Doubts over right-wing web dominance

A new report has cast doubt on the preconception that right-wing commentators really do dominate online social media.

The popularity of commentators such as Iain Dale and Paul Staines has prompted anguish amongst some left-leaning bloggers about why they are failing to develop effective online strategies.

Social Media Affairs chief executive Graham Lee, who's company has developed a database of influential political bloggers, noted that the Conservatives have "the strongest presence currently in the UK political blogosphere".

But the report indicated that beyond the blogosphere, in new areas such as Twitter, Labour has moved ahead of the Tories.

And even amongst bloggers, the gap between Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat is narrower than might be expected.

Political parties

The report suggests the Tories made the fastest start in exploiting the power of the internet.

"The Conservatives were perhaps the quickest to spot the potential fundraising and electoral power of social media and the internet in general, and for a while left their rivals playing catch-up," said the study.

"Even though the government now seems to be getting its act together, the Tories are actively blogging and tweeting, from a grass roots level to the party's leadership."

But pro-Conservative bloggers are only an outright majority amongst all bloggers in the West Midlands.

Labour was described as having "rolled out its big guns in recent months".

But Lee said that since 'smeargate', Labour's presence in social media "has stunted notably".

"During the weeks that news of the scandal took hold, Labourlist, which Derek Draper so effectively grew in 50 days to become a central hub for Labour in the political blogosphere, quickly turned face to house the majority of criticism and furore online," he added.

But contrary to public perception, Labour was identified as having the allegiance of a majority of bloggers in London - the region which also has the largest number of bloggers.

The Lib Dems, perhaps surprisingly, are found to have the support of a majority of bloggers based in seven English regions.

One reason for this may be the finding that a "much higher proportion of Liberal Democrat blogging is being supplied by the party's local councillors".

For the Lib Dems, councillors account for 55 per cent of blogging, against 18 per cent for Labour and 19 per cent for the Conservatives.

The research suggests that traditional Lib Dem activism at a grassroots level may be replicated online.

Bloggers

The report looked at "influential" political bloggers such as MPs, councillors and other commentators, identifying them through their rankings in search engines and links from other major blogs.

Examining their political stances, 19 per cent were identified as Conservative, while Labour and the Lib Dems both accounted for 16 per cent.

The largest proportion, 24 per cent, were found to be non-aligned.

Seven per cent backed the Green Party, three per cent were for the SNP, two per cent for Plaid Cymru and one per cent for the UK Independence Party.

Some 33 per cent of the most influential bloggers were found to be based in London, and a further 10 per cent in the South East.

The capital also has the highest proportion of non-aligned influential bloggers outside Northern Ireland.

Who blogs?

Some 47 per cent of the 'influential' political blogs were found to be written by members of the public.

The report said this "demonstrates the increasing power of the blog as a channel for democratic thoughts and ideas".

"Encouragingly for politicians, perhaps, it also points to a level of interest in government, policy and public affairs that may not at first be obvious in a modern society often described in the media as being indifferent to political issues," it added.

In a sign of the decline of the traditional media, journalists accounted for just five per cent while other media titles took a further seven per cent.

And in an indication that politicians may be having some success in using the internet to connect with the public over the heads of the mainstream media, MPs accounted for seven per cent of bloggers - a larger proportion than the journalists.

Twitter

While a large proportion of bloggers are based in London, amongst those using Twitter the proportion rises still further to 59 per cent.

The figure includes MPs and civil servants using the micro-blogging service.

Using data from Tweetminster on May 22, the report notes that Labour MPs, prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) and official party feeds had a total of 30,268 followers.

The Conservative trailed with a total of 13,706 followers, while the Liberal Democrats had 11,576.

The Tories and Lib Dems "seem somewhat overshadowed by Labour's efforts", said the report.

Labour's dominance was also reflected in the number of 'tweets' being posted on Twitter.

While Labour MPs, PPCs and party feeds had posted 9,573, the Lib Dems had 2,953 and the Tories had 1,459.

But Lee said the impact of 'smeargate' had affected Labour's presence on Twitter too.

"Since the event, the Conservatives have seen 3,276 people join their official party feed, a figure that doubles the 1,625 that Labour has achieved," he said.

Developments

The report concluded that there is "clearly growing take-up of social media among political parties".

"Just as importantly as far as the political organisations are concerned, commentators from the media and general public are starting to discuss the current national and local political scene in greater numbers via blogs, Twitter and other social networks," it added.

"Most of the main political parties have already realised that social media can be used for fundraising and stimulating debate, and are considering ways of getting more involved.

"They must tread a fine line between adding to and attempting to control the blogosphere; the latter tactic could spell political suicide.

"But parties are clearly making strides towards developing long-term social media strategies."

In a foreword to the report, Alastair Campbell said politicians need to stop seeing social media "as an alternative to traditional media communications".

"It is not about by-passing the papers or TV. It is understanding that people are both more demanding and more understanding than they get credit for," he said.

"It means the politicians have to set out the choices, set out the reasons for decisions they want to make, never tire of explaining - but understand it is less easy to know if the message is getting through. The public have more say, and a greater appetite, than ever before."