Dear Editor,
It is over now. The road has been long, but finally the winner has been chosen, admittedly to the surprise of many.
We all watched and listened as the candidates pounded the pavement and journeyed into the crevices of the constituencies across the island to pull out votes. Andrew Holness’s hard work paid off. I wonder, did his social media strategy help him and the other seat winners?
More than ever before, the candidates and their supporters used the social media networks, especially
Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram. It is difficult to measure the gains of their social media use, but what we can say for sure is using it certainly did not hurt!
We did, of course, see how the candidates used social media against each other.
Posting on social media helped the candidates stand out to potential voters, particularly the younger members of our population. Photos, images, and especially videos helped to portray the candidates in almost every situation. Their messages were repeated over and over again via the “sharing” features, reaching thousands of potential voters. It is not just motivating one person to vote but getting their friends to vote as well.
There is much room for improvement of Jamaica’s social media use for political campaigns. Although we saw the candidates and party’s mobilise their campaigns via social media, more can be done.
In other countries, such as the United States, candidates and parties utilise this avenue to more effectively communicate their manifestos and messages. Unlike what we saw this time in Jamaica, for example, for her current campaign for the 2016 nomination, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has launched a social media campaign that focuses on specific issues and topics. It is not the minute-by-minute tweeting and broadcasting of every situation that happens on the campaign trail.
As we continue to mature politically as a nation we will also become more and more sophisticated in our use of social media and technology, as a whole, for the political process. This is still only the beginning.
Lisa-Marie Elliott
Attorney-at-law
lmelliott8@gmail.com
It is over now. The road has been long, but finally the winner has been chosen, admittedly to the surprise of many.
We all watched and listened as the candidates pounded the pavement and journeyed into the crevices of the constituencies across the island to pull out votes. Andrew Holness’s hard work paid off. I wonder, did his social media strategy help him and the other seat winners?
More than ever before, the candidates and their supporters used the social media networks, especially
Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram. It is difficult to measure the gains of their social media use, but what we can say for sure is using it certainly did not hurt!
We did, of course, see how the candidates used social media against each other.
Posting on social media helped the candidates stand out to potential voters, particularly the younger members of our population. Photos, images, and especially videos helped to portray the candidates in almost every situation. Their messages were repeated over and over again via the “sharing” features, reaching thousands of potential voters. It is not just motivating one person to vote but getting their friends to vote as well.
There is much room for improvement of Jamaica’s social media use for political campaigns. Although we saw the candidates and party’s mobilise their campaigns via social media, more can be done.
In other countries, such as the United States, candidates and parties utilise this avenue to more effectively communicate their manifestos and messages. Unlike what we saw this time in Jamaica, for example, for her current campaign for the 2016 nomination, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has launched a social media campaign that focuses on specific issues and topics. It is not the minute-by-minute tweeting and broadcasting of every situation that happens on the campaign trail.
As we continue to mature politically as a nation we will also become more and more sophisticated in our use of social media and technology, as a whole, for the political process. This is still only the beginning.
Lisa-Marie Elliott
Attorney-at-law
lmelliott8@gmail.com