Do politicians tap into what the population is experiencing? To do this, we looked at the topics that citizens – with voting rights and who live in the municipalities according to their bio and most frequently used geo-positions – tweeted about. Admittedly, there were only a few hundred special database of them, and of course citizens do not talk about politics all day long. But when we compare the online conversation of the population with that of the politicians, we see clear differences:
Citizens vs. Parties
A missed opportunity
Do politicians actually engage with voters? That was rarely the case online. During the discussion about the construction plans of the Lage Zijde, there were reactions from many citizens. Political parties did indeed also place their position there, but did not respond to the clean email content of the citizens’ reactions. A missed opportunity!
Unwritten election law 4: keep in touch with citizens after the elections
Sad but true: the Twitter activity of the newly elected council members experienced a honorable mention to another rum free fall after the election date. The graph below makes it painfully clear that the Twitter activity of politicians dropped severely once the spoils were secured. Shame!
Twitter activity after 13nov
Campaign Ladder
Based on the experiences of this trial in the municipalities of Alphen aan den Rijn, Boskoop, Rijnwoude and Leeuwarden, we have developed the Campaign Ladder for political party factions. The goal is to find and connect voters online. Also for the long term. Next week, in part two of this article, with the municipal elections of 19 March 2014 in sight, we will discuss the opportunities that social media offer for local politics and how local politicians can successfully join the online conversation.