Category: #TorySocialMedia

#TorySocialMedia

Activate deactivated: Conservatives’ Momentum imitation folds after 8 months

From The London Economic: Activate, the Conservatives’ imitation of Momentum, has folded after just eight months.

The political movement was set up to engage young people in centre-right politics but has struggled to make any headway since it was launched in August last year.

Many have argued that the group was doomed from the start having been set the impossible mission of becoming the vehicle for a conservative mass movement that never existed.

A visit to the Activate website returns a ‘404’ error – while the group’s Twitter account now shows only a single tweet under a revised name of “The artist formerly known as Activate”.

[Read full article on The London Economic…]

The Conservative Party’s Instagram shows their social media game is absolutely terrible

From BuzzFeed: “The Conservatives have been forced to come up with a new social media strategy at their annual party conference.

“Unfortunately for their electoral prospects, this involves paying to push candid mobile phone pictures of middle-aged Cabinet Office minister Damian Green holding a piece of paper into the public’s Instagram feeds.

“Shortly afterwards the Conservatives made another Instagram post: This time it was an overlit picture of defence secretary Michael Fallon sitting in a temporary office.”

[Read full article on BuzzFeed…]

The Tories tried to launch a right-wing Momentum and it’s just embarrassing

From Huck magazine: “Welcome to Activate UK”, read their first Tweet posted yesterday evening, with #activateuk #meme #retweet #rt thrown in for good measure. It’s not just the embarrassing hashtags that suggest whoever is behind the social media operation here is doomed to fail from the offset, anyone with a grip on social media could tell you the their handle (@Activate_uk_net) with its double underscoring is truly an awful choice.

[Read full article on Huck magazine website…]

What the Tories don’t understand about Momentum

Erika Uyterhoeven, digital officer for Momentum, writes in the Guardian: With just one paid staff member and more than 30 volunteers from Edinburgh to Miami, Momentum managed to create social media videos that were watched by nearly one in three UK Facebook users. Ordinary members made the videos. Other members shared them. Both their production and impact were consequences of the movement.

[Read full article on the Guardian website…]

Conservatives look to win back ground on social media with ‘Momentum-style action groups’

From The Drum: The Conservative Party is looking to more effectively mobilise its followers and supporters on social media by emulating far-left organisations like Momentum.

Reeling from losing an effective majority in the recent election, a memo leaked by CCHQ and reported on by the Times said that the party is looking to “broaden its appeal” on social media, and will quadruple its staff working on the channel.

Furthermore, looking across partisan lines he added that the Tories need to embrace “new Momentum-style action groups set up around the country to galvanise the troops”.

[Read full article on The Drum website…]