DigitasLBi Reveals Surprising Facts About the UK's Political Parties

Social media experts at global marketing and technology agency DigitasLBi have revealed a series of facts about the main political parties, their leaders and their followers, all gleaned from Twitter. Using social analytics tools, the agency was able to discover a host of stats – from the preferred mobile devices of the parties’ followers to the football team most favoured by UKIP supporters.

 

The study also sheds light on the relative effectiveness and engagement levels of the Twitter accounts of the main parties and their leaders, and offers insights into the demographic profile and location of their followers.

 

Fern Miller, Chief Strategy & Insight Officer, International at DigitasLBi said: "In an election where potential alliances and deals have taken centre-stage in the conversation, it’s interesting to see where there are communities of interest amongst parties' followers. We’ve used our best brains to crunch the social data to find intriguing patterns that shine a light on some unexpected behaviour during this Election campaign. As ever, your football team, your phone and your drink of choice demonstrate your allegiance and values."

 

·Green Party leader Natalie Bennett stays up to tweet later than any of the other party leaders, with 30.3% of her tweets being made between 8pm and 11pm.

 

· Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood starts tweeting earlier than other party leaders with 29.3% of her tweets being made between 6am and 10am.

 

· Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon uses an iPad more than any other leader, with 31% of all tweets from her official Twitter account coming from the device.

 

· Liberal Democrat party leader Nick Clegg is the biggest desktop user of all the party leaders with 47% of all tweets from his official Twitter account coming from one.

 

· Conservative Twitter followers are more likely to use a Blackberry than any other party’s followers (5.1%) 

· Green Party Twitter followers are more likely to use an Android phone than any other party’s followers  (39.2%)

· Lib Dem Twitter followers are more likely to use a Windows phone than any other party’s followers (5.6%)

 

· UKIP followers use mobile the most with 63% of all UKIP followers’ tweets coming from a mobile device, with Plaid Cymru the least mobile at 48%.  (UKIP 63%; SNP 59%; Conservatives 50%; Liberal Democrats and Green Party 49%; Labour 48%; Plaid Cymru 48%)

 

· Liberal Democrat followers are more likely than those of the other parties to identify as ale fans (0.24% of Liberal Democrat followers reference ‘ale’ in their Twitter bio). Figures for other parties: Labour 0.23%; Greens 0.21%; Conservative 0.20%

 

· The Conservatives have the highest proportion of CEOs of any party, with 0.2% of followers describing themselves as ‘CEO’ in their Twitter bio. The figure for Labour is 0.1%

· The Conservatives also have the highest proportion of MDs of any party (0.3%). The figure for Labour is 0.1%.

 

· Green Party and Labour have the joint highest proportion of tea drinkers of any party following them (0.2% of each parties’ followers reference ‘tea drinker’ in their Twitter bio).

 

· Labour followers are most likely to be wives/mothers or husbands/fathers.

· 0.4% of Labour fans describe themselves as “wives/mothers” in their Twitter bio (the highest of any party).

· Husbands and fathers are most likely to follow Labour with 1.2% of Labour followers identifying as this in their Twitter bio (the highest of any party).

 

- UKIP is the party of choice for football fans with an overall 2.5% of UKIP’s followers identifying as fans in their Twitter bio – a higher proportion than any other party’s followers. (Cons 1.2%; Lib Dems 0.2%; Green 0.1%; SNP 0.5%; Labour 2.1%).

The key findings of the study can be found here.