Before the general election was even called there were panels galore saying that this was the first election where social media was going to make a difference with a range of people saying on the one hand

“Of course social networking will be influential in getting out the vote and getting in the contributions.”

and on the other…

“No way traditional broadcast is where it’s at.”

So far, it looks like social media is and isn’t the decider in 2010.  Yes, social media is everywhere in this election. It’s in the news.  A candidate has lost the backing of his party for being stupid on Twitter.*  All parties are ramping up their output via social media, YouTube videos and Twitter streams and blogging and podcasting and so on…

In a way this isn’t a surprise.  The shape and timeline of UK elections means that people are waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting – then blam – there’s the election.  In the US, you know exactly when the election is going to be and can predict them as far in the future as you have faith that America continues to exist.  The campaigns are officially quite long – January to November, although of course, start earlier than that.   And also, social media isn’t so new now.  The behaviours don’t necessarily seem that remarkable.  In the last week on Facebook I’ve been asked to join a fan page for a local political party, shared information about overseas voting, seen official and independent political messages.  Mostly all about the general elections.

But are these really just the equivalent of broadcast or leafleting.  Is there dialogue?  Is it driving behaviour in a different way to what’s been done before? Does it need to?  Certainly, no party thinks it can bypass social media. The truism “Social media doesn’t replace knocking on doors”  seems to have a corollary “Knocking on doors doesn’t replace social media.”

The general election will tend to drown out those ‘other’ elections that are taking place on the 6th of May.  The local government elections.  So what’s happening with social media and local government elections?  No, really that wasn’t a segue- I’m asking.  It’s certainly not hitting me in the face.  I see more in my Facebook stream about Memphis** local elections than I do about where I live.

I follow a lot of councillors online. But what I’m mostly seeing in Twitter are status updates about how busy they are campaigning in traditional ways, like this one***:

Work finished for the day, supporters emailed, letters written, what to do now…oh, hi there, big pile of leaflets ;)

Maybe it’s all on the blogs, which I don’t tend to read.  The best councillor blogs should be mostly pretty uninteresting for people who live outside their area.  Are councillors engaging in local forums and hyperlocal websites where an outsider wouldn’t necessarily see it?  I’d like to capture some of the lessons around use of social media in the local elections – not so much for the political campaigns but for the ongoing dialogue between councillors and local people and for issues-based campaigning.  So where should I be looking now?

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*he would have or at least should have had the same outcome if he’d said these things in a public meeting.  I’ve said all along that what gets you in trouble offline gets you in trouble online – the only difference is that you are completely the author of your own misfortune.  No other proof needed.

**a friend of mine from high school is running a great social media campaign for county council in the area of Memphis, TN.

***for purdah reasons – I’m not linking to the councillor in question, but I’ve seen similar for a lot of councillors.

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