Facebook our most potent weapon, UK political parties say

[peter0425]

Facebook our most potent weapon, UK political parties say

Labour insiders who worked for former party leader Ed Miliband insist that the 2015 UK general election was won and lost on Facebook.

While Labour built an impressive army of like-minded followers on the social media platform, the Conservatives were quietly using their bigger digital budget to target undecided voters in key marginal seats.

“We mistook getting lots of likes as an effective [digital] campaign,” said one Labour source, who said the party is changing its tactics ahead of next month’s general election.

Labour is not alone. All of the main political parties are ramping up their use of social media in the run-up to polling day, with campaign managers considering Facebook their most-powerful political weapon.

https://www.ft.com/content/c78c3bd0-36f8-11e7-99bd-13beb0903fa3

[Xester]

Facebook our most potent weapon, UK political parties say

Labour insiders who worked for former party leader Ed Miliband insist that the 2015 UK general election was won and lost on Facebook.

While Labour built an impressive army of like-minded followers on the social media platform, the Conservatives were quietly using their bigger digital budget to target undecided voters in key marginal seats.

“We mistook getting lots of likes as an effective [digital] campaign,” said one Labour source, who said the party is changing its tactics ahead of next month’s general election.

Labour is not alone. All of the main political parties are ramping up their use of social media in the run-up to polling day, with campaign managers considering Facebook their most-powerful political weapon.

https://www.ft.com/content/c78c3bd0-36f8-11e7-99bd-13beb0903fa3

Facebook is a good way to declare your candidacy since you can easily post your accomplishments and you will have lesser cost that will cover a huge audience. But politicians also are weary of facebook political wars wherein different parties are paying spammers to make negative issue about their enemies and destroy their reputation.  So when you use facebook there are more negative aspects than positive feedbacks on facebook.

[warrior333]

In Facebook you can chat live with a politician. That's good. If you share the views of the policy is that you will be able to distinguish purchased by opponents of the Troll from your associates. Besides the provocations of the trolls will help you to learn sincere politician in his statements or not.

[Daniel91]

Facebook our most potent weapon, UK political parties say

Labour insiders who worked for former party leader Ed Miliband insist that the 2015 UK general election was won and lost on Facebook.

While Labour built an impressive army of like-minded followers on the social media platform, the Conservatives were quietly using their bigger digital budget to target undecided voters in key marginal seats.

“We mistook getting lots of likes as an effective [digital] campaign,” said one Labour source, who said the party is changing its tactics ahead of next month’s general election.

Labour is not alone. All of the main political parties are ramping up their use of social media in the run-up to polling day, with campaign managers considering Facebook their most-powerful political weapon.

https://www.ft.com/content/c78c3bd0-36f8-11e7-99bd-13beb0903fa3

I agree with this report.
In fact, I know one friend who started political campaign for city council in my local area.
He didn't have any money so 99 % of his political campaign was on FB.
On the end he didn't receive enough votes to get seats in the council but you got a idea.
After all, Trump won also mostly because of many fake news in media and social networks.
FB have much more influence than traditional media, TV or radio.

[Mometaskers]

Facebook has become more toxic over the years. It is known that politicians actually hire trolls to harass people on FB and make it seem they have a large base of support. Just look at the Philippines. Their president won the election with just 38% of the total vote. Now check FB, it's teeming with multiple group pro-Duterte groups spamming articles. They have been preparing for this since 2012 and a large portion of their budget went to social engineering.

Their trolls have been known for actually blocking accounts of celebrities and personalities that has aired out any perceived criticism of Duterte. They do this by spam-reporting the profile.

[Lancusters]

From the trolls won't protect anything. In a television show you have no opportunity to ask a question directly and you don't know how you apply to the policy. At the press conference paid journalists also engaged in trolling. This is the reality of today and a politician must be able adequately to deal with it.

[Masha Sha]

a digital forum owned by a corporation... what could go wrong:).

[gabmen]

Facebook has become more toxic over the years. It is known that politicians actually hire trolls to harass people on FB and make it seem they have a large base of support. Just look at the Philippines. Their president won the election with just 38% of the total vote. Now check FB, it's teeming with multiple group pro-Duterte groups spamming articles. They have been preparing for this since 2012 and a large portion of their budget went to social engineering.

Their trolls have been known for actually blocking accounts of celebrities and personalities that has aired out any perceived criticism of Duterte. They do this by spam-reporting the profile.

well facebook really has bevome a. dangerous political weapon if it can do this and affect a nation's course. though what has been done by the other party can be done by another. say for example, your elections. I don't believe the duterte's enemies aren't doing the same thing. it's just that duterte's allies have been doing a better work than their counterparts

[joebrook]

Facebook has a very high influence on what happens in this current world, look at how with the help fake news spreading through facebook, Trump was able to win the elections in the USA.Even terrorists are using facebook as a means of recruitment and spreading their ideologies.

[Masha Sha]

Facebook has a very high influence on what happens in this current world, look at how with the help fake news spreading through facebook, Trump was able to win the elections in the USA.Even terrorists are using facebook as a means of recruitment and spreading their ideologies.

0 revenue sharing with users? LoL it's called sharing, one way street. This will not last.

[matuson]

Facebook has a very high influence on what happens in this current world, look at how with the help fake news spreading through facebook, Trump was able to win the elections in the USA.Even terrorists are using facebook as a means of recruitment and spreading their ideologies.

The mistake many modern politicians is that they underestimate the importance of social networks. At the election of the President of the United States Trump proved it. I don't know how this is related to Trump, but after he ordered an investigation against Trump and his team dropped the price of the stock market, Zuckerberg lost $ 2 billion because of the falling shares of Facebook. This punishment?

[Malsetid]

Facebook has a very high influence on what happens in this current world, look at how with the help fake news spreading through facebook, Trump was able to win the elections in the USA.Even terrorists are using facebook as a means of recruitment and spreading their ideologies.

The mistake many modern politicians is that they underestimate the importance of social networks. At the election of the President of the United States Trump proved it. I don't know how this is related to Trump, but after he ordered an investigation against Trump and his team dropped the price of the stock market, Zuckerberg lost $ 2 billion because of the falling shares of Facebook. This punishment?

Right. This is one of those times in history when regular people actually has a relevant say in what's happening in society. I think social media has the power to make up people's minds and make them believe in whatever news it caters. It can be of good use or for some, it can be manipulative. Though one thing is sure, it can hold power that can really shake up any government

[Kemarit]

Facebook has a very high influence on what happens in this current world, look at how with the help fake news spreading through facebook, Trump was able to win the elections in the USA.Even terrorists are using facebook as a means of recruitment and spreading their ideologies.

The mistake many modern politicians is that they underestimate the importance of social networks. At the election of the President of the United States Trump proved it. I don't know how this is related to Trump, but after he ordered an investigation against Trump and his team dropped the price of the stock market, Zuckerberg lost $ 2 billion because of the falling shares of Facebook. This punishment?

Right. This is one of those times in history when regular people actually has a relevant say in what's happening in society. I think social media has the power to make up people's minds and make them believe in whatever news it caters. It can be of good use or for some, it can be manipulative. Though one thing is sure, it can hold power that can really shake up any government

Correct, social media is too powerful a tool not to used specially in election. I remember there was some politician here that don't want to used Facebook because he didn't know the potential power is possesses. Alas, he lost in the election and the next time he run again, he campaign in Facebook and was able to explain his platform in their pushing him to win this time. So I think politicians around the world will used it because it is a very effective tool specially in reaching your constituents.

[Stariroy]

It can now be said that Facebook remains to be the best way to reach people online. As long as millions are using Facebook then it is a very powerful tool. Social media sites -- not just limited on Facebook -- can now be utilized to advance one's political leanings and it is quite effective and very cost-efficient at that. TV is still a very good medium but it is very costly. Newspapers are losing their market for years now. Since Facebook is now on our phone, its immense power lies really on our hands.

[Idrisu]

It is true if you really want to get great followers in this 21 century you have to go for facebook. I do believe that 75% of world population are on facebook and because of their features of share, group and like you can easily get into people heart so facebook is a great weapon against one political enemy.

[kpcian]

Definitely Facebook is the strongest weapon for any purpose, around 75% people all over the world using Facebook. Most alarming issue is that the user usually share all types of personal information, community, preference and so on, so if anyone wants to gather whole information then he or she can get easily.
In this way, US government also can get access to theses types of information which can be used as a strong weapons.

[freedomno1]

Facebook is almost a forced employment check before getting hired for a job some recruiters use it as a negative point if they do look up their account.
Politicians will absolutely use it to target a base.
Of course a non-existent account is still better than a bad social media presence although that said political parties are getting wiser towards targeting people and the use of social media as a tool to influence public opinion like TV did in the days so not surprised to see this trend. Social Media manager is a job that didn't exist that many years ago etc.