Political parties clamour for social media influence in the election
TORONTO — In a dozen or so videos, Andrea Horwath speaks directly into the camera, her face very close to the lens, a couch visible over her shoulder — an esthetic seen more often with YouTube celebrities than politicians.
This is #AskAndrea, a half-hour question and answer session conducted via Twitter, in which the Ontario NDP leader fields questions from voters across the province on tax policy, student debt, law enforcement and minimum wage, without leaving her seat in the social media giant’s Toronto office.
The social media presence of Ontario political parties has evolved from an election-season gimmick to an integral part of political campaigns. The province’s three major parties have carved out distinct strategies for reaching voters through Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other platforms, while advanced algorithms are precision-targeting advertisements to individuals.
“Over the last four or five years, the whole deployment of social media has gone from a skeptical ‘nice to have’ to an absolute essential,” said Bruce Cameron, president of Social Media ROi, a firm that has consulted on provincial and federal campaigns across Canada.