Infinite Path

America has made great use of the online space in the last two previous election battles. The UK, however, has been a long way behind. Labour has never made great use of what’s available to them in terms of social media, PPC campaigns, community participation and relationship building.

Even in 2004, America was switched on to the power of what the internet could do for politics. Not only does it allow for a better reach of the message, but it also helps parties communicate to audiences that might be harder to target through traditional campaigns.

The 2008 election battle brought an even fiercer contest online. Barack Obama fully harnessed the options available to his campaign and his message was spread virally with great planning and execution.

America has been forward thinking. The UK, it seems, has obviously not seen sufficient value in an online approach before and has therefore not fully realised the potential in the ‘internet vote’, so to speak.

This week The Sun, the UK national newspaper, ended its 12 year long allegiance with Labour and made a big point of showing its support to the Conservative party. Commentators are now speculating as to whether this change of support is a major tipping point in Labour’s future.

In the past, the national newspapers have had quite an influence on the voting decision of the electorate. However, newspaper circulation has changed drastically now, and the internet plays a much bigger part in whatever result will come about. Regardless of this fact, Labour must still take advantage of the tools available to them, otherwise more credence will be given to the view of a newspaper than is warranted.