The Agency Opportunity: Helping Brands Win in the GEO Landscape
Generative AI is becoming the front door to information, and the rules of visibility and influence are being rewritten in real time. For agencies, this is not only disruption, it is opportunity.
Our Hold the Front Page report with Purposeful Relations finds that earned media from trusted journalistic sources is now the single most powerful influence on how AI models describe and recommend brands. News coverage has become structured data for machines, the stories you place today are the inputs shaping tomorrow’s AI generated answers.
From SEO to GEO, a new frontier
Search changed everything. SEO became a specialist craft, while PR adapted slowly. Today we are at another crossroads. GEO unites storytelling with machine logic. It is not about gaming systems, it is about teaching AI what credibility looks like, with recency, relevance, and reputation carrying the most weight.
Agencies are perfectly positioned to lead. Influencing AI requires authentic storytelling, factual precision, reputation management, and consistent distribution across credible outlets, exactly the skills great PR and comms teams already bring. GEO adds a layer of structure and verification so that content is readable by people and machines.
Building algorithmic equity
Brands that earn strong, positive, and frequent coverage in reputable media are far more likely to be recommended inside AI platforms. PR output does not just shape perception, it shapes the answers machines give. Agencies that help brands achieve consistent, high quality editorial visibility are building algorithmic equity, one credible citation at a time.
Why 72Point
72Point bridges the gap between brand ambition and media authority. Our network and editorial expertise deliver mass media coverage in trusted sources, which is exactly what generative engines reward. We help partners future proof their reputation strategies by combining creative storytelling, credible journalism, and GEO ready distribution.
The next wave of influence will not be bought, it will be earned, structured, and surfaced by AI. Agencies that recognise this will become indispensable partners to brands navigating the generative era. The opportunity is now, and we are perfectly positioned to help you seize it.
If you'd like to discuss this further, drop me a line paul.billingham@72point.com
Snapchat and Infographics
By Evelina Peterson
A demand for visual news bites on social media apps such as Snapchat is giving infographics a new lease of life.
Graphic visualisations of research and insights came to the fore on the back of the online news boom, giving editors a dynamic piece of content that is appealing to internet audiences.
But now they have found new avenues thanks to various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and, most recently, Snapchat.
Thanks to the new ‘Discover’ channels, graphic statistics and news content have taken on a more important role as publishers strive to reach a more millennial audience.
As a platform that is more intimate and absorbing than other social networks, infographics have found a more natural fit on Snapchat’s easily-to-consume news channels, and it’s an area that is playing into the hands of PR firms.
Chocolate gets snapped
A recent 72Point story distributed on behalf VoucherCodes garnered significant traction after it was picked up by The Sun’s discovery channel on Snapchat.
With a reported 150 million daily-active users on the channel it demonstrated tremendous value for money for the client, driving users to a wide spread of online coverage.
Senior Designer Matt Harvey from 72Point, emphasises the success of infographics, saying: “Content marketers are well aware of the value of visuals like infographics as they increase engagement that connect your audience to your brand.”
“To maximise engagement and their value it is important to tailor infographics for the platform they are published on and supply in formats that are easy for editors to use.
“For example supplying infographics as one image but also design it so it can be split into sections, providing options and maximising the chance of pickup.”
“It is also important to strike a balance between creating content that is engaging but also uses a visual style that ties the content to the brand”
Why Infographics?
One of the most powerful aspects of an infographic is the way that colour can be used to help suggest which emotion should be felt by the reader, therefore making the content seem more personal and connecting the individual to the information being processed.
This can be deemed particularly important as readers don’t want to be ‘sold’ to but expect the brands they associate with to enhance their experience with useful resources, which is exactly where infographics come in to play.
At 72Point we always aim to target our infographics to specific audiences to make the graphic as captivating as possible in order to catch the eye of other audiences.
Research by MIT, which conducted an extensive study on the way the human brain processes visual information, revealed that poorly designed infographics are useless to the brain, no matter how interesting they are.
As users demand more special interest content that is in bitesize format and easily digestible the need to keep up with methods of presenting ideas will increasingly become mission-critical.
Get in touch to see how we can help you today, and to follow 72Point’s new Snapchat channel, please see @ThisIs72Point.
GDPR inbox avalanche
Sun Consumer Writer Jane Hamilton on why the avalanche of GDPR emails is nothing compared to a journalists' average day...
BURIED under an avalanche of GDPR emails? How many do you reckon you’ve received? 100? 250? More than 500? Well that’s fewer than an average morning’s in-box worth for a national news journalist.
The forthcoming data-rules change has unleashed a deluge of emails on ordinary Brits causing ‘in-box rage’ and mass deletions - but this is something us journalists deal with every single day.
While the emailed press release remains a useful tool in the PR armoury, public relations firms are always stunned - and a little shocked - when I reveal just how many we journalists actually receive.
As a national hack writing on issues covering consumer to careers and parenting to property, my ‘beat’ sees from 400 to over 1,000 releases drop in relentlessly each day. And on a ‘calendar occasion’ such as Black Friday or a Bank Holiday, this escalates to an out of control level, topping the 2,000 mark.
When you consider an eight-hour working day contains just 480 minutes, you don’t have to be a maths whiz to work out there’s no time to read them all.
And don’t get me started on follow-up calls - I really don’t need 1,000 of those a day.
Instead - and in common with almost every other journalist I know - we skim, select ones from our key contacts, or seek out the top-line tales which look like they will work.
It hasn’t always been this way. Even five years ago, in-boxes were manageable; we had time to spend with key contacts and agencies, and were able to spend more time crafting exclusives.
But staff cutbacks and the demand for rolling online content means every journo now needs to pen more stories in less time. And interestingly, fewer hacks has meant more PRs - and more releases - as ex-wordsmiths swap careers and head to the darkside.
Recent figures revealed since 2013, the number of PRs has risen by 50 per cent, while the number of journalists has fallen by nine per cent. This trend will only continue, so how can we manage it so it works for both sides?
Firstly, however grumpy a journo is, most of us do need - and even rely - on PRs. A good PR who understands your readers and your ‘patch’ is a very valued contact. Aim to be that PR who we will answer the phone to.
Secondly, a release has got to be what the publication wants - not what the client wants. It has to be a ‘new news’ story to entertain and inform a readership or viewer.
Thirdly, If the client wants it a certain way and won’t bend, remember YOU are the expert. If the client could do it himself, he would and save paying you. He can’t, so work on him until he takes your advice. Client won’t budge? Then he needs an advert, not PR.
Fourthly, craft it like a news story. Help me out and give me the ‘who, what, why, where and when’ it the top paragraph. Don’t give me the client’s company mission statement.
Finally, you may have the best release in the world, but if it gets missed, it won’t get in. With in-boxes clogged, sadly it does happen. Targeting and delivery is everything, so aim to build a relationship with your key journos so we open whatever you send. Or use a purpose-built delivery agency like 72Point who guarantee to get your story under the nose of news editors.
I hope this has helped and I’m happy to chat further with you if you’d like to talk more. Just put in the email subject line that it’s an important one for me to read!
Trust, Transparency and Traditional Media
Why these are the top takeaways for brands right now
Although the advent of digital news was supposed to – and to some extent has – heralded an end to the finite number of pages that once restricted the profession, it has also given birth to new challenges as brands go in search of meaningful metrics in a landscape where the demand for column inches has seldom been so great.
Last month a new readership measurement standard for the news publishing industry was launched to give a single, “de-duplicated” view across all platforms to publishers and advertisers.
Compared to the NRS, which is a print-focused survey with digital figures taken in addition, Pamco offers a breakdown by platform across print, phone (mobile), tablet and desktop, giving a “total brand reach” that is more robust than the measurements used to date which are subject to generous interpretation and easily corrupted by cookies and bots.
As NMA chairman David Dinsmore said, the measurement keeps news brands in “top position when it comes to transparency” in an age when the measurement of some media is “highly questionable”.
The results of the survey will make for daunting reading for some, because at their heart they show a renewed reliance from consumers on traditional publishers. The Sun was revealed to be the most read news brand in the UK, followed by the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, all of which boast more than 25 million monthly readers.
It means that an increasing number of brands will consider the success of a campaign based on its ability to make a splash in the national press, but with a tsunami of content blocking the way a splash can easily become a drip if due care isn’t taken, which can be a hard pill to swallow after countless hours of creative work and client liaisons.
Which is why we include national media exposure as a guarantee with all our packages at 72Point. Thanks to our heritage as part of the SWNS Media Group and our ability to work content so that it has mainstream media appeal we have an unrivalled money-back pledge on our projects, which is underpinned by our confidence in our creative.
We are compelled by design to put integrity at the heart of everything we do, as our content is used by the vast majority of national publications, making up for a significant percentage of “front of the book” stories. We don’t publish overtly branded stories and have to pass rigorous controls carried out by news editors to get the story filed, and the media trust us as a result.
But we would be nothing if it was not for the ingenuity of the team to deliver content that works across publications and across channels. 72Point is made up of top flight media experts and PR professionals who make up an enviable hub of creativity. We have former print news editors, a current online news editor and a range of ex-media talent that ensures we deliver projects that are stitched up from both sides, with the best creative being delivered with unrivalled access to the media.
It’s a combination that couldn’t be more apt in today’s media environment. According to this year’s State of the Media survey by Cision, which polled 1,355 journalists from across six countries on their perceptions of the media and communications industries, journalists rely on public relations partners now more than ever, with the traditional press release being the most trusted piece of content.
In an age where budgets are thin and brands are increasingly being relied on to fund content generation, the results are hardly surprising. Out of all the issues the industry is facing, 28 per cent of the journalists surveyed said staffing and resources were the biggest challenges in the industry over the last 12 months.
But before we start popping the champagne corks it is worth considering what this actually means for the PR industry. For a start, this isn’t a call to start bombarding hacks with every piece of ill-conceived content you can get your hands on. It doesn’t mean we should pick up the phone every two minutes and busy the already chaotic desks with more queries. Rather, we should pick out the warnings in this report to unveil where we can really make a difference, and at the top of the list for journalists is sending stories with a “clearly stated news hook” and content that’s “accurate, newsworthy and can be used to enhance their coverage”.
As a result of renewed scrutiny of the sea of content that surrounds us - successful PR needs a more robust benchmark. The smoke and mirrors of digital reach is no longer giving brands the ROI they need. Trusted content in trusted media outlets is what's important now as brands demand more transparency with their campaigns. This is our USP, and it is why, increasingly, 72Point is been seen as a direct line to the news desk.
The Art of Keeping Things Simple
We all know it - simple is best. It is a cross-industry fact that the most successful businessmen and women, musicians, sports people, journalists, media companies and indeed Meerkat comparison sites all have one thing in common; They focus on doing the simple things well. I myself have had countless debates and full blown arguments with friends on what is the main stumbling block for creatives, and we always agree that it often boils down to an urge to make things unnecessarily complex. And the same can be said for pretty much any profession.
On JOE’s recent podcast interview with Eric Cantona, the iconic former Manchester United footballer said; “Simplicity is the most difficult thing, like in football, the most difficult thing is to score a goal when 11 players touch the ball once and the last one puts the ball in the back of the net, so simple but so difficult.” What he’s implying is that simplicity is difficult to obtain and harder to maintain, but that’s where the creative and productive energy lies, not in over-complicating things to the point of losing their essence but in bringing them back to basics.
Musicians have echoed his thoughts, stating that the biggest hits have come from the simplest of writing processes, rather than almost trying too hard to create an obscure piece of art that, again, will not engage the average listener. Oasis’s Noel Gallagher, speaking to Evening Standard on the smash success of his debut solo album As You Were, had this to say on the matter; “It’s been mega. It’s not curing cancer. but there’s an appetite for a good album. The world moves so f***ing fast and everyone’s trying to reinvent the f***ing wheel. I’m not interested — the wheel’s alright.” It’s a typically honest observation from one of the most recognisable and successful figures in modern British music.
Film is another industry to suffer from over-complexity with more and more producers losing key audiences due to their commitment to creating works of art that are just so convoluted that they only appeal to a finite number of people. Anyone who had the misfortune of watching The Cloverfield Paradox earlier this year will know what I mean.
Unfortunately, in the increasingly tech-dominant media world we live in, the art of keeping things simple can also fall by the wayside amongst a myriad of complex techniques thought up to maximise reach to a target audience. Which is why here at 72Point, we let the content and coverage speak for itself.
Cision’s state of the media report indicates that if there’s one thing PR professionals can do to help journalists do their jobs better it is to ensure that any press releases they do send out have a clearly stated news hook. That was something 45 per cent of respondents said when asked how press releases can be more efficient. Writing conversationally is also important, as 27 per cent indicated that they dislike press releases that feel templated and include jargon. More simple quotes and multimedia elements would help, too.
An effective press release is creative and intriguing but for it to convey a message then it has to be simple enough for people to understand - something that is often forgotten in the PR industry. Toiling over creative briefs for weeks-on-end searching for the most complex idea wastes time and energy and often results in a solution that misses the mark because it’s far too convoluted to engage the general public.
It stands to reason that key messaging of clients could be potentially lost amongst a sea of confusing copy in a press release. At 72Point, our brilliant creative team craft stories with a dedication to simplicity, knowing that it’s what journalists want, and the results speak for themselves, with 5,269 pieces of coverage and 635,297 social shares in 2017 alone. When you know you have a winning formula, why over-complicate it?
Why a strong content base should be part of your marketing strategy
Traditional marketing is becoming less effective by the day. Instead of simply pitching your services and products to potential clients, the way to achieve vital cut-through now is to provide them with truly relevant and useful content that gives them actionable insight.
The Content Marketing Institute’s annual research reveals that the vast majority of marketers are including content marketing as part of their strategy. They state that there are three key benefits for any enterprise that utilises content marketing, which include increased sales, cost savings and better customers who have more loyalty.
These are absolute no-brainers as to why content marketing should be a key aspect of your strategy. At the end of the day, marketing is impossible without quality, engaging content, so if you devise a strong content base to your overarching strategy then all aspects will greatly benefit.
Social Media, SEO, PR, PPC and inbound marketing are just some of the strategies that can be boosted by utilising clever content marketing. Using a diverse range of rich media serves to keep your customers engaged and grabs their attention instantly.
Infographics, videos, embeddable quizzes, animations and images are all methods in which you can provide customers with relevant high-quality content that can improve their loyalty to you and boost your brand exposure.
Here at 72Point, our in-house design team provide a comprehensive content marketing offering.
We worked in collaboration with Freuds on their social campaign for NHS England, putting together a number of assets including several animated GIF’s, static graphics and a short animation. This provided NHS with great content that was posted across their Twitter channels, and by various other health organisations - raising awareness of the services available via NHS111 and delivering the key messaging of their campaign in a creative way.
The team also crafted an animation for The Department of Culture, Media and Sport as part of their ‘free wifi’ campaign, which saw over 1,000 public buildings in cities across the UK transformed into free wifi hotspots, supporting their larger #BuildingBritain campaign. The package included a 45 second animation and a GIF of the final sequence. As well as this, we supported the campaign by providing social media graphics to be used by public organisations, raising awareness of the campaign.
Our infographics are divided into five different pieces, meaning that they can be posted out at different times across different social channels, providing clients with plenty of longevity on their campaigns, whilst our animations are perfectly tailored for social in length and design.
Whether you are looking for a high-quality social project to maximise your brand exposure (take a look at our breakthrough package here), or a clever piece of visual content to embed on your website or post across your social channels, 72Point should be your one-stop shop for all content marketing needs.
The future of digital media is in the North - here's why
The future of digital media is in the North - here's why
In what is being dubbed a “digital migration” in the industry, many media organisations that once housed their digital functions in London are migrating to the North of the country.
Although the shift can be attributed to a number of factors, early signs that London has been caught napping while the digital revolution took hold are certainly there.
According to one recruitment consultant there has been a significant increase in the demand for experienced digital professionals throughout the north, with Leeds a particular hotbed for such talent over the years.
Here's how the north positioned itself as the chief beneficiary of a digital migration.
The Past
There once was a time when London had a monopoly over the media industry. In fact, so concentrated was the media landscape that in 2003 the government was forced to intervene with the Communications Act, which required a proportion of programmes by the UK’s main broadcasters be made outside the M25. This acted as a catalyst for big media moving to the north.
The Present
Fast forward to today and the news on the media front is that Salford outranked both London and Manchester to become the UK’s top city for starting a new business in 2017. Sunderland also laid claim to the most new tech businesses in the UK, with the turnover of digital tech businesses in the city growing by 101 per cent between 2011 and 2015.
This is even further exemplified by the fact that nearly 70 per cent of total UK digital tech investment was in regional clusters beyond London, with Edinburgh (£159 million), Manchester (£78 million) and Sheffield (£61 million) among the notable recipients.
Significantly, digital employment in Sheffield and South Yorkshire stands at over 21,000 and digital firms in the region boast one of the highest growth rates of any cluster in the UK, with turnover increasing at 47 per cent.
In Birmingham, there are already an estimated 50,000 creative workers in the city area, and more than 5,800 companies. Little wonder, therefore, that Birmingham successfully lobbied to gain more investment from the BBC in the same vein as Salford by pitching itself as "young, diverse and digital".
The Future
The impact of Media City’s introduction to the wider region and the rate of growth should not be understated, as thousands of start-ups now rub shoulders with the likes of the BBC and Channel 4, who headquarter in the city.
It would appear the only way is up for the region. In 2016 a £1 billion plan to double the size of MediaCityUK was given the green light. Moreover, according to a study by DueDil, if Salford maintains its startup growth rate, the city could be on course to produce 5,286 new businesses this year alone, a huge increase of 2,436 from the previous year.
According to Stuart Clarke, who headed up the Leeds Digital Festival in June 2016, Leeds has the potential to become ‘digital capital of Europe.’ Thanks in part to the rising costs of running a business in London an increasing amount of start-ups are heading to Yorkshire to capitalise on its burgeoning digital sector. The Leeds University backed SPARK programme supports student entrepreneurs, while Futurelabs, Duke Studios, Leeds Beckett Digital Hub and ODI Leeds provide space and networking opportunities. A £3.7 million grant from Leeds City Council will be divided between innovative tech projects, and Creative England backed Gameslab Leeds will continue to support games studios in the area.
The North East is also in the process of handing the keys to the region over to tech-savvy Millennials. The IPPR “State of the North” report pointed to the opportunities afforded by the creative and tech sectors in the region that will necessitate more digital skills. Sunderland now has the highest rate of digital tech business startups in the country, while Newcastle and Middlesbrough both have higher birth rates than the national average – with a hotbed of IT and digital talent and creativity there to welcome firms who take a punt on the country’s chilly North East.
In Birmingham, the digital scene is thriving with the youthfulness and diversity of its workforce, as Under 25s make up 40 per cent of the population, making it among the youngest cities in Europe with an increasing supply of talent for media firms operating in the digital space.
Conclusion
With the secret now out, it will be interesting to see how aggressive this migration is set to be. Although London is undoubtedly important to the Digital Media sector, it seems like the tide has turned to the North with only greater growth expected in 2018.
72Point's Jack Peat will be leading Prolific North Live’s Digital Keynote Theatre on 28th February and 1st March, for more details, see https://live.prolificnorth.co.uk/.
Banksy blunder - The benefit of hindsight
It’s not quite as bad as being the man who failed to sign the Beatles but sometimes, as I crawl to work through Bristol traffic on a dismal Monday morning, it feels that way.
In the late 90s, I began to notice funny and subversive graffiti emerging around the city. A rat here, a clown there, a thought-provoking stencilled slogan amid a scrabble of tags.
One particularly striking image appeared overnight on the side of a pub next to our old office on Hotwells Road opposite the SS Great Britain. It was of a screaming clown with Kiss-style eye make-up, toting two pistols. For some unaccountable reason it cheered me up every time I saw it.
While talking one day with a pal who owned a skateboard store off Park Street, I learned that the artist responsible was known as Banksy. I filed the information away and continued to enjoy his work as it cropped up throughout Bristol, experiencing a kind of old school ‘I Spy’ thrill every time I found one.
Fast forward to 2000, and the announcement that Banksy was making the move towards the more traditional medium of canvas, and marking this with an exhibition at the Severnshed restaurant. I went along. Although many of the paintings bore red ‘sold’ stickers (prices were in the high hundreds, rather than today’s astronomical figures) the event itself, it seemed to me, was sparsely attended.
I met and chatted with Banksy’s then manager Robert Birse, in the course of which I was invited to visit the man’s studio, which I jumped at.
If memory serves, the near-derelict space was tucked away in Bedminster. I’d persuaded my news editor that there was something very interesting going on here, although the Banksy phenomenon was still a long way off.
During the course of the visit, I enthused as was shown various canvasses, including one particularly strong image – an elephant with a missile strapped to its back, against a vivid pink background.
“The frame on that one is slightly off,” said Robert. “If you hold it up you’ll see it’s a bit skew-iff.”
It was. It meant it wouldn’t hang completely flat. “Still amazing though,” I replied.
Robert thought for a moment and then said: “Well, you could have that one for a reduced rate, if you like.”
“So … how much?”
“Say £300?”
Now, at the time I was a pretty hard-up reporter with three children to support and another on the way. Three hundred quid bought a lot of nappies and Wet Wipes. But still …
“Yes,” I said. “But is it OK if I give you a cheque for £100 now and pay the rest over the next couple of months?”
He agreed, and I loaded the piece into the back of my battered Peugeot 205.
Back at the office, I phoned my wife and – having spent the journey back planning the best way of pitching the purchase (investment/it’s beautiful/it’ll cover that dodgy bit of plastering in the front room) – recounted the tale.
An ominous silence. A reaaaalllllllly long, ominous silence. Then: “You know we can’t afford it, so I don’t even know why you’d consider this. It’ll have to go back. And you need to get the bloke to tear up the cheque before he banks it.”
The channel for negotiation had clanged shut. I muttered something about a loan, or perhaps borrowing some money from a parent or a mate, but we were already overdrawn to the hilt, and this was met with a dangerous snort.
So back it went.
I’ve tried to “take a positive” from this over the years, but I can’t. I experience a pang – actually it’s more of a stab – every time I read about a Banksy selling at auction, or something like the wonderful Dismaland opening its rusty doors to the public.
If there’s anything I learned from my own very personal Banksygate it’s this. If you love a piece of art for what you believe it to be – something you love – then buy it, if you reasonably can. Absurd as it sounds now, I genuinely didn’t have the spending power at the time, but I guess I could have rustled up the cash somehow.
The other thing I take comfort and joy from is that I can still see and enjoy Banksys every day, in the streets here in Bristol. He even painted a commemorative flower over the trigger-happy clown on Hotwells Road, which always raises a smile. I see them every day, and they’re free.
The Joy of Print
Having spent my entire career working in digital media, it may seem like a counterintuitive move to eulogise the great tactile thrill I get from thumbing through my favourite print journal - each new page the ultimate soul-cleansing elixir.
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my now scarily close to 40 years on this planet, it’s that whatever I’m saying, doing and thinking, there’s someone else in the world going through exactly the same experience – perspectives on print’s function and importance are beginning to converge.
Scratching around for any advantage to being ancient, I can remember the birth of content marketing programmes, when print programmes were being hastily transitioned to ‘all media’ equivalents with a view to binning print altogether.
Though video, visual and bitesize social content has since thrived and become an essential mainstay of any marketing mix, print has miraculously survived, much in the format I hoped it would.
Limited run, custom-bound, meticulously crafted and curated magazines are all around us, ranging from cultural beacons like Oh Comely to hybrid travel and fashion mags like Suitcase and Cereal, via the literary darkness of The Alarmist and Australia’s greatest ever export, Dumbo Feather.
As ever, a large factor in this particular pleasure is the chase, with coquettish glimpses of new titles catapulted into my social feeds on a daily basis – Avaunt being the latest, a beautifully-shot bible for global adventurers.
The key difference between then and now for print publishers is innovation – magazines are being marketed and distributed in ways only the social age could facilitate. This is a true marriage of analogue and digital – and it’s exciting.
Take Stack, for example, the subscription service that handpicks the best independent magazines from around the world relevant to your interests and delivers them to your door, but trains its marketing crosshairs on social, digital and radio.
Also consider Airbnb’s initial foray into print, Pineapple, which has been used by the brand to unite its community with an elegance the social web can’t compete with. Hosts and travellers collaborate on stories that form the magazine’s editorial spine, creating an axis of expedition and anthropology that digital publishing would struggle to articulate.
With big names in youth publishing like Hypetrak getting their print on, not to mention Tyler, the Creator and Frank Ocean releasing print magazines alongside their latest albums, I’m beginning to wonder whether print could actually outlive websites?
With social content hosting and custom print in the ascendency, traditional websites have never looked more clunky and anachronistic.
The Social Media Election. Was this it?
Five years ago, at the time of the last general election, I was studying for my undergraduate degree. For the first time ever I felt the election buzz. Although I personally wasn’t that interested, I found myself surrounded by people who couldn’t shut up about it, and everyone, of course, was voting Lib Dem.
This time around things are different. I’m back at home, fully employed and paying attention due to my own genuine interest. This is in no small part down to the role of Social Media (and hours of TV satire and a determination to not let full time muppet and general pain in the arse, Nigel Farage have any sort of power). The role of social media in this election has been much anticipated. We’ve already seen how social media can be used to reflect the way votes are likely to go in our own light-hearted infographic. However it is the use of social media to attract and persuade voters and to promote the campaigns of individual parties which has stirred up all the fuss.
The 2015 election has been dubbed ‘the social media election’. This was partly due to the speculation and anticipation due to the rise in Social media’s popularity over the last five years. 5 million people have joined Twitter alone in the years since Britain last went to the polls. This has been key for political parties. It meant that parties and politicians had a direct way of speaking to people without having to trawl the streets. This was good for two reasons. Firstly it meant that the powerful elite of our society didn’t have to go into areas where people shop in Aldi rather than Fortnum and Masons. Secondly, it meant that they could target specific demographics at the touch of a button. In particular they could target youths, or as they’re known in Westminster, ‘bloody hoodies’. Youths are not a group politicians normally go near for fear of being mugged or stabbed but now they could talk to them without fear of physical contact.
The televised debates in the last election boosted turn out by 65%, but only 44% of young people (aged 18-24) turned out to vote. It would therefore be amiss of parties not to take advantage of a primarily young person’s medium to reach this audience. It was revealed fairly early on that our current lord and master, Mr Cameron and his Conservatives had spent £100,000 pounds on Facebook advertising, ten times that of Labour and 1000 times that of UKIP. A recent article in the Guardian stated that Facebook has the potential to reach 9.2 million young people with one post and with UK adults spending a minimum of 1.33 hours on social media, spending obscene amounts on these platforms isn’t exactly a bad idea.
But it’s not just paid promotion and it’s not just Facebook. Politicians have taken to Twitter to personally promote key party policies (or at least their social media managers have). This means for the first time in living history, politicians have been forced into giving short concise answers and policy announcements.
Parties have also embraced the ways of YouTube. As you can imagine this means a lot of clips of speeches and cringe worthy videos of politicians looking to camera giving heart felt speeches “to you, the voter” *VOM*. The Conservatives channel is particularly bad for this. The video of David Cameron welcoming you to the channel actually makes me physically look away as if I were watching a man on Embarrassing Bodies with some disgusting skin complaint. Labour’s channel is marginally more watchable. It displays a great deal more personality. For example the featured video is of Miliband playing pool with snooker favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan. In fact celebrity support is something that Labour play on quite heavily with their channel featuring videos from people such as Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and Jo Brand. The Lib Dem videos on the other hand focus very much more on the general public. Their featured video is the Clegg Meister visiting a school, followed by a video of him visiting animals. Everyone together now…awwwww.
Despite this use of social media many say that the ‘Social media election’ never came to fruition. The build-up has even been described as ‘routine, predictable and over cautious’. If that weren’t bad enough much of it has been unpleasant.
This is particularly evident on Twitter . Twitter as a PR and marketing tool can be and has been successful. For example a recent Twitter campaign prompted the petition to get leaders from smaller parties involved in the leaders’ debates. However much of the party campaigning consists of mocking and bitching about other party leaders. A perfect example of this is the Twitter feed of the one and only Boris Johnson. Bo-Jo’s feed consists mainly of jibes at Miliband, with his tweet referring to Miliband’s wall of policies being a personal highlight (see image). 
Obviously all parties’ campaigns feature a certain number of put downs but this election is being referred to as one of the ugliest campaigns in history. One therefore has to wonder whether Twitter is doing nothing more than making things worse. After all with Twitter you get trolls. The only thing that gets met through the Twitter bitching is the hope that there is a Malcom Tucker figure behind the scenes taking control of people’s mobiles and blasting them with a particularly taboo outburst.
I think, on reflection though, social media has played a huge part this time round. Yes it might not have been ‘the Social media election’ that we were all promised but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. If nothing else, it has shown how seriously we should take social media as a platform and the benefits of social media advertising. That’s something businesses can take out of this election regardless of the outcome. If Twitter promotion and campaigning is good enough to get you to run the country it’s good enough to get you some business and get your message out there.
Furthermore Stephen Coleman, professor of political communication at the University of Leeds, commented that traditional methods of party promotion, primarily newspapers, are being disregarded time and time again by readers who are desensitised to it. This also applies to the mounds and mounds of party leaflets we get through our doors which seems to have reached frankly ridiculous levels this year. Therefore it makes sense that other methods of campaigning should be introduced, if only to pump a little fresh blood into the election build up. Remember the last election, the so called ‘TV election’ that saw the first ever live TV debates that boosted voter turn out by over half? What I’m essentially saying is that when it comes to getting your message out there you can no longer just rely on one platform to do so. It’s very much a multi-platform world that we live in and as a result campaigns, political or not, can only benefit from multi-platform content. Just remember to make it nice. The place for trolling is in fairytales. Not the internet. Or the Hopkins residence.
(All of the above views are mine, not the company’s…or are they?! Yes, they are.
