On Thursday, the leaders of seven of the United Kingdom’s main political parties took part in a historic television debate hosted by ITV. This election is recognised as the first national election in Britain where social media will play a critical role. Though many of the candidates were using social media in their 2010 campaigning, it was novel rather than the norm; now it is necessary, at least for most.
Monitoring 2,077 Twitter accounts of candidates from each of the participating parties, Storyful found 7,962 tweets were sent during Thursday’s two-hour broadcast — an average of 66 tweets per minute, or more than one tweet every second. The social election has well and truly arrived.
Who Tweeted the Most?
We monitored the Twitter activity of candidates across all of Britain. Using information obtained from the YourNextMP database, we sorted candidates’ Twitter handles into lists based on party.
The broadcast aired live from 8pm-10pm and our findings include the hour before and after the broadcast.
Conservative candidates sent the most tweets in total, tweeting 2,313 times, with the Labour Party a close second with 2,227 tweets. However, Plaid Cymru candidates sent most tweets per head, with each of their candidates with a Twitter account sending an average of seven tweets. SNP candidates sent an average of six tweets per head, while UKIP came last, with an average of four tweets per head.
Excluding direct retweets, UKIP’s candidate for Stretford and Urmston, Kalvin Chapman, tweeted more than any other candidate, sending a total of 131 tweets in the four-hour period.
Among the more high-profile candidates with high levels of Twitter activity during the debate were two Conservative ministers: Matt Hancock and Claire Perry both sent more than 60 tweets
Who Tweeted What?
The main hashtag for the television event, #LeadersDebate, was the most used hashtag by candidates from each of the seven participating parties; however, we did find some variation in the use of other hashtags. #JustNotUpToIt, a tag frequently used by Tory supporters, was the third-most-tweeted hashtag by Conservative candidates, while #IAgreeWithNicola was popular among Scottish Nationalist Party candidates.
Monitoring what links candidates were sharing, we found, perhaps rather predictably, candidates linked most to their own party’s websites. The Conservatives demonstrated a good deal of social media savyness; staying on message, the most-shared link by their candidates was to a page on their website built specifically for the broadcast, “Six key points everyone watching #LeadersDebate needs to know.”
More to Come…
As polling day comes closer and with two more debate-type television events planned, we can expect to see candidates’ activity on social increase as more and more of the general public engage with the campaign. In total, more than a quarter of a million tweeters sent more than 1.5 million tweets about the debate while the broadcast was on air — almost 9,000 tweets a minute.
We will continue to monitor candidates’ activity on social and will be providing weekly reports identifying trends around what candidates are sharing and what it tells us about the campaign.
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