen online.?

With that in mind, I looked at the social media strategies used in the past, to see if I could predict what we’ll see in this year’s election. Here are the five things I predict will happen on social in the lead up to polling day.?

Continued use of highly-targeted paid social advertising?

Targeted posts, primarily on Facebook, have quickly become a mainstay of political campaigns, allowing them to easily push out highly localised and personalised messages to the constituencies and groups that parties want to target.?

You may be surprised that the Conservatives, not Labour, spearheaded this tactic after 2010, with their digital team recognising the value in a highly targeted digital strategy while Labour concentrated on doorstep interactions with voters. In 2015, it was one of areas credited with the unexpected win for David Cameron and has since been an important budget line for both parties. In 2015, the Conservatives reportedly spent ￡1.2 million on Facebook advertising alone (ten times more than Labour), and that figure only increased in 2017, where both parties spent upwards of ￡3 million on “advertising”, with the Conservatives spending twice as much as all parties combined on paid Facebook ads. ?

This is where all parties appear to take strategy seriously, and rightly so; a dodgy strategy or misplaced spending has been detrimental for the Conservatives in the past!?

Clearly this has been key to the strategies of the parties’ election campaigns in the past and so I don’t see them moving away from it in 2024.??

Organic content to grab attention?

No matter your advertising budget, the content really can make all the difference. Organic isn’t forgotten during campaign periods, with each party often sharing multiple messages per day during this time. But, as we see on a daily basis with our clients, more often than not it’s about quality, not quantity.??

2019 saw both parties increasing the cadence of content across social media platforms, with the Conservatives increasing from 3 posts per day in 2017 to 21 in 2019. Similarly, Labour increased from 12 per day in 2017 to 18 per day in 2019. As you can imagine, this only increases as the campaign goes on, with the peak of content at the end of the campaign, often at around 30 posts per day.???

However, as I mentioned, quantity isn’t everything, and while the Conservatives were sharing more content, Labour was far exceeding the number of interactions, something that has been consistent in each campaign period.??

It’s thought that Labour’s more positive messaging in previous years has aided in driving more virality, especially when compared with the Conservatives’ more negative approach.??

Virality really seems to be the aim with organic social in the campaign period. It was true in 2015, with videos like “Change the Tune” from The Green Party and yet we continue to see controversial social content from all parties that really have us talking cough second most powerful country in the world cough. ?

There’s also the introduction of new platforms like TikTok to consider since the last election, bringing a whole new way to reach a whole new audience. We’ve already seen parties taking action here, with Labour posting at least 3 videos per day since last week and the Conservatives launching its own channel just two days ago.??

It’s clear attention is what these parties are looking to gain with their newsfeeds and really, I think the gloves are off when it comes to what they might do in the weeks leading up to the election to get it.??

A more authentic approach to personal branding?

Something for me that has been missing in previous elections is the party leaders really leaning into the personal branding element of social. Sure, we see them using social media to tell the story of the campaign, but really it’s just that, a day-to-day run down of what they are doing.??

Something they could learn from the creators of this world is the power of authenticity and how this can bring some authority to what they are saying. We saw this in part over in the US, with Barack Obama understanding the power of his audience starting to see more of “him”. Some of his personality, what he actually enjoys and the life of Obama beyond the campaign trail. Adding a bit of personality to their campaign messages could really allow the individuals to stand out from one another.?

Let’s see if any of them are set to take this approach in 2024.??

Brave brands taking a stand??

We know that we’re facing a dirty campaign. Both parties have already started to hurl insults on social, and brands need to be careful about being caught in the crossfire. This should be a major consideration when planning your brand’s strategy for engaging in the election.?

We’ve already seen this in action last week, when McVities found itself caught in a scandal with the Conservative Party, after Rishi Sunak took two pre-planted questions from councillor posing as workers in a warehouse. Originally thought to be a McVities warehouse, the brand was quick to distance themselves, fighting back on X about the claims.??

It’s safe to say this won’t be the last of this and, whether it’s brands coming out in support of specific parties, or trying to distance themselves, those that are brave enough will likely take a stand either way.??

Platforms to blame for rise in misinformation??

Social media is now the primary news source for a majority of people. Of course, this brings benefits, but as we saw in the vote for Brexit and the last US election, misinformation can be spread much more easily online. We’ve previously seen the platforms themselves taking the brunt of the negative attention around this.??

With so many elections happening worldwide this year, a survey revealed that 87% of people were at last somewhat worried about election misinformation. I expect that social media platforms will have to answer even more questions about what they’re doing to overcome the issue in the coming weeks, and even the months following the UK election.?

It’s clear this election is set to be a tough fight, and social is more ingrained in our lives than it has been in any previous election. There are more ways to reach people and new approaches to take, meaning these five areas are just the tip of where I expect social media’s role to be in this election.??

And social could have a much bigger impact than in previous years, meaning the election could be won or lost based on the strategic approach each party decides to take.?

We’ll be following all the action over the next few weeks, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our updates.??