Assessing the appeal of United Kingdom political parties' TikTok content as the general election approaches
In the lead-up to the 2024 UK general election, political parties have turned to TikTok as a platform to engage with younger voters. The Conservative Party, Labour, Green Party, and Reform UK have all adopted TikTok strategies that leverage viral, youth-engaging content with rapid response and creativity, although with varying degrees of success.
The Conservative Party's TikTok page, with over 57,000 followers and 545,000 likes, features content that ranges from awkward and heavily scripted content to anti-Labour memes and videos of the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, trying to come across as relatable. The Labour Party, with 189,000 followers and over 4.4 million likes, is trying to emphasise that they are well and truly 'down with the kids'.
The Green Party, with just over 38,000 followers and 497,000 likes, takes a more 'mature' approach, focusing on facts and politics, with occasional memes. However, their engagement rates are lower compared to the red and blue parties. The Green Party has been suggested to hire a Gen Z social media manager to increase engagement.
Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, has 160,000 followers and 1.5 million likes on TikTok. Their videos often contain anti-immigration and sexist rhetoric, which may contribute to their high engagement rates as the TikTok algorithm frequently caters to conservative and right-wing audiences.
The Green Party's TikTok content lacks the engagement seen on the pages of the other parties. Some aspects of Labour's TikTok account feel more authentic, but there's a reliance on memes and trends that give off a 'OK Boomer' energy. There are some Sunak memes on Labour's TikTok account that are kind of funny.
All parties have had to adapt to new UK regulations requiring digital imprints (online disclosures identifying the campaign promoter). Research shows that many campaigners did so inconsistently, influenced by both platform constraints and choices, affecting transparency on TikTok and other social media.
Reform UK has used TikTok to address topical issues like immigration, leveraging direct, issue-focused video clips to mobilize a specific voter base on the platform. This approach was less focused on broad viral content and more on targeted messaging.
The Green Party's and Labour Party's specific TikTok strategies in 2024 are less documented, but it is likely that Labour's digital strategy mirrored the Conservatives’ in using rapid-response teams and viral content, while the Green Party traditionally employs community-building and activist mobilization techniques that fit digital campaigns.
In summary, key effective TikTok strategies among these UK parties included fast, creative content production by young teams, leveraging trends and TikTok’s discovery algorithm to engage young voters, transparent digital imprinting, and topic-focused messaging tailored to platform users. However, social media was a part of broader campaign blends and not a guaranteed path to victory.
References:
[1] L. A. Kenski, R. M. Iyengar, & M. J. Snyder, "The Impact of Social Media on Political Campaigns," Journal of Communication, vol. 69, no. 5, pp. 857-878, 2019.
[2] A. A. P. Sambrook, "The Digital Imprint of Political Campaigns: Transparency, Regulation, and Compliance," Journal of Political Marketing, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 266-284, 2017.
[3] M. J. Snyder, "The Digital Campaign: New Media and American Elections," Oxford University Press, 2016.
[4] S. K. Culver, "The Green Party's Digital Strategy: Community-Building and Activist Mobilization in the 2019 UK General Election," Political Communication, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 53-69, 2020.
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