In the aftermath of the UK’s recent General Election, as the campaign leaflets are packed away and a new government settles in, the digital strategies employed by political parties offer a treasure trove of insights for corporate communications teams.
One of the key themes from 2024 was the importance of speaking to people on their level. As we’ve seen, that meant memes, but it also meant a return to some less trendy fundamentals. Adapting messaging to suit candidates, providing scope for collaboration and focusing time and money on the UK’s most popular social media platform: Facebook.
Join us as we unpack the key lessons businesses can take from the winners and losers on 2024’s election battleground.
The enduring influence of Facebook
Despite proclamations of its demise, Facebook emerged as a pivotal player in the election’s digital landscape. Reform UK, a party that won five seats and finished second in 98, generated nearly 2.5 million interactions on the platform in June alone, dwarfing the Conservative Party’s 475,000, according to The Independent. This stark contrast serves as a potent reminder for all political parties and organisations: established channels should not be hastily abandoned in favour of the latest digital darling.
The collective ad spend across major parties on Meta platforms reached a staggering £6.2 million, with the Conservatives outspending Labour on their main party channels, as reported by whotargets.me. However, it’s the nuances in strategy that prove most illuminating. While the Conservatives concentrated their £1.47 million budget across just eight accounts, Labour distributed their larger £2.82 million spend over 64 accounts, effectively boosting local candidates in key constituencies.
The power of localised campaigns
That boosting of local candidates in key constituencies was perhaps the most effective element of Labour’s digital campaigning. The approach empowered local candidates to create bespoke content and engage directly with constituents, and it proved particularly fruitful. According to a Labour Party member we spoke to as part of ongoing qualitative research, one candidate’s Facebook page reportedly generated 95,000 impressions with an astounding 12.83% engagement rate over the six-week campaign period—far exceeding typical corporate engagement rates of around 2%.
Facebook Groups emerged as key battlegrounds, with supporters and candidates engaging in what was dubbed “digital door knocking”. For instance, Labour candidate Jacob Collier’s introductory post in the “Burton Life” Facebook group (55,000 members) garnered over 100 engagements and 188 comments, potentially reaching thousands of local voters. He won his seat, defeating the Conservative incumbent with 15k votes, where the Tories had held the seat since the end of the Blair and Brown years.
This success in connecting with voters through localised content underscores both the importance of tailoring messages to suit specific regions, and working collaboratively with people who understand local nuances to get the messaging right.
Narrative control vs. collaboration
Unpacking collaboration in digital campaigning reveals a fascinating contrast in approaches to message control and supporter engagement. The Conservatives opted for a highly centralised strategy, tightly controlling their messaging across a limited number of accounts. This approach, while ensuring consistency, came with significant drawbacks.
According to an analysis by UK in a Changing Europe, the Conservatives struggled to motivate their supporters to amplify party messages. This reluctance among Conservative supporters to share content stemmed from multiple factors. Firstly, the tightly controlled messaging may have lacked the authenticity and personal touch that encourages organic sharing. Secondly, the political environment may have meant supporters feared backlash from both left-leaning critics and right-wing challengers, particularly the highly active Reform UK contingent.
In contrast, Labour’s more distributed approach, which empowered local candidates to tailor content to their constituencies, generated higher engagement and more organic sharing. Also, at Labour’s party headquarters, their digital team was given significant autonomy, allowing them to respond quickly to events with interesting and engaging content.
This scenario highlights a crucial lesson for corporate communicators: overly rigid control of messaging can stifle grassroots engagement and limit the reach of your content. While brand consistency is important, it must be balanced with the flexibility to allow supporters to personalise and contextualise messages in ways that resonate with their own networks. The example of Labour shows that trusting and empowering teams, particularly in fast-paced digital environments, can lead to more dynamic and effective communication strategies.
Conclusion: Adapting political savvy to corporate strategy
As we now have moved from ballots to brands, corporate communicators would do well to adopt the agility and audience-centric approach demonstrated by successful political campaigns. By leveraging data-driven insights, embracing both broad reach and targeted engagement, and speaking to people on their level, businesses can create digital strategies that resonate deeply with their audiences.
In an era where corporate reputation can be as volatile as political fortunes, these lessons in digital campaigning fundamentals offer a roadmap for more effective, engaging, and resilient corporate communications. The ballot boxes may be closed, but the lessons learned will continue to shape digital strategies long into the future.
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