The US Presidential Election of 2008 is looked upon by many as the first “social media election” and analysts are now saying that #GE2015 is the first social media election in the UK.
At the beginning of the campaign, we brought you some of the facts and figures associated with the leaders on Twitter but how has the campaign played out online?
Photo Ops
You know the annoying line "there's an app for that"? Well, thanks to the Internet, if you think of a scenario featuring a politician, there'll be a photo for that. Social media has ensured that every photo op was pushed out by each of the parties. Here, for example is an image of Prime Minister David Cameron feeding a lamb:
Want to see Ed Miliband eating a sandwich?
The various parties were active throughout the campaign online, but most of their activity was pushing out policies and party lines. All in all, not very interesting.
David Cameron's reluctance to debate caused for some bitchy tweets from the leaders of the opposition:
David Cameron has decided not to attend tonight’s debate. If you're applying for the job of PM, you should turn up to the job interview.
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) April 16, 2015
I'll debate with you @Ed_Miliband, even if @David_Cameron won't. Any time, any place, anywhere. #BBCDebate pic.twitter.com/GWc6JGBVYk
— Nick Clegg (@nick_clegg) April 16, 2015
Disappointingly none of the leaders truly engaged with voters on social media. They were all very tweet to retweet positive comments, but few answered many of the questions.
In a somewhat cringey attempt to be cool, Nick Clegg did his take on Jimmy Kimmel's "Mean Tweets" segement:
Twitter by numbers
There's more than 3,800 candidates in the 2015 General Election and more than 2,300 of them are active on Twitter. Lib Dem's @stevebeasant tweeted more times than any other candidate, however Labour were the most active party online. Interestingly "Cameron" was tweeted 170 more times than "Miliband" by Labour candidates.
In the week commencing March 30th, 14% of the entire week's tweets were generated during the two hour leader's debate which aired on April 2nd.
Aside from the candidates, there was some excellent piss-taking from members of the public:
RT @GeneralBoles: Worst first date ever #leadersdebate pic.twitter.com/LCcLJqQBCo
— Cookie Monster (@cookiemonster82) April 2, 2015
E MILLZ 💯 pic.twitter.com/FzmWcQviev
— mandem crep check (@DistinCray_) April 2, 2015
Polling Day
Almost 4-million tweets were sent about the general election sent in the UK on polling day. Twitter says the biggest spike was at 8 minutes to 11 when the first result came in. The Conservatives and David Cameron were the most talked about party and leader respectively.
