After the resounding success of the Yes Equality campaign, political parties and candidates were acutely aware of the significant and largely untapped potential of campaigning on social media. 

During the Marriage Equality Referendum, for the first time, social media not only emerged as a new way of shaping the national debate - its clever use helped create, populate and drive local Yes Equality teams and mobilise canvassers and campaigners in ways that we had never seen before.

At Yes Equality HQ, we aimed to use our various social media channels to capture the imagination of the nation and create a campaign that people wanted to be a part of. This was achieved through the use of informative, creative and reliable content people wanted to share with their friends and family.  So much so, it was seen by more than three million people in the weeks leading up to voting day.

Examples of posts which had the highest reach include celebrity ‘memes’ from the likes of Daniel O’Donnell and Mary McAleese, and informative infographics like ‘How to Register to Vote’.

The Yes Equality Twibbon alone was used on over 350,000 Facebook and Twitter profile pictures - a wonderfully simple way for those not politically active to make their contribution.

We created an open and respectable space where people could voice their concerns and ask questions.

“You will not win over floating voters if you engage in negative tactics.”

Yes Equality had a policy of refusing to engage in heated debate online. Although at times it proved difficult, responding to such hostility would have distracted from our aims and objectives. You will not win over floating voters if you engage in negative tactics. This type of messaging only serves to speak to the converted, those who were already voting with us. Our energy and resources were better placed appealing to the fair-natured electorate, who hadn’t quite made up their mind yet.

The creativity and the imagination of the social media campaign broke new ground.

The main political parties took a much different approach. With the rise of popularity of social media, came the rise of the more negative aspects of this way of campaigning and the deployment of ‘attack’ ads on social media aimed at the opposition, with some becoming quite personal. However, across count weekend this was replaced with scenes of jubilation and commiseration as emotional politicians took to online to thanks those who voted for them regardless of the outcome.

One of the key successes of the Yes Equality social media campaign was the ability to use the right platform, at the right time, to deliver the right message. The complex nature of such an emotive referendum issue brought occasions where Yes Equality needed to respond swiftly or adapt to new challenges. The launch of the No side poster campaign created intense feelings of frustration and anger amongst Yes supporters. Through social media, these emotions were harnessed and people were encouraged to financially support the Yes poster campaign –and the donations subsequently flooded in.

The role of social media in the General Election campaign

While it can be argued that it is more challenging to engage people during a general election than it was with such an emotive campaign, there did still exist an opportunity to reach and attract voters in a new and social way. But it appears that this opportunity was all but lost among the main political parties.

With more than 6.8 million Facebook interactions on General Election-related content since November 2015, and in excess of 380k tweets sent during the three week campaign, it is fair to say that social media took on a life on its own during #GE16 but it was the smaller parties and individual candidates, however, who were the breath of fresh air. If votes were being won on social media, my money would have been on the Social Democrats. Stephen Donnelly was the first (and still the only) Irish politician to use Facebook Live, starting a two-way conversation with audiences online. This type of engaging interaction is where the votes are to be won online.

Other notable candidates who raised their head above the parapet include Jackie Cahill in Tipperary, Gary Gannon in Dublin Central, Martin Heydon in Kildare South, Katherine Zappone in Dublin South-West, Ken Curtin in Cork East and Kate O’Connell in Dublin Bay South.

While some will say that this was the first real social media General Election campaign, did it leave a lot to be desired? We the people discussed the issues on social media, the results from count centres across the country broke first on social media, but the main political parties failed to capture our imagination.

As the saying goes “If you lead, they will follow” – not on Facebook or Twitter on this occasion...

Craig Dwyer is the Social Media Manager at Newstalk and former Director of Social Media for Yes Equality, the campaign for civil marriage equality in Ireland.