The Digital Election
The debates are over, the tireless political campaigning has stopped and the votes are in. But in terms of who won the ‘Digital Election’ the jury is still out.
This election will go down in history as the most ‘digital’ we have ever seen. Politicians – and bizarrely their wives – took to Twitter to communicate their policies, social media sites such as FaceBook were mobilized to gage voters opinions and it seemed as though almost everyone was taking to the blogosphere to give their two pennies worth.
But who will go down in history as the true digital hero of the 2010 election? Gordon Brown with his outdated blog? The Tories with their ill-conceived i-phone app? No, The Electoral Commission is the true digital hero of this election.
Regardless of the masses of negative press they have received since election night, the Electoral Commission utilised all digital platforms strategically and confidently in an attempt to redress one of the biggest political challenges this country faces – voter apathy.
Unlike Gordon et al who blindly used social media in the most untargeted and unsuccessful way, The Electoral Commission’s digital campaign was targeted and added value to a user’s online experience. Which – ultimately – is what online advertising is all about.
0161 941 5330
Digital is good. It’s the way forward and it’s great that we can expand our horizons, connect with like-minded people we might not otherwise have connected with and have access to vast information on all topics – and making the whole process cost-effective for all concerned.
But if, like me, you watched the election night on BBC, you’ll know that the digital era we live in still has a lot of fine tuning to be done.