Through The Grapevine… Social Media and its reach with Elections
As sociologists assure, users of social networks adhere to views atypical for the rest of the electorate. This is confirmed by the analysis of the results of monitoring by Google during the election campaign, when the mentions of the elections in the news were measured. A fairly large proportion of voters who use the Internet do not follow politicians on social networks, but prefer to receive information from the media.
The number of fans in new media is another reason for the pride of politicians. However, as experience shows, it does not have significant results on the voting results. Like a candidate’s page does not always mean willingness to vote for him.
For example, in the 2010 Senate elections, Democratic leader Harry Reid defeated the representative of the conservative Tea Party Sherron Angle. Despite the fact that at the time of the vote, Angle’s Facebook fans were 7 times more than Reed’s (104 thousand versus 14 thousand), she lost, losing only five percent of the vote.
The Internet and social media are like a gigantic exhibition
Each participant of which by any means tries to attract as many visitors as possible to his stand. However, research shows that people are more responsive when the message is addressed to them personally.
As part of the experiment, professors Alan Gerber and Donald Green (Alan Gerber, Donald Green) selected 30 thousand potential voters and campaigned them in person, by phone and by mail. According to the results of the study, it turned out that personal campaigning can significantly increase the voter turnout, while “impersonal” letters and calls did not have a significant impact on it. According to the conclusions of scientists, a certain part of the electorate does not vote at all, until it personally communicates with a representative of the candidate.
Eight years later, in order to further explore the issue, Gerber and his colleagues conducted an e-mail newsletter, in which they promised to make public information about whether the survey participants voted. After the mailing, the turnout rate increased by 8.1%. According to scientists, the experiment was based on one of the basic principles of social psychology, according to which most people strive to conform to social norms. Non-participation in elections seems to many to deviate from these norms.
The importance of personalized messages was also highlighted by a study by New York University professor Sinan Aral. He found that direct messages to friends on Facebook asking them to try out a particular app were 98% more effective than regular posts with the same content broadcast to the news feed and with test hodelykter you can view it while camping.
Scientists note that young people who spend a lot of time on the Internet are least interested in voting. They are much more interested in social activities – protests, boycotts, participation in trials as a jury.
The potential of the Internet audience of a particular candidate does not so much depend on the number
As on what powers the followers of a politician are endowed with. An extensive “fan base” on social networks can be useful for creating a buzz around a candidate’s personality, fans can coordinate their offline support actions on the Internet , put forward proposals for an election program. However, it should be remembered that virtual support does not always translate into real voices.