As more and more of the world is
experienced online, social media platforms are playing larger roles in the
distribution of information about electoral processes, especially for young
people. According to a study by the American Press Institute, “millennials” (in
the study, Americans aged between 18 and 34) receive 74 per cent of their news
from the internet and – of that percentage – 88 per cent from Facebook alone.[i] A
number of politicians in Western countries have embraced Twitter and Instagram.
For many young people, social media
is their first point of contact with friends, family, news, research, and
information. It is a way for young people to build new connections and make
their voices heard. EMBs need to pass their information through social networks
on which young voters are particularly active, such as Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, YouTube, Bambuser, Vimeo, Tik Tok, WhatsApp, blogs, Flickr, LinkedIn
and Google+. Highly targeted approaches are needed to engage the young
electorate in electoral processes. This is increasingly important due to
misinformation and hate speech circulating in the online space. Given the scale
and scope of youth engagement with social media, which will likely continue to
grow in the foreseeable future, these platforms have the potential to become
valuable and effective tools to inform young people about all aspects of
elections, including in real-time.
To date, the level of engagement of EMBs with social media platforms and
their online followers has remained rather low. A survey conducted by
International IDEA in 2013 revealed that out of 172 countries and territories,
only 55 EMBs (31.9 percent) had Facebook pages, and of these 55 only 49 showed
any sign of current Facebook activity. The corresponding number for Twitter
showed that 47 EMBs (27 percent) had Twitter accounts. The number of Twitter
followers ranged from a high of 250,117 (with Latin American EMBs being the
most active Twitter users) to a low of only
two.[ii]
Many EMBs, however, have started to capitalize on the advantages offered by
the digital world, including by acknowledging the important role social media
play in reaching out to youth. What they often find is that developing and
implementing successful social media strategies is time-consuming and requires
staff with strong communication skills who are familiar with different social
media platforms. As social media is a competitive environment — and many EMBs
have only recently using social media
tools — it often makes
sense for them to reach
out to young social media experts to assist with developing
strong social media campaigns combining different platforms. The examples below
show successful online campaigns.
Example: In
the run-up to the 2014 elections, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South
Africa launched the IXSA (“I Vote South Africa”)
campaign to encourage youth registration,
participation and engagement. The campaign was rolled out on television, radio
and the internet, and featured celebrities and other citizens discussing their
commitment to vote. The Commission recruited a team of three social media
content creators to further engage with youth on Facebook, Mxit,
and Twitter. The number
of users who ‘liked’
the Commission’s Facebook
page increased from 1,400 to 10,000 during
the first 24 hours
of the campaign. Similarly, the first 10 days brought about 16,000 new
followers to the Commission’s Twitter account. By March 2015 the Commission had
attracted 220,000 and 70,000 followers to its Facebook and Twitter accounts, respectively.[iii]
Example: Faced with an underrepresentation of
youth in voter lists and a low registration percentage,[iv] the
UK Electoral Commission teamed up with Facebook
in 2016 to inform young people about registration procedures. One week before
the deadline for registration in 2016, a reminder was added to the Facebook
news feed of people eligible to register to vote, directing them to register
via the gov.uk portal. Additionally, the Electoral Commission, in collaboration
with the National Union of Students, in 2016 launched the online campaign
#RegAFriend, which is intended to give people the opportunity to get their
friends registered to vote.[v]
Example: In preparation for New Zealand’s 2017 election, publisher Newshub
released a short series called Ticked Off
on Facebook in order to specifically reach the “missing million” young people
old enough to vote but choosing not to. The series featured short videos on the
different political parties and the structure of the country’s parliament, as
well as how to vote.[vi]
Example: Before the 2017 Indian election,
the Election Commission of India partnered with Facebook to add a reminder to
vote as an attachment to the site’s automated birthday wishes when users turned
18. The reminder – available in 13 languages – was accompanied by a “Register
Now” option linking to the National Voters’ Services Portal.[vii]
Example: In Kyrgyzstan before the 2016 election, the National Democratic Institute worked
with the Political Processes Program to run a competition in which entrants
made Facebook posts encouraging their friends and family to vote. Some videos
were viewed more than 150,000 times, an impressive number considering there are
about 168,000 Facebook users registered in Kyrgyzstan. Competition winner Dastan Niazov’s message was clear:
“We have to make our voices heard now … I am going to vote, and you?”[viii]
YouTube is another popular platform
with youth, reaching more 18–49-year-olds than any single cable network on
mobile devices alone.[ix] YouTube has a higher reach for sharing videos than its competitors, with
users watching approximately 1 billion hours of content each day – more than
Facebook video and Netflix combined.
Example: National Democratic Institute’s Citizen
Participation and Political Parties teams hosted an online discussion called a
TweetTalk on International Youth Day in 2018. Participants shared ideas and
examples of how political parties can support youth political participation
through the hashtag “#YouthParty” on Twitter. “The goals of the TweetTalk were
to connect the political party development community, academics, NDI Staff,
political party members, and members of the democracy development and youth
inclusion communities; and to give those communities a platform to share ideas,
best practices, and lessons learned about how parties can support youth
political participation.” More information is available at https://www.demworks.org/crowdsourcing-ideas-international-youth-day-tweettalk-youth-and-political-parties.
Example: In preparation for the U.S. election
in 2016, 80 percent of presidential candidates created content specifically for
YouTube in addition to the previously successful 30-second ad campaigns shown
on television. Many “YouTubers” (internet celebrities whose main or only
platform is a YouTube channel) used their platform to make public their
political views in the lead-up to the election and encouraged their audience to
vote accordingly.
Example: In 2016, 53 percent
of the Mexico’s population was younger than 30. The International Republican
Institute (IRI) supported the #MeGustaQueVotes (I Like that You Vote) campaign,
which used social media to educate youth about the importance of understanding
candidate platforms and engaging continuously in political dialogue.[x]
Although their rising prominence is
usually a positive development, social media platforms are also used in
negative and destructive ways — e.g., to misinform the public with selective
and incomplete coverage, spread rumors and false information, and call for
violent protest. EMBs and the media must be prepared to swiftly counter false
information and take necessary actions against those who are behaving
irresponsibly by misleading citizens throughout an electoral process.
Furthermore, there are many barriers
affecting the use of social media. Cost and lack of access to smart phones,
cost of accessing data, and an imperfect national signal grid are foremost
among these.
[i] Media
Insight Project, "How Millennials
Get News: Inside the Habits of America’s First Digital Generation,"
(American Press Institute, March 16, 2015), https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/millennials-news/.
[iii] International
IDEA, Youth
Participation in Electoral Processes: New Roles for African Electoral
Management Bodies, policy brief, (International IDEA, November 24, 2015),
https://www.idea.int/publications/catalogue/youth-participation-electoral-processes-new-roles-african-electoral.
[v] Electoral Commission of the UK, "Time is Running
Out."Electoral Commission of the UK, "Time is Running Out."
[vi] Erin McKenzie, "Getting the Youth to Tick: How Newshub's
Engaging Young Voters," StopPress
NZ, June 16, 2017,
http://stoppress.co.nz/features/getting-youth-tick-how-newshubs-engaging-young-voters
2017.
[vii] Indo Asian News Service, "Election Commission of India
Partners With Facebook to Encourage Youth to Vote," Hindustan Times,
updated November 28, 2017,
https://www.hindustantimes.com/tech/election-commission-of-india-teams-up-with-facebook-to-encourage-youth-to-vote/story-20EHyuUjoTAYPIrah5r4OO.html.
[viii] USAID, "Kyrgyz Youth Use Social Media to Promote the
Vote," (USAID, updated May 2, 2018),
https://www.usaid.gov/results-data/success-stories/kyrgyz-youth-successfully-utilize-social-media-encourage-participation.
[ix] Eric Young, "How Millennials Get News," (The Media Insight Project, 2015),
http://www.mediainsight.org/PDFs/Millennials/Millennials%20Report%20FINAL.pdf.
[x] https://www.democracyspeaks.org/blog/political-participation-doesn%E2%80%99t-end-ballot-box
