5 examples of how YouTube influence in UK politics is growing

YouTube influence in UK politics is growing and UK politicians are having to quickly adapt to a new way of communicating with voters. Much as politicians had to learn new techniques as TV became a mass medium, so politicians are having to adjust to be able to successfully communicate using new web channels like YouTube.

Whilst UK politics lags behind the US in utilising YouTube as a campaigning tool, parties are developing their YouTube offerings (though I think it will be a while yet before we see UK candidature / policy announcements on YouTube or 'Obama Girl' equivalents!)

Here are 5 examples of how YouTube influence in UK politics is growing:

1) Ask Gordon on YouTube

Run through the Downing Street channel, the 'Ask The PM' initiative is allowing YouTube users to upload video questions for Gordon Brown. The YouTube community then vote to establish the most popular questions and Gordon Brown has pledged to answer them on 23rd June.

2) House Of Lords on YouTube

http://uk.youtube.com/ukparliament

In an effort to engage younger generations the House Of Lords is uploading explanatory videos to the Parliament channel on YouTube. We have already seen the launch of 'Lords Of The Blog' an 'experimental blogging project to encourage direct dialogue between web users across the world and Members of the House of Lords' and a YouTube presence is the obvious next step.

Five videos have been uploaded to start things off (including 'House of Lords- what's it all about') with the promise of more to come. According to Lord Speaker Baroness Hayman, the House Of Lords hopes that the YouTube channel "will help to combat some of the outdated stereotypes of members of the upper house."

3) Webcameron

One of the first UK politicians to really embrace YouTube, David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party, continues to update his vlogging channel Webcameron. Rather than just upload policy announcements and press conference coverage, David Cameron is using Webcameron to give viewers exclusives and behind the scenes access. A good example of this is the footage that was shot around the time that Boris Johnson's London Mayor victory was announced:

http://www.youtube.com/user/webcameronuk

4) London Mayor election campaign

The London Mayor election was the first major British election conducted in a YouTube / Web 2.0 world. All the major candidates had strategy in these areas and there was some effective work, even though the audience for the message was small (the British electorate are significantly lagging the US in engaging with candidates online.)

One of the better videos was Boris Johnson's Apprentice parody:

YouTube as a campaigning tool will grow and by the time the next UK general election comes around (2009?) it will have a significant role to play.

5) Downing Street YouTube channel

The Downing Street channel on YouTube started out as hub for historic Prime Minister / government speeches and video from the Downing Street archives (eg Lloyd Georges first visit to Chequers or 'Bonar Law forms a new government.') In recent times though it has tended to aggregate the activity of Tony Blair / Gordon Brown with speeches and policy announcements making up the bulk of the DowningSt channel videos.

'Tony Blair félicite Nicolas Sarkozy (en français)' is by far the most viewed clip on the Downing Street channel with 485,809 views. After Sarkozy won the French election Tony Blair recorded a congratulatory message in French and presented it through YouTube. This has a very high view count and shows an implicit understanding of how to use YouTube effectively.

No-one has yet defined what the official Downing Street YouTube channel should be for, but the views received for Tony Blair's message to Sarkozy show how effective it an be if used properly.

All of the above point to the growing influence of YouTube in UK politics. YouTube will engage younger generations far more effectively than an MPs constituency surgery or door box generic printed material. YouTube allows a two way dialogue with youth on their terms (they can choose whether to engage and choose the timing and terms on which they do so) and against the backdrop of the US primary campaigns, the UK political establishment is starting to realise how important YouTube is becoming.

London Mayor election online - web strategy and internet developments

The London Mayor election was the first UK election where the internet had significant influence. I have written about various aspects of the online campaigns previously and thought I would summarise some of the key developments here.

Boris Johnson had the most developed online campaign. Much has been made of his election strategist, Lynton Crosby, employing a “doughnut strategy” of ruthlessly targeting Tory-leaning voters on the edge of the capital (see here for more), but below are 5 examples of online activity in the London Mayor election which are also notable:

1) London Mayor election - online hustings and questioning

Whilst there were a number of official broadcast debates, various online initiatives sought to question the candidates and engage them in a more intimate environment. YouTube was less influential than it has been in the US elections, but the principle of users posting questions online for candidates to respond to was seen in a number of places - from live webchats with the Sun (where Boris suggested he would re-look at the smoking ban) through to more structured online hustings seen on sites like Yoosk.

Yoosk London Mayor online forum (click for larger image)

2) YouGov's London Mayor election online polls proved to be more accurate than the traditional polling methods

The London Mayor election saw controversy around polls and polling methods with YouGov and IPSOS / MORI having a public debate about methodology and Ken Livingstone's campaign making an official complaint about the YouGov polls - SkyNews covered this here.

YouGov conducted six polls (using their online panels) and always showed Boris Johnson with a lead - ranging from 6% to 12%. This went against some of the other more traditional, telephone based polling of rival companies which showed a much smaller lead for Boris and at one point showed Ken Livingstone ahead by 4 points. The final YouGov poll published on Thursday morning (voting day) exactly predicted the actual result with Boris winning by 53-47%. This has prompted a press release entitled 'YouGov [online poll] gets it exactly right in Mayoral election' and offers to 'help the inquest into inaccurate telephone polls.' (full release can be seen on the Adam Boulton blog).

3) London Mayor candidates use of online media

All candidates used online extensively and social media was prominent. We saw London Mayor candidates using Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and blogs. London Mayor candidates (with the exception of Boris) also had Google strategies (see here) and well developed campaign websites. (3 days after the election Ken Livingstone's 'Vote Ken' Google campaign is still running though...........)

The online activity supporting Boris Johnson was the most well thought out and I thought the emails sent on Wednesday and Thursday were a nice touch (even if they did get marked as 'spam' by my Gmail.)

Boris Johnson email with links to his profiles on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook
(click for larger image)

4) The LondonElects website was a great success

http://www.londonelects.org.uk/ was set up to encourage voter turn out and to provide a central, neutral, online focus point for the London Mayor election. From running an initiative to find (and part fund) an independent candidate through to offering consolidated results analysis once the election had finished, Londonelects.org.uk gained over 1 million visits and contributed to record voter turnout.

LondonElects website homepage (click for larger image)

5) London Mayor election Buzz tracking

A number of companies have tried to show case their products by applying Buzz Tracking to the London Mayor race. Systems like 'Opinion Tracker' or QDOS kept track of online buzz around the candidates and published their results. Other traffic analysis companies like Hitwise also published insight on respective candidates web traffic.

It was also possible to gain insightful information from sites like Google Trends that show you the volume of people searching for a particular candidates name:

Google Trends analysis of volume of searches for each candidate (click for larger image)

My first post about the London Mayor election predicted that it would see a new style on online campaigning in the UK
(http://www.nickburcher.com/2008/03/london-mayor-election-will-see-new.html) and I think the London Mayor candidates' online campaigns were comprehensive. I don't think it is any coincidence that the most well developed internet campaign belonged to Boris Johnson, the winning candidate.

In future UK elections I expect to see online activity further developed with increased use of behavioural targeting and opportunities such as Facebook messages targeted to users in line with their political preferences. The London Mayor campaign was a testing ground for a number of online strategies and I think the internet will be a major battleground in the next UK general election.

Unofficial online activity for the London Mayor elections!

I have commented a lot on the official campaigns for the London Mayor elections, but there is also a wide range of unofficial internet activity around the London Mayor elections!

The most noteworthy so far have been:

Pro-Boris hackers taking over the official Harriet Harman website (username; Harriet, password: Harman!)

Hacked homepage of Harriet Harman's official website (as spotted by Guido Fawkes)

There have also been a number of instances of 'cybersquatting' (where savvy internet users register related domain names and serve their own messages):

Anti-Ken website served under www.kenlivingstone.org

There is even a campaign to get Boris Johnson to number one with the rather brilliant "Is Fatboy Slim a DJ?"

"Is Fatboy Slim A DJ?" - the Boris song, here it at www.borisborisboris.com

As this week progresses it may be more entertaining to keep an eye on London Mayor viral / unofficial internet activity than on the official campaigns!

UPDATE: Mayor candidates as characters from Rainbow is getting lots of views on YouTube!

London Mayor elections online campaign analysis - Boris Johnson is leading on the internet

The London Mayor election is in the final week of internet campaigning. Online is playing an increasingly important role in the election strategy and there have been some interesting initiatives and developments, however the majority of prominent web trends tools still show Boris Johnson leading.

Using Yahoo! Site Explorer it is possible to examine candidates sites and see how many other sites are linking to them (this gives insight into popularity and also indicates campaign reach):

Yahoo! Site Explorer analysis of www.backboris.com - 773 pages on the site and 62,913 other sites linking to it (click for larger image)

Yahoo! Site Explorer analysis of www.kenlivingstone.com - 242 pages on the site and 14,733 other sites linking to it (click for larger image)

Yahoo! Site Explorer analysis of www.brianpaddick.org - 377 pages on the site and 20,277 other sites linking to it (click for larger image)

When analysed in this way Boris Johnson and the www.backboris.com site are the clear leaders (though when compared to www.barackobama.com's 894,000 inlinks, there may be room for further growth!)

Another measurement tool, Google Trends, is showing that London Mayor election web searches continue to increase and Boris Johnson remains the most searched for candidate:

Volumes of Google Searches for each candidate (click for larger image)

London Elects, Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick continue to advertise with Google, seem to have increased budgets and are now making use of the Google Content Network (where ads appear on Google affiliated publisher sites as well as on Google when people search.) This appeared on my blog this morning:

Google Ads from London Elects, Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick on my blog (click for larger image)

Boris Johnson and the Back Boris campaign are (strangely) still not using Google for advertising and even though it has not featured in their campaign to date, I am surprised that they are not making use of Search as the campaign enters its last week.

Hitwise have analysed actual internet traffic to campaign websites and have a reached a conclusion in line with the Google Trends data - Boris Johnson is receiving significantly more web traffic than the other candidates:

However not everyone agrees with the conclusion that Boris is leading online. A new system of internet reputation measurement, QDOS, combs the internet and produces a QDOS ranking that is a combination of 'Popularity, Impact, Activity and Individuality.' QDOS rates Ken Livingstone as significantly more popular than Boris Johnson online:

However the QDOS system is still in Beta (and therefore not 100% reliable yet) and when you analyse the Boris Johnson score it has a strange anomaly where he lost about a third of his ranking on one day last week?

The polls are saying that the race for London Mayor is too close to call, but online data suggests that Boris Johnson is significantly ahead of Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick. It will therefore be very interesting to see how the online popularity of Boris Johnson translates into votes. (It will also be interesting to see if Boris finally embraces Google this week!)

FOOTNOTE:

I have previously written about:

- Online campaigning in the London Mayor Election here
- London Mayor candidates web strategy for Web 2.0 here
- London Mayor candidates Google strategy here

Are London mayor candidates making the most of the opportunities on Google?

The London Mayor election has prompted significant online activity, but with 14 days to go could the candidates be doing more with Google?

The starting point for many people searching for information online is Google. Using Google Trends it is possible to see the depth of searching around the London Mayor election. Users are searching for generic terms like 'London Mayor' as well as candidate names and volume of searching is increasing as the election nears.

This Google Trends graph shows that 'Boris' is searched for more than 'London Mayor', whilst the term 'Boris Johnson' is searched for more than 'Ken Livingstone' and enquiries for 'Brian Paddick' are negligible:

London Mayor Google Trends graph - click for larger image

On this data Boris Johnson is evidently far ahead of the other candidates in terms of voter interest and awareness - could it be that Google Trends data is a better indicator of voter intention than the opinion polls and the race is not as close as we think?

Google Trends can also show the background to Opinion Poll fluctuations. The 'Lee Jasper effect', with a significant volume of Search queries around his name, can be correlated to Ken Livingstone's recent wobble in the polls:

click for larger image - London Mayor Google Trends graph showing 'Lee Jasper effect'

So how should candidates be using this data and how can they take advantage of Google in the run up to polling day?

The volume of relevant searching on Google gives the candidates opportunities to show messages and ads alongside users' search results. Ken Livingstone is using Paid for Search on Google and to a lesser extent Brian Paddick is also pursuing this strategy.

Both Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick are buying ads alongside searches for their names:

click for larger image - searching for 'Ken Livingstone' puts Ken's ad in top spot and a Brian Paddick ad second

click for larger image - Brian Paddick advertises on his own name, but no-one else is present

Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick are also targeting generic searches such as 'London election' and 'London Mayor':

click for larger image - Brian Paddick in second position and Ken Livingstone in position 3

Ken is bidding on 'Boris Johnson' too and as seen below, his Adtext is aggressively targeting 'Boris Johnson' searchers with headlines like 'Boris's Bus blunder':

click for larger image - Ken targeting a search on 'Boris Johnson'

Whilst Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick are using Google, the messages are constant rather than being updated in line with topical events and developments. Budgets also seem to run out over the course of the day with Google ads rarely showing in the evenings. There is mileage in updating Adtext daily and keeping messages relevant, whilst increasing the Search budget would allow ads to be shown throughout the day (capitalising on evening events such as the late night televised Mayoral debate.)

There is no geo-targeting applied to Ken Livingstone's ads - they are showing all over the UK. If he was to introduce London only targeting it would cut down on wastage (ie advertising to people outside London who can't vote) and would make the budget go further. With this increased budget it would then be possible to widen the list of keywords used. Currently targeting is aimed purely at terms associated with the election, however there is an untapped opportunity to position specific policies alongside relevant searches. I would have thought it productive to run ads alongside user queries such as 'London Crime', 'London Bus', 'tube', 'Oyster Card ', 'London environment' etc?

At the same time, Boris Johnson does not have any Search Engine activity at all and I think his campaign is missing a trick by not advertising on Google through Google Adwords. Boris has the most impressive website, a well developed social media plan (including Facebook , YouTube and Twitter) and could really make the most of his online presence by driving traffic through a well thought out Search Engine strategy.

As polling day approaches more and more Londoners will be searching online for information. With the polls as close as they are and rivals targeting his name, I am not sure Boris can afford to continue to ignore the advertising opportunities that Google and the other Search Engines offer?

My original post on the Mayor elections is here:
http://www.nickburcher.com/2008/03/london-mayor-election-will-see-new.html