Social media was the battleground in the UK’s election: 5 key lessons brands can’t afford to miss from Labour’s social campaign

It’s been a month since the UK’s general election. It was an extraordinary and a short campaign which culminated in a hung parliament; the Conservative landslide never materialised and Labour, buoyed by the youth vote and the rise of the alt-left online beat all the predictions. The story of the role of digital media in election outcomes is not a brand new one, but it’s been evolving at pace over the last few years and political journalism is forever changed.

How the two main parties approached traditional and new media were markedly different. I found that contrast fascinating and I believe there are some valuable lessons for brands from Labour’s digital campaign in particular.

So let’s do a quick comparison of how Labour and the Conservatives approached the media during the election…

When it came to the papers, the Sun, the Mail and the Telegraph were all pro Tory; however, this became a double edged sword and disillusion with conventional media fuelled left leaning journalistic channels such as The Canary. This rebellion took aim against the traditional media and the left found new ways to make their voices heard online and take up (virtual) space without the shackles of old world content control. The association between the Conservatives and the established media became toxic at times, which has echoes of Donald Trump’s war on the press across the political spectrum and pond.

In the new media battleground, Jeremy Corbyn used innovative approaches from live-streaming to WhatsApp cascades, whereas Theresa May’s approach came across as presidential and controlled — she didn’t even participate in the BBC debate. Labour looked fresher, more confident and willing to take risks, which played well with young voters of course.

And while both parties used paid social (for example Labour promoted #forthemany on Twitter, and the Tories used hyper-targeted Facebook advertising), organic and use of influencers appeared to work especially well for Labour with grime artists like Stormzy getting behind the Labour leader. It felt like a more positive, younger campaign with touches of humour (there were some hilarious memes out there), and policy issues were tackled head on; people really engaged with this online, and ultimately it’s this emotion which mobilises people into action. Facebook is notoriously opaque and hard to fully measure but Corbyn ended up with more than double the amount of likes/followers than May on Facebook and Twitter (Corbyn’s Facebook page has 1.1 million likes; Theresa May’s has 410,000), with a surge in support at the end.

Overall, though they lost the election, Labour won on social because it was able to tap into and harness groundswell of support to gain reach, with a dynamic campaign unafraid to use channels and content as the younger demographic do. They used online to build and motivate their voter base; at times this looked like an energised new movement, with new media as the glue and the fuel to that fire. This was in stark contrast to the to the Conservatives’ attacking approach which included direct, personal jibes at Corbyn and the shadow cabinet. In short, Labour tweeted more, posted more, and was shared more than the Conservatives or the other parties. The Tories’ digital approach felt closed, presidential and intrinsically more traditional and, well, conservative. Funny that.

So, what can brands learn from he way Labour ran their campaign online?

1. It’s no longer good enough to simply have a social media strategy which is just focussed on one platform; today social demands a nuanced and more sophisticated approach, cognisant of what each platform can do and how content works today
2. Find out who your influencers are and tap into them
3. It’s all about the numbers — use your social data (there’s a raft of good and even free social listening tools and more on the market now) and adjust your approach to make it work for you. Be disciplined
4. Don’t forget dark social — targeted social communications can be effective — but don’t overthink it or get too Machiavellian, people will see through it
5. Be authentic and use emotion to connect with what people care really care about and build on that. Speak directly to your customers from a place of honesty and clarity.

The social media giants have moved their platforms from the personal to the public arena and as reflected in the recent election, politicians now use these platforms to speak directly to voters and bypass the traditional media. (Trump’s use of Twitter — need I say more?!). The game has changed and we are never going back to the days when professional media gatekeepers tightly controlled the information available for public debate. This goes for brands just as it does for politicians, and today it’s more important than ever to get your true message out there quickly, where your customers are and in a way which is authentic and unfiltered. No-one is buying the corporate or political double speak filled with jargon anymore; time to move out of your comfort zone, get real and connect via social.