A lack of content makes followers feel disengaged with the posts, thus losing the opportunity to build a good following.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have the striking approach of parties like FVD. They use social media to share their vision of the world and set up these platforms according to their own ideas, such as with FVD news. This leads to a more involved and active base of followers and that will come buy telemarketing datain handy at the next elections.
Disclaimer : These examples are for illustrative purposes only and do not reflect my own political considerations.
Underestimating social media in politics
As indicated, the difference in approach to social media between political parties has led to significant differences in their number of (online) followers. To give you some context: FVD has already gathered more followers since 2017 than VVBringing in from the outside, really listening, interacting, participating. Give it a name, but in short it comes down to the fact that municipalities and other government organizations increasingly have the ambition to no longer just inform and educate via social media. Social media should once again revolve around the conversation. Social media for which it was once invented. We love it!
But for a nice conversation you can also go to the local bakery or visit a coffee shop. A conversation just for the sake of a conversation will not help your organization and ultimately society. So how do you make sure that the conversation actually produces results? And how do you define this result? When does interaction really make sense?
In order to determine where municipalities stand in 2023 in the use of social media, we will once again use the social media use automated eamil marketing for lead qualification yardstick for municipalities. We already wrote about it in 2019. The conclusion at the time was that many municipalities were stuck in phase 2: municipality experiments. Conversation on social media was often still difficult in practice, especially for small and medium-sized municipalities.
Social media yardstick for municipalities
Research: informing and educating
Buzzzle’s research into the use of social media by 60 Dutch municipalities recently produced a similar picture. The bitter conclusion is that in 2023, social media school email list will still mainly be used for what it is essentially not intended for: informing and educating citizens. Yet, in our collaboration with municipalities, we notice that they are becoming increasingly aware of this, and that the need to take ‘the next step’ is increasing. If we follow the social media yardstick further up, you end up in phase 3: municipality converses.