Campaigning on Twitter

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the use of social media by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the run-up to the European election 2014. It draws on a sample of 275 MEPs who regularly used Twitter. Twitter is a social media platform that allows its users to share short messages with their followers and thus constitutes a means of obtaining inexpensive, unfettered access to voters. The chapter provides an overview of the most active users of Twitter and their success in expanding their support base. Shedding light on diff erences between party groups and member states, it demonstrates that small party groups were most active and that lead candidates and party leaders played a big role in determining success. The chapter concludes with a discussion of incentives under diff erent ballot structures within the proportional representation electoral system used across all member states. In contrast to the expectation arising from the literature, the preliminary data suggest that MEPs elected under preferential voting are neither more frequent nor more successful users of Twitter.