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.