SNP 'punching above their weight' on Twitter says Europe VP Bruce Daisley
Minority parties such as The Green Party and Scottish National Party (SNP) have outperformed the larger parties on Twitter in the lead up to the General Election, according to the platform’s vice president of Direct Sales for Europe, Bruce Daisley.
“[They’ve been] punching above their weight," he said, highlighting The SNP’s activity during Jeremy Paxman’s TV interviews with Labour leader Ed Miliband and prime minister David Cameron.
Throughout the programme, SNP spokesman Humza Yousaf responded to the same questions Paxman posed, in real time, pushing the short videos out using the hashtag #TheWiderDebate.
The films were seen more than 400,000 times and the party claims it gained 300 members.
Cameron refused to rule out more #NHS privatisation. We will always keep our #NHS in public hands #TheWiderDebate pic.twitter.com/49qckfiyiu
— The SNP (@theSNP) March 26, 2015
Daisley went on to praise SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon in particular for her use.
“Nicola Sturgeon is superb on Twitter and has been able to slap down things that have been said about her,” such as a story which emerged that she would back the Conservative party.
“She responded instantly and stopped it becoming a news item on mainstream TV,” said Daisley. “There are some stories that might have taken hold [before Twitter] that haven’t.”
His comments came during the Financial Time’s Digital Media conference today (28 April) where he also suggested the support of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have helped drive people to register to vote online.
"Opinion polls don't take this into account, that 10 per cent of the electorate has been added through online registration,” he said.
Daisley went on to cite figures showing over 2.7 million people registered to vote online this year, around 10 per cent of the 27.1 million people that voted at the last General Election in 2010.
In the final week leading up to the registration deadline, Twitter embedded messages within its platform to encourage users in the UK to register online.
In 2010 27.1m people voted. Thanks to social media in 2015 over 2.7m new voters registered to vote. #FTMedia pic.twitter.com/Hp5YdYx27l
— Bruce Daisley (@brucedaisley) April 28, 2015