Yes Scotland campaign has more fans than Better Together on Facebook – but lower engagement rate
The Yes Scotland campaign has 80,000 more Facebook fans than the Better Together campaign, but posts have less engagement, research by Birdsong has found a week before the independence referendum.
Jamie Riddell, co-founder of social analytics tool, said: "An update from the Better Together campaign achieves 38 per cent more likes than the Yes campaign and 10 times more comments.”
However, the Yes campaign has been far more active, delivering 2,837 posts compared to Better Together’s 961.
The most popular Yes updates focus around poll data, with the recent poll putting the Yes vote ahead of No leading to almost 8,000 shares.
"The Yes campaign needs to focus more on statement and benefit messages to reinforce their poll success, not continually promote the poll result,” Riddell suggested.
"Better Together focuses on ‘The Man on the Street’ and financial statements around Independence including estimates of a more expensive weekly shop and the loss of tax benefits.
"Stronger calls to action including ‘share this’ need to be deployed to reach the widest possible audience."