social media in the 2015 election

Ipsos MORI

#GE2015 – Social MediaDave and Ed vs Zayn and Kim…

who are the social media winners?

Introduction

1. Election Unspun is a project run by Media Standards Trust: http://electionunspun.net/election-unspun-faqs/

MENTIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA OVER THE SHORT CAMPAIGN

Over the course of the General Election campaign, Ipsos MORI has been measuring the volume of discussion on social media that mentions either David Cameron or Ed Miliband.

To put the political social media conversation in context, Ipsos MORI has also been measuring the volume of discussion that mentions prominent entertainment celebrities, and specific events from 20-26th April.

Data has been collected through the social media analytics platform Crimson Hexagon. To allow for comparison with UK online news stories collected through Election Unspun1, the data has been filtered to include only those mentions that are known to be inside the UK.

Moreover, the Twitter handles of the relevant account holders have not been included in the search terms in order to reduce the risk of data being biased by content generated by the author.

For each search query, as much as 90-95% of the data identified was generated on Twitter.

A social media election? At first look, the politicians

gradually pull ahead of One Direction…

Source: Ipsos MORI; data collected through Crimson Hexagon social media analytics platform


0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

160000

Week 130/04/15 -05/04/15

Week 206/04/15 -12/04/15

Week 313/04/15 -19/04/15

Week 420/04/15 -26/04/15

Week 527/04/15 -03/05/15

445k mentions

459k mentions

504k mentions

Mentions identified in the UK

But, Zayn leaving 1D dwarfs one of the biggest political

events in the campaign…


0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

400000

450000

500000

Week -116/03/15 -22/03/15

Week 023/03/15 -29/03/15

Week 130/04/15 -05/04/15

Week 206/04/15 -12/04/15

Week 313/04/15 -19/04/15

Week 420/04/15 -26/04/15

Week 527/04/15 -- 03/05/15

25 March – Zayn Malik Leaves

One Direction

30 March – Dissolution

of Parliament

2 April – ITV 7-way

Leaders’ debate

16 April – BBC

challengers’ debate

Source: Ipsos MORI; data collected through Crimson Hexagon social media analytics platformMentions identified in the UK

Only Jeremy Clarkson’s sacking matches the political

leaders from other big celebrity stories


0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

Week -116/03/15 -22/03/15

Week 023/03/15 -29/03/15

Week 130/04/15 -05/04/15

Week 206/04/15 -12/04/15

Week 313/04/15 -19/04/15

Week 420/04/15 -26/04/15

Week 526/04/15 -04/05/15

2 April – ITV 7-way

Leaders’ debate16 April – BBC

challengers’ debateClarkson

sacked

Raheem Sterling

BBC interview

Brand interviews

Miliband

Miliband 556,171

Cameron 566,999

Jeremy

Clarkson

152,736

Katie

Hopkins

138,651

Russell

Brand

83,145

Raheem

Sterling

64,212

Katie Hopkins ‘doesn’t

care if migrants die’

Source: Ipsos MORI; data collected through Crimson Hexagon social media analytics platformMentions identified in the UK

Comparison of UK newspaper coverage from Election Unspun suggests

that events from the GE2015 campaign struggle to keep pace with

events from world of entertainment in traditional media…

UK online national news coverage – 20-26th April Source: Election Unspun, Media Standards Trust

NUMBER OF UK ONLINE NATIONAL NEWS ARTICLES COVERING COVERAGE EACH STORY 6

68 73

23 37

152

287

35 42

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

SNP manifesto vsAvengers movie

premier

John Major speech vsKim Kardashian

Cameron's Villa mix upvs Rober Downey Jr

Storms out of interview

Shapps' Wikipediarofile edits vs

Clarkson's boss quitstop gear

Politics

Entertainment

http://electionunspun.net/

http://electionunspun.net/

BUT the reaction on social media was very different -

politics had a much greater share of discussion

COMPARISON OF COVERAGE OF EVENTS 20 – 26TH APRIL 2015 7

9% 11%

10%19%3%

6%

5%

25%

21%

7%40%

10%

5%

11%

6% 10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Election Unspun - UK onlinemedia stories

Ipsos MORI - social mediamonitoring

Clarkson's boss quits Top Gear

Rober Downey Jr Storms out ofinterview

Kim Kardashian

Avengers movie premier

Shapps' Wikipedia profile edits

Cameron's Aston Villa mix-up

John Major speech on LAB/SNPdeal

SNP manifesto launch

Entertainment 72%

Politics 28%

Entertainment 39%

Politics 61%

Source: Ipsos MORI and Election Unspun, Media Standards Trust

% coverage as

proportion of total

articles collected

Mentions identified in the UK, 20-26th April 2015

THE BATTLE OF THE HEAVYWEIGHTS – 42,616 TOTAL MENTIONS 8

29,268 13,348

Shapps’

Wikipedia profile

edits

Robert Downey

Jr. storms out of

interview

Shapps’ reported Wikipedia edits was the biggest hit

of all on social media – beating Robert Downey Jr

Source: Ipsos MORI; data collected through Crimson Hexagon social media analytics platformMentions identified in the UK, 20-26th April 2015

THE BATTLE OF THE CRUISERWEIGHTS – 34,126 TOTAL MENTIONS 9

21,844 12,282

John Major’s

speech on

Lab/SNP deal

Anything about

Kim Kardashian

John’s major intervention beats all conversation about

Kim K…

2


THE BATTLE OF THE LIGHTWEIGHTS – 25,098 TOTAL MENTIONS 10

13,412 11,686

SNP Manifesto

launch

Clarkson’s boss

quits Top Gear

The SNP manifesto launch pulls a bigger discussion than

Clarkson’s boss quitting - just…

3


BATTLE OF THE FEATHERWEIGHTS – JUST 16,026 TOTAL MENTIONS 11

7,460 8,557

Cameron’s Aston

Villa mix-up

Avengers movie

premier

Cameron’s ‘brain fade’ on Aston Villa got almost as

many mentions as the Avengers movie premier…

4


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social media in the 2015 election

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