Facebook lights up London Eye into General Election pie chart
Facebook is feeding General Election data into the Coca-Cola London Eye in the run-up to next week’s polling day, lighting up the attraction, according to how people are talking about the parties and their leaders.
Tonight (1 May) saw the start of a week-long series of visualisations of the 52 million election-related interactions from over eight million people on the social network. From the main party's political leaders to the key issues discussed, a different theme will show each evening, highlighting the scale of the General Election conversation happening on Facebook.
The first visualisations, which went live this evening, show which parties are dominating conversations on the social network and then changes daily before a yet-to-be-announced sequence on voting day (7 May). The most talked about topic, party or individual will command a larger slice of the wheel each night, effectively turning it into a giant pie chart.
Tonight’s show could see Ukip come out on top after Facebook data revealed it was the most discussed UK political party between 1 January and 1 May, pulling in over 15.6 million interactions - likes, comments and shares - from three million individuals. The Conservatives ranked in second with 12.2 million interactions from 2.5 million people, followed by Labour’s 9.7 million interactions from two million people.
The stunt comes as Facebook reveals new data about its user’s engagement with the election. Unsurprisingly, interactions around all the parties have accelerated as election day draws nearer with Ukip, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP seeing the largest gains.
Ukip has seen Facebook interactions rocket 60.8 per cent in recent weeks, according to Facebook, as has the Liberal Democrats with 53.8 per cent lift. The Scottish National party also saw interactions climb (53.8 per cent), followed by the Conservatives (48.7 per cent) and Labour (46.9 per cent).
Facebook’s politics and government specialist for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Elizabeth Linder, said: “Politics is huge on Facebook – we expect it to be the most discussed topic in the UK this year. We’ve seen over 52 million interactions related to the General Election so far this year, and we’re excited to be able to bring this conversational election to life in the heart of London using our data and the iconic Coca-Cola London Eye.”
The research also showed that Ukip has a majority share of the discussion in several prominent seats. Nigel Farage’s party is the most talked about party in South Thanet, Thurrock, Rochester & Strood, Uxbridge and South Ruislip (where Boris Johnson is a PCC), Witney (David Cameron’s seat), Doncaster North (Ed Miliband’s seat) and Holborn and St. Pancras (where Natalie Bennett is the PCC), the party found.
Interestingly, the conservatives are the most discussed part in Sheffield Hallam, where Nick Clegg is fighting to keep his seat. The Liberal Democrats are the fourth most talked about party in the Yorkshire seat and are the fifth most discussed party in Paisley and Renfrewshire South, where member Danny Alexander is fighting for re-election.