What kind of impact has the use of social media on the

work of EMBs?

Dr. Annette Monika Fath-LihicSenior Programme Manager Electoral Processes,

International IDEAa.fath-lihic@idea.int

10th European Conference of EMBsChisinau, Republic of Moldova

27 June 2013

Social media – what is it?

• While there are many definitions of social media, it is generally understood to be web or mobile-based platforms that allow for two-way interactions through user generated content (UGC) and communications. Social media is therefore not media which is coming only from one source or being ‘broadcast’ from a static website, but rather media on specific platforms designed to allow users to create (generate) and interact with information and its source.

 

Interaction!

• While social media rely on the internet as a medium, it is worthy to note that not all internet sites or platforms are considered to be social media. Some websites have no allowance for interactivity with the audience while others might allow users to post comments as a reaction to a particular story or piece as threads (or discussions posts) which are moderated.

Current popular platforms

•  Some current social media platforms include, but are not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Bambuser and Vimeo, Blogs, Flickr, LinkedIn, and Google+.

• Some other platforms popular in select countries or regions include Cloob (Iran), Orkut (Brazil, India), Cyworld (South Korea), Friendster (South East Asia), Grono.net (Poland), hi5 (parts of Asia, Central Africa and Latin America), mixi (Japan), Spaces (Russia) and Sina Weibo (mainland China).

Dashboards

• In addition to these platforms, there are a variety of dashboards designed to consolidate social media send-outs over various platforms, (i.e.Threadsy, HootSuite, Buffer etc.) and software programmes that assist in monitoring social media discussions (i.e.Tweetdeck, Meltwater buzz etc.) in order to provide feedback to the user.

Statistics

• In August 2008, Facebook reported that it had recently hit 100 million users. By December 2012, just over four years later, the number grew to 1.06 billion monthly active users. In addition, by December 2012 Facebook increased to an average of 618 million daily active users (up 28% from 483 million during December 2011).

Facebook: Active Users Worldwide

(in millions)

How can social media be beneficial to EMBs?

• New tools and platforms – such as those credited to social media – are emerging as important contributors in assisting EMBs.

• The thoughtful and strategic use of new and innovative social media tools can easily be combined with traditional outreach in order to reach the goals of educating the electorate to the widest degree possible.

Mapping of EMBs and their use of social media

• An April 2013  the mapping found that of 172 countries and territories examined, only 47 were using Facebook (26.1%). Of these 47, eight showed they had no current activity by the EMB. In addition, only 29 of the 172 (16.8%) EMBs examined use Twitter with their ‘followers’ ranging from 4 to almost two million and with Latin American EMBs engaging with Twitter the most.

Benefits as noted by the EMBs:

• The ease and speed of communication: Social media ‘eases … fast dissemination of information [and] … obtaining information on the part of voters and other stakeholders in the electoral process’. (Portugal)

• Engaging new audiences: Social media have ‘broadly opened participation for citizens of all kinds’. (Chile)

• Increased accessibility and transparency: Social media offers ‘the change to have a conversation with people and gather data/information to make our work with the people more effective, contemporary and relevant.’ (Australia)

Various ways of using social media

• on-line quizzes and on-line polls• keeping pages open to allow followers to post or

‘tweet’ questions and comments• allowing users to create and comment on blog

posts or articles • posting questions that encourage online debates • hosting information sharing or question/answer

sessions• allowing users to post videos • using analysis software to identify key words

being used

Towards a social media strategy for EMBs

Some key questions to help guide an EMB

• Why do we want to engage through social media? What are our purposes and goals?

• What do we believe can be improved or addressed by social media? What added value do we seek from such engagement?

• What do our organizational resources look like? What assets can we work with?

• What kind of conversations are we interested in stimulating/participating in? Why are we interested in these and how do they relate to our goals?

• Which different target groups do we want to engage with? What platforms are they using?

Some resource consideration include:

Employing a dedicated staff member or team of staff members to manage the social media platforms24/7 availability on social media and ‘real-time’ responsesScope of the strategy (number of platforms to be used etc.)Building capacity of staff and possible partnerships or outsourcingLanguageThe use of social media management software

Example

The EMB of the Canadian province of Manitoba (Elections Manitoba) used Facebook to spread their civic education campaign which brings the commission to classrooms throughout the province:

Consider possible risks and scenarios and ways of addressing them

• The legal framework and internal procedures#Radio London: Flanby and Camembert as Tweeted in the

French presidential elections•  The 2012 French presidential elections were mired in code

names as Twitter users from across the country and beyond skirted French law which forbids result predictions via exit polls to be published before the closing of the polls. Despite the EMB stating that they would have at least 10 staff members monitoring media for leaks and fines of up to 75 000 Euro to be issued for transgressions, Twitter users were able to circumvent the law by creating widely used nicknames for the candidates and thereby publishing predictions through these aliases. At the time of publication, no amendments to the law had been suggested or approved.

Negative posts

• The spread of misinformation• Using social media in (post-) conflict contexts• Unauthorized/ fake sites Unauthorized accounts may be created by individuals or by

‘robots’ that create and populate false profiles in hopes of attracting users to their pages to spread malware, attract likes for revenue or to discredit verified sites (among others).

• Active social media platformsOf course, not all scenarios are negative. EMB social media

platforms may be exceeding their anticipated reach and number of active followers and may be engaging the target audience beyond expectation.

Going live!

The importance of two-way interactionsThe need for targeting discussions to the audienceThe creation of guidelines and/or codes of conduct for social media useSecurity considerations

Example:

Some Conclusions

• EMB’s who choose to use social media should be aware of the considerations that accompany their use

• Identifying basic elements such as the kinds of platforms to be used as well as the target audience which will be engaged can inform the resources that will be needed as well as the best strategy to employ for its use.

• For those EMBs choosing not to engage through social media, it is also important to be aware of the new realities that social media are bringing to the electoral process.

• Keeping up with these discussions can help an EMB stay informed of important discussions taking place around the electoral process and allow them to act, and react more effectively.

• Lastly, while access to the Internet varies from country to country and by demographic, EMBs should also strive to ensure that traditional outreach and civic education methods are not neglected but rather that social media platforms are used as a compliment to them.

Thank you!