Campaigning in the age of Likes, Comments and Shares: Social Media and the 2015 Election

The 2015 federal election is over. Eleven weeks of campaigning has ended and its peripheral hype is dwindling slowly as Canada gets comfortable with its new prime minister, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. In case you live under a rock and missed anything else, here’s the rundown: Stephen Harper resigned as Conservative leader, Tom Mulcair suffered incredible losses against the Liberals, and Elizabeth May salvaged her single seat in the House of Commons, as per usual. Two weeks ago, Justin Trudeau appointed a brand new cabinet, with 50% male and 50% female representatives.

"What?" asks confused voter (who almost definitely does live under a rock). "How did we get here? How did this all come to be?"

Inarguably, under the microscope of social media.

The last federal election in 2011 received much buzz for its heavy involvement with social media. Some even went so far as to call it “the year of the social media election.” That’s cute. This year, from the time campaigning began in late August, we saw social media’s influence manifest itself like never before. From Twitter feeds to Facebook feuds to seemingly endless amounts of MP scandal, election talk was everywhere.

News outlets scrambled to change their story: "2015 is the year of the social media election!"

So what exactly does that title mean? From what we saw over the course of this campaign, many things. Every post-election feature has taken a different outlook on social media’s role within the election – some celebratory, some cynical, some entirely dismissive.

It could be said that, like many things, social media’s influence on this year’s election can be roughly summed up in three categories: the good, the bad, and occasionally, the ugly.

At the get-go of campaigning, there was some general fear as to whether Canadians would stay interested in the three-month-long ordeal. Given its abnormal length, it wouldn’t have been all that surprising if people tuned out of campaigning after the first month’s passing. Let's be real: this isn’t the United States, whose political celebrity culture coupled with unending sensationalism in the news can keep people on their toes for over a year.

However, if social media participation was any kind of indication, Canadians may have actually been more engaged in campaigning than ever before.

According to Kevin Chan, Facebook's Head of Public Policy, five million Facebook users were involved with the elections on Facebook, to make a total of 40 million individual interactions. Notably, almost 500,000 users “attended” the Stephen Harper Going Away Party on Facebook, an event planned to celebrate the anticipated defeat of Harper and the Conservatives. The interest isn’t limited to users, either – Facebook itself also got involved with campaigning, launching the “voter megaphone” feature to remind users to get out and cast their ballots on election day.

Facebook also teamed up with CTV News to offer voters a close look at how campaigning was playing out online. Facebook provided CTV with statistical information on hot conversation topics, leader popularity and voter engagement in “a unique opportunity to combine the country’s leaders in news and social engagement to offer insight into what matters to Canadians throughout the campaign,” according to Wendy Freeman, CTV News president.

Twitter was perhaps an even stronger force throughout the campaigning, with #elxn42 dominating the trends. The platform was a democratic forum where leaders and voters could engage together. The “elxn42” hashtag saw changes in discussion that went from topics like economy, taxes and “change” to more specific ones such as niqabs, immigration and the Trans Pacific Partnership in the later weeks of campaigning. Especially useful to parties, these topics and their noticeable shifts gave insight as to what issues were most important to Canadians. Digital Strategist Mark Blevis referred to Twitter as a sort of focus group: "In fact, it might even be what I would argue to be the best focus group, largely because it's happening in real-time. It's happening quickly."

Perhaps it was Green Party Leader Elizabeth May who was most innovative in her use of Twitter as a campaigning tool. After being excluded from numerous televised, high profile debates, May found a unique way to participate: she took to Twitter to express her party's views on the topics as they were discussed live. At the Global and Mail leader's debate on September 17th, May's tweets and videos, in which she retorted against and fact-checked her competition, received 14,000 retweets and favourites, and got her 3,900 new followers. In an appearance on CTV's Power Play concerning the debate, May said, "(I am) participating at some distance, but perhaps we can make our way into the old boys club yet.”

Although the effectiveness of social media to encourage voter turnout is not directly measurable (yet), there's no question that it was on many minds when ballots were cast on October 19th. This is particularly true of young people, whose tremendous exposure to social media couldn't have not left an imprint on their vote.

This was one of the most important elements going into the social media election: its ability to reach young voters. Social media helped first-time voters and millennials ease into the world of politics. Information on each party became more accessible with the help of Twitter trends and useful tools like iSideWith.com, an online quiz (unaffiliated with the government) that asks voters political questions and aligns them with a party that matches their views.

To make voting more accessible to students, Elections Canada set up advanced voting stations on college campuses and at community centres across the country. As a result, close to 70,000 students registered and voted early, debunking any claims that students don't care about politics. Such a turnout can likely be attributed to the massive left-swinging, Anti-Harper culture among youth online, in which young people pressured one another to vote, and vote early, “because Stephen Harper doesn't want (them) to.” At Dawson College in Montreal, several students commented on the ineffectiveness of Harper's negative campaigning, namely his trademark "He's just not ready" anti-Trudeau ads. One such student said that they were simply "sick of hearing Harper's ranting."

Justin Trudeau's establishment as a worthy opposition for Harper, along with his positive campaigning, progressive views and young age compared to his rivals, won him the affections of Canada's anti-Conservative youth.

With so many positive attributes, it's hard to think of social media as having a negative force throughout the elections – but there is some evidence to suggest that its importance may have been overstated.

Six million election-related tweets is an impressive number. Twitter interaction seemed to boast an immense participation rate among Canadians, and had journalists drawing conclusions about each party’s success left, right and centre. But several studies have shown that in doing so, they risked overselling the importance of social media during the election: the numbers don't always reflect reality.

An Ipsos Reid survey taken during the 2011 elections determined that only six per cent of Canadians over the age of 18 were logging on to a social networking site every day to discuss public policy and political issues. In 2014, in theCanadian Parliamentary Review published a study that found similar results: only about nine percent of Facebook users and four percent of Twitter make political posts on those sites. So if previous years are any indication, the seemingly-massive number of posts and Tweets are stemming from but a small group of people who are already very interested in politics – not necessarily newbies who are trying to join the discussion.

Harold Jansen, a political scientist at the University of Lethbridge and one of the authors of the Ipsos study, told CBC News that “Twitter matters to people who are really politically engaged, but it's really a small group of people talking to each other." He believes that although social media gives way to democratic discussion, people aren't making use of it the way they should be. “The fundamental problem is that if people don't feel interested or engaged in politics, no amount to digital technology is going to change that.”

Among those who did engage politically online, particularly in younger people, one of the main problems seemed to be the discussion taking a trivial turn. Wedge issues like marijuana legalization – as well as total non-issues like Trudeau's dashing good looks – seemed to be at the forefront of some people's’ reasoning as they professed loyalty to the Liberal party. Our loyal interviewes at Dawson College can attest to this: numerous students witnessed their stoner Facebook friends delcare themselves liberal because, like, 420 blaze it, yo.

Social media always loves a good political scandal, and this campaign was no exception (ref: "peegate"). Many MPs came under fire as age-old controversial facebook posts resurfaced and, in some cases, ended careers. These tabloid-esque stories dominated discussion among voters and gave birth to hundreds of new memes - probably hundreds more than necessary.

Of course, it's not just voters who are missing out on social media opportunities. Many people felt let down by the way politicians made use of their online tools in this so-called social media election. Despite the major hype surrounding social media's role in this election, social media campaigning still takes up a very small part of political budgets compared to old-fashioned TV advertising. Very few politicians, perhaps apart from Elizabeth May, managed to make use of any innovative campaign strategies online. When politicians did use social media, the results largely consisted of safe, controlled discussion points and one-way dialogue. Even Justin Trudeau’s candid posts andspontaneous baby-hugging photos started to seem a bit contrived after a while. Sorry, Justin.

This makes you question the legitimacy of the journalist-dubbed “social media election.” Politicians generally seemed more content incorporating the regulatory, bureaucratic ways of government into social media than reversing the scenario and bringing social media’s open discussion ethos to politics. Maybe that method is tried and true for connecting with older audiences, but it neglects a huge demographic - mostly made up of millennials - who are ready and waiting to truly connect online.

Connecting with Gen Y should be one of the top priorities within every party. Millennials make up a huge slice of Canadian voters, who, unlike their parents, are not invested in the brand loyalty element of politics. This means thatevery party can win over young people, if they use the right tools. Let's face it, the political parties we support can change as swiftly as our favourite drink at Starbucks, favourite retro pullover sweater, favourite Velvet Underground album. We aren't bound to our "inherited" parties. We're bound to positivity, authenticity and democratic discussion. To truly get that social media #elexn42 we were promised, that discussion needs to be opened up.

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