PUBLiCUS Releases Final Social Media Intelligence Report
On 1 February 2019, PUBLiCUS Asia released its first Social Media Intelligence Report (SMIR) as a guide for the 2019 midterm elections. Since then, the firm uses this data as a way to monitor how Filipino candidates, campaigners, and voters use Social Media (SM) as a main campaign tool. SMIR measures the social media strength of a candidate by means of four categories: popularity, virality, exposure, and social capacity.The monthly report showed the rankings of candidates based on the candidates’ social media content, reactions, and behavior index. The report is generated using a proprietary software of AutoPolitic (https://www.autopolitic.com) with its CXO, Roger Do, serving as PUBLiCUS’ Social Intelligence Analyst.
The take-aways after May 2019 elections on the use of SM:
- Being active in social media alone is not a guarantee of victory.
- Having a detailed, well-organized social media site can give the needed boost for candidates to be competitive.
- Social media helps stir emotional connections with voters.
These conclusions point out to the importance of social media, considering more people are engaging with the platform. Any political brand will have to get involved in these activities to expand his/her base and secure wider presence or coverage.
The correlation provides that both Popularity and Virality have significant moderate relationships with the final results of the election. Five candidates have consistently ranked well in the Top 12 of these attributes (Poe, Go, Dela Rosa, Marcos, and Revilla) and eventually won. The more viral your videos are, the stronger impression and name recall come E-Day.
The main conclusions of the report were exemplified by two candidates that both did well in SMIR rankings, but ended with different results. Bong Go, who ended up in third place in the election, was consistent in all four categories in SMIR. With a good balance of the President’s endorsement and effective mobilization of social media, Go was able to convert votes with increased virality. However, Dr. Willie Ong, who boasts of having a strong social media following in many platforms, was not able to mobilize his online presence well due to lack of air and ground support which is necessary to aid his digital strength. This can explain his failure to reach the Magic 12, coming in at 18th place.
For questions/inquiries on the SMIR results and analyses please contact Mr. Jake Bergonia at +639285052010 or Mr. Roger Do at +6596170294 (Viber).