6th May 2015

What can we learn from the virtual soapbox?

Despite Westminster being called the mother of all parliaments, from 1265 to 1689 less than 10% of the population had the vote, and then only men. The first truly democratic election in the UK was in 1929 when every man and woman over the age of 21 was given the vote.

In 1929 we were still 4 years away from regular BBC TV programming and radio was still evolving. The real medium of political discourse and party debate was the soap box and street corner.

Fast forward to 2015 and we are in a truly social election. Social media is now increasingly dictating the message. Party leaders are becoming more closeted from actual physical contact with real people, speaking at member and invite only events. Social media is fast becoming the only way in which interaction with real voters is taking place.

Party leaders are also building online communities with David Cameron now having 997k Twitter followers despite the Conservative party only having 170k members.

New terminology is entering our everyday lexicon, such as ‘political troll’ when each party uses social media to influence attack and defend.

This will also be the most digitised election where declarations and new MP's will be known on social media well before announcements on traditional media.

Social media is changing the way in which our democracy works and has practical lessons and warnings for any business using Twitter, Face book or LinkedIn to promote its products and services and engage with clients and potential customers.

The key lessons for me are:

Traditional media is dying as we seek real time reaction to events. How quickly does your business communicate with your most important clients when events that impact on their lives are happening?

Does your business have a process to understand what is important to clients and then keep them updated and more importantly highlight why your business and service is an important part of their lives?

Despite our modern façade, people are basically tribal. How does your business build and grow your tribe?

Does your business clearly articulate what it can do for people and also the type of client it does this for? How do you attract new members to your tribe?

If the message is good then repeat, repeat & repeat. How do you communicate good news and the positive attributes of your business?

Does your business have a plan where you communicate positively, regularly and across different mediums such as newsletters, Twitter and Facebook ensuring you don’t just mention good news once?

Manage bad news quickly don’t hide. How well is your news management process?

Does your business ignore events and hope they go away. People trust those who communicate on a regular basis not just in the good times. Make sure you have a news management process to highlight and control the message in difficult times.

However, I think the biggest lesson we can take is that social media is now part of our societies DNA and any business that does not consider how they can use it is missing out on a number of positive and profitably opportunities.

Going back to 1929 it was known as the flapper election, because it was the first to allow votes for women and interestingly it also resulted in a hung parliament. Perhaps some things never change!

John Joe McGinley

Glassagh Consulting

Follow me on twitter at @glassaghconsult I always follow back

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