The work behind the representation

A qualitative study on the strategic work of the communicators behind political social media accounts.

Arbetet bakom representationen En kvalitativ studie om kommunikatörers strategiska arbete bakom sociala medier. Erik Holm Andersson Linn Lyngen

Humaniora

Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap

15 hp

Theo Röhle 05/02-16

Abstract

Social media has given politicians another platform to perform campaigning in. This

essay has been a study on the relationships between politicians, social media,

communicators and their mutual work behind what is published. Has this relatively

new form of media channel affected the way that politicians market themselves

online? How does the work behind the social media channels look, what strategies are

planned behind the representation for the party leader to stand for an entire ideology

with its values?

The research questions of this study:

- Do the strategic work from a communicator affect what is published on the politicians personal

account and the official party account, and to what extent?

- How do the communicators of Swedish political representatives use social media? Do they express

their communication in a personalized manner or focus mainly on the professional part of their

assignment?

- What are the most important aspects in communicating through social media?

A personalization within political campaigning has increased during the past time,

much because of the new media channels working together with the traditional media

channels, leaving not much to be hidden about the person that is the representative

for the ideology at hand. Personalization does not mean what the person is but what

qualities that this person shows. How much personalization is presented is dependent

on the political climate that is in the country at hand, but this study focuses on the

Swedish political climate, where personalization has become a more important part of

campaigning, whether on social media or physical campaigning.

Social media can not only work as a way of presenting a party leader or the ideology

but as a mobilization factor for the followers of the political accounts. This can mean

information of when a political representative are to hold a press conference or

present an important message in a debate, to be able to lead followers to watch the

representatives in more mediums than social media. In this study it has become clear

that this differs between the different social media channels, as the strategies varies to

the different target groups that are followers of the accounts.

An important factor that has come up from doing this study is personal branding and

branding in organizations. Since it is of great value that the representatives of the

ideology perform all communication through the ground values of the party, this

study has shown that the work of the communicators is of the most important value,

to put a strategy together that will work as a ground for all campaigning in the party,

no matter physical or online.

This study has brought most theoretical focus on organizational branding,

personalization and mobilization. This laid the ground for the interview questions that

we created as a method of finding the results that best would answer our research

questions. We interviewed eight respondents from seven different parties, that were

hired either as communicators or media strategists with focus on social media

channels and campaigning through them. The results showed both differences and

similarities from the respondents. For example opinions differed in social media and

its effect on the political climate, but they did all agree on the way that a strategy

needs to be performed to best get a positive result of an online campaign. The study

came to the conclusion that social media can improve the democratic participation

from the people who use it, as it is an interactive media that reaches many big target

groups, but that it is of importance to know that it needs to be combined with

traditional ways of campaigning. The communicators all told that meeting people

physically is of importance to succeed online as well.

Sammanfattning Sociala medier inom politiken har medfört ännu ett nytt medium för politiker att synas i. Denna

uppsats ämnar att undersöka förhållandet mellan sociala medier, kommunikatörer och politiker. Har

denna nya form av media påverkat sättet politiker marknadsför sig själva online? Hur ser arbetet ut

ut bakom plannerandet av kandidaten för att denna ska representera hela partiets politiska

värderingar och ideologi?

Denna uppsats forskningsfrågor:

- Påverkar det strategiska jobbet en kommunikatör utför det som publiceras på politikerns privata konto och på

partiets officiella konto, och hur mycket?

- Hur mycket påverkar kommunikatörers strategiska jobb vad som publiceras på de sociala medierna?

- Vad är de viktigaste aspekterna att ha med i en kommunikativ strategi för att bäst nå en framgångsrik kampanj

inom sociala medier?

En personalisering inom politiken har ökat under den senaste tiden mycket tack vare alla nya och

traditionella medier som publiken kan följa politiken med. Personalisering syftar på inte på personen

själv utan på egenskaper som personen besitter. Graden av personalisering och hur det sker beror

delvis på hur det politiska klimatet ser ut i respektive land och i vilken omfattning det sker i.

Kommunikationen via sociala medier i politiken sker inte bara utåt utan även inom partiet för att

mobilisera medlemmar inom partiet, det kan leda till att man försöker presentera när partiledare eller

andra representater skall framföra ett viktigt budskap i en debatt eller en presskonferens eller

liknande, där information via sociala medier kan inspirera följare att uppmärksamma detta. Detta

syns tydligt i vissa sociala mediekanaler mer än andra, då det genom denna studie blivit klart att

strategier bakom kommunikationen varierar mellan de olika sociala medierna. Personlig branding

och branding av organisationer inom politiken kan användas för att på ett effektivt och strategiskt

framställa en representant för ideologin och hela partiet på ett så lämpligt sätt som möjligt. Då det är

av vikt att representanter för ideologin skall framföra alla sina budskap genom de grundvärden som

ideologin står för, har det visat sig genom denna studie att en gemensam strategi bakom

kommunikationen som framförs är av vikt i både fysisk och online kampanjer inom politiken.

Vi valde att lägga fokus på organizational branding, mobilization och personalization när vi skapade

våra intervjufrågor till den intervju som vi utförde på åtta stycken respondenter i form av antingen

kommunikatörer eller mediestrateger i sju stycken olika svenska politiska partier.

I resultatet av dessa intervjuer så fann vi många likheter men även skillnader i åsikter och

tillvägagångssätt från partiernas representanter. Vi upptäckte att vissa hade olika uppfattningar om

vilken betydelse sociala medier har för politiken men att den genomgående processen att sköta

konton för det officiella partiet och hanteringen av partiledares och offentliga personers konton sker

på liknande sätt.

Denna studie kom till slutsatserna att sociala medier kan öka det demokratiska deltagandet hos användarna som väljer att använda sociala medier i politiska syften. Sociala medier kan ha en stor påverkan om det når en stor publik men fortfarande behåller andra former av kommunikation väger starkt, som till exempel att fysiskt träffa sina väljare ute på torg och gator.

Preface This preface is enclosed to this study to confirm that both authors did equal parts of this study and take equal responsibility for what is written and the results presented. In no shape or form did one author perform more or less than the other.

List of Swedish parties mentioned throughout the study The following parties will be mentioned with the English title in the essay, along with the mentioning of the leaders of the parties. To make this a simple transition, this summary is to help get the names in context. The Moderates - Moderaterna, party leader: Anna Kinberg Batra. The Feminist party - Feministiskt initiativ, F!, party leader: Gudrun Schyman. The Left-wing Party - Vänsterpartiet, party leader: Jonas Sjöstedt. The Liberal Party - Folkpartiet, party leader: Jan Björklund. The Christian Democrats - Kristdemokraterna, party leader: Göran Hägglund/Ebba Busch Thor. The Center Party - Centerpartiet, party leader: Annie Lööf. The Pirate Party – Piratpartiet, party leader: none. The Social Democrats – Socialdemokraterna, Party leader: Stefan Löfven.

Contents 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………..1 1.2 Research questions and problem definition…………………………………………………... 1 2. Purpose and objective………………………………………...……………………………………... 2 2.1 Outline of the study…………………………………………………………………………….... 2 2.2 Context of the study……………………………………………………………………………….2 3. Background of the subject…………………………………………………………………………… 3 3.1 Background of social media and new technology……………………………………………..3 3.2 The political electoral system of Sweden……………………………………………………… 5 3.3 Discussion of technology and campaigning in Sweden…………………………….............. 5 4. Previous research………………………………………………………………………................... 6 4.1 Social media and building bonds………………………………………………………………. 6 4.1.1 Twitter…………………………………………………………………………..................... 6 4.1.2 Instagram………………………………………………………………………................... 7 4.1.3 Facebook……………………………………………………………………………………. 8 4.1.4 Youtube……………………………………………………………………………………… 9 5. Theory…………………………………………………………………………………………………10 5.1 Personalization…………………………………………………………………………………. 10 5.2 Mobilization……………………………………………………………………………………… 12 5.3 Branding in official organizations……………………………………………………………... 13 5.4 The risk of being on interactive media……………………………………………………….. 14 6. Method……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 14 6.1 Semi-structured interviews……………………………………………………………………. 15 6.2 List of respondents of the interviews………………………………………………………… 15 6.3 Selection of the respondents…………………………………………………………………. 15 6.4 The interview questions……………………………………………………………………….. 16 6.5 Validity and reliability………………………………………………………………................. 17 6.6 Analyzing the interviews……………………………………………………………................ 18 6.7 Ethical guidelines in interviews……………………………………………………………….. 19 7. Result………………………………………………………………………………………………... 19 7.1 Personal and professional approaches on social media…………………………………… 19 7.2 Different strategies and approaches for different social media channels………………… 20 7.2.1 Facebook…………………………………………………………………………………… 21 7.2.2 Instagram…………………………………………………………………………………... 21 7.2.3 YouTube…………………………………………………………………………………… 22 7.2.4 Twitter………………………………………………………………………………………. 22 7.2.5 Summary of the different approaches for the different social media channels……... 23 7.3 Negative aspects of using social media in a political campaign…………………….......... 23 7.4 A mobilization factor for the party………………………………………………………………24 7.5 Can a successful social media campaign contribute to a better result in an election?......24 7.6 Branding and presenting the ideology…………………………………………………………26 7.7 Smaller and bigger parties in communicating on social media……………………………..27 8. Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………..29 8.1 Personalization…………………………………………………………………………………..29

8.2 Mobilization……………………………………………………………………………………….30 8.3 Branding………………………………………………………………………………….…..30 8.4 Critical discussion of social media use in campaigning…………………...…………….31 9. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….. 31

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1. Introduction In this chapter, there will be a background of the subject presented and a specification of what this

study strives to be will be explained. This chapter is meant to give the reader a better entrance to the

subject that is going to be researched throughout the study. There will also be a purpose presented, a

description of the research questions that will lay the ground for our thesis, and the outline of the

study will be presented.

This is an interesting subject due to the fact that social media has become an essential part in the

way politicians communicate and interact with their followers. In the relatively short amount of time

that these media platform has existed, it has become one of the more obvious ways of

communicating with the possible electors in a more interactive way than previously possible. What is

hoped to be brought to light with this study and what is important to communicate is the work that

goes on behind the social media accounts and what is uploaded on these channels with the help of

the communicators and media strategists.

Campaigning is an integral part in politics when discussing its affect on people. Political campaigning

and the following result parties get in the election process is a consequence of the work made in the

campaign. This is one of a few phases in politics where it is possible to measure how well the work

in the politicians is interpreted by the general public and the electors. This essay therefore find it

relevant to analyze and cover this part of the political work in order to find contributions to the final

result in an electoral process. When analyzing campaigning in relation to the political parties social

media work different factors can be found in order to see how the two phenomenons coalesce

together in order to achieve the best final result as possible. To be clear of what is signified as a

campaigning process in this study, it will refer to the four years between elections and the finish of

the campaign right before the election. As social media is a constant factor of news feed, we feel that

only the campaigning finish is not enough to analyze what the politicians want to post on their

channels.

1.2 Research questions and problem definition

What this essay strives to research is how the growth of social media and new technologies in

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general have affected the way politicians through communicators market themselves online. The

research will try to find how the social media has changed the way of campaigning and presenting

political parties online and if there is an ongoing work behind the actual candidate in planning of

how to represent the candidate for the ideology at hand and if there is a strategy behind how all

politicians are supposed to enhance specific features to better get a big base of followers online.

Social media has not only become a way to present the parties main points, but also to market and

brand the candidate representing the ideology. It is an interactive medium leading to an easier way to

directly answer and discuss not only with colleagues but also the electors. To better be able to create

a focus to fall back on throughout this research, a few research questions have been formed.

This study attempts to answer the following research questions:

- Do the strategic work from a communicator affect what is published on the politicians personal account and the

official party account, and to what extent?

- How do the communicators of Swedish political representatives use social media? Do they express their

communication in a personalized manner or focus mainly on the professional part of their assignment?

- What are the most important aspects in communicating through social media?

With this it is meant to come to a conclusion on what the evolution of social media has meant from

the perspective of communicators, media strategists and also of the politicians in their campaign

strategies. What doors that have been opened as a way of communicating directly with possible

electors and what positive and negative aspects have come up as it is an ever available and open

forum for all to participate in. How much of what is published that is from the actual politician and

how much is directed from a communicator that is read by their followers on social media is going

to be researched in this study. How the planning behind the publishing on both personal and official

party accounts is manifested and what is taken into consideration in this planning is also something

that will be researched in the empirical work of this study. The research will strive to find answers as

to what is most focused on by the strategists and the communicators - whether it being them

showing a more personal version of the politician to create a possible way of easier connection for

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the followers, or a professional approach more focusing on the political standpoints in current

events. To be able to understand how the media strategists and communicators work with what to

publish on the accounts, we need to know how big their role is in this part of their work and how

much they can affect what is published. After that we are able to find out what it is that they find to

be of most value to present in their strategy, how they form it and in what ways the politician is

presented in the most lucrative way, if a personal or professional approach is more used.

When using strategies for social media, it might differ in the major parties in Sweden, like the social

democrats and the Moderates, and the smaller parties like the Feminist party, if they do or do not

have media strategists and communicators that are hired to work with what is posted on their social

media channels. It might differ in the way that strategist and communicators value the tool of social

media in the Swedish campaigning system and the possible negative aspects of this evolution. An

interesting aspect to see at the end of this study is whether the opinions from the communicators

and the media strategists differ on how important the social media channels are or that the social

media followers of a politicians are strictly there for entertainment purposes.

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2. Purpose and objective

The purpose of this study is to try and present the way communicators work behind the social media

accounts of the official representatives (in this case politicians and official accounts) on social media

channels. How communicators and media strategists within the parties present a plan on what to

express, how to handle the communication with the public and what should be expressed and

withhold within the frames of the person to portray. Essentially this is a study on the work that goes

on behind the social media accounts, what the followers of politicians gets to see and what strategy

lay behind it. It will be researched to what extent communicators have control over what will be

published, how the balance between professional and personal posts is measured and for what

purpose they use social media in general. The work behind the presentation of politicians and how

social media has evolved it.

2.1 Outline of the study

The outline of this study will be presented in a traditional manner where the background and the

situation of the Swedish campaigning landscape will be described. There will be a short presentation

of the four major social media platforms that are as of today mostly utilized by Swedish politicians

and in what way previous research states that they should best be utilized. After this there will be a

short summary on why social media has such a vast part in communication and an important tool

maintaining the public interest for the political situation in Sweden between the electoral periods,

thus making the four years in between as important campaigning periods.

2.2 Context of the study

The study will try to find answers to how social media is utilized by communicators as a tool in the

four years between elections and in the actual electoral campaigning period. This is to be able to

make the politicians connect with more people in a different manner than possible before, since the

interactivity that is on social media creates a possibility to establish a bond between the politician

and the electors. Social media provides the opportunity for the politicians to show a more personal

side of themselves. Social media is available for the followers at all times, and being personal on

accounts can give the feel of being unfiltered as opposed to news feed of the media, thus giving the

impression of a personal bond. The study will aim to find how social media works as a tool of bridge

building for the politically active people and how the communicators behind these accounts plan for

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the way it is to be used. The purpose of the essay will be to try to present the way a strategic plan is

presented for the politicians before starting to use the accounts, and how these strategies might take

form. It will also be researched what the communicators feel are the strongest privileges in having

the ability to use social media is and how they think it has affected the way of campaigning both in

positive and negative way.

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3. Background of the subject This chapter is a presentation of the evolutionary process of social media and new technology to

provide a more grounded understanding of why this evolution has changed the communication in

politics of today. Together with a shorter description of the electoral system in Sweden this will

build a better based understanding to our stand point of this study.

3.1 Background of social media and new technology

New technology and social media has been through a rapid evolutionary process, in which vast

changes in the way we live our everyday life has been revised. The availability not only of news, but

of official people through social media enables the public to follow them on a daily basis. Social

media allows contact between all people which increases the availability of the politicians and their

personal life, as they have become even more public than before. This equals a change in the way

people communicate with each other, in how they get their daily news. However, what will be

focused on in this study is the change in how people can now get their information from their own

choice of politicians and the portrayal of the politicians online.

The role as a representative of an ideology has become more public due to the evolution of social

media. The public can now chose who they want to follow and thereby get information from, so the

pressure of maintaining a good appearance is constant. The followers have the power to choose who

they want to follow, but the communicators and the media strategists can use this as tool just as

well. It is a quick and interactive way of communicating with the people that they want to have by

their side, and it gives the opportunity for a new way of campaigning. The politicians now have a

new way of presenting themselves, and the communicators are able to better strategically plan how

they want to portray their politician.

The development of new technology almost ensures that one election will differ from another in the

way the media landscape is during that particular time (Gulati, 2010). In the 1954 American election

there was a large shift in the media landscape, when the television succeeded as the primary medium

to provide its public with information and messages surrounding the election (Gulati, 2010).

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Before the invention of the television the radio was the only way for the public to get a direct

connection with the candidates or the politicians, except for seeing them live during gatherings in

public spaces (Spiller & Bergner, 2011). That is why the Republican side chose to dedicate the largest

part of their campaign budget in radio campaigning, because of the direct communication it offers

(Spiller & Bergner, 2011). The entrance of the television resulted in a whole new level of personal

connection from the candidates to the public, through an instant and direct medium (Spiller &

Berger, 2011). Television is still one of the leading and largest channels for information (Spiller &

Berger, 2011). However today the Internet has taken over the role of videos, since YouTube

provides the possibility to reach a larger amount of people through sharing videos on other social

media platforms through linking and sharing of clips added by the politicians or by other accounts

(Harvey, 2014). Social media has become somewhat of a spin off product of the Internet. This has

become the easiest way for the politicians to spread messages as a press conference or a speech can

be uploaded and shared both in text and video (Spiller & Bergner, 2011).

Larsson and Kalsnes (2014) discuss the possibility of the different ideologies having less focus in the

new media channels, as Facebook and Twitter focus more on the personal contact and brand of the

politicians. This might be an evolution of campaigning in politics with a change coming towards the

importance of branding the representative of an ideology with good personal traits, appreciated by

most, rather than focusing on the importance of the questions the ideology stands for at first hand.

In smaller countries like Sweden, this can of course be a good thing looking at it from democratic

purposes, as the political system gives votes from electors to a number of parties (even though it has

become more like America with the block politic system) rather than just two opposing candidates.

This can be a positive new trend for smaller parties wanting to break through and be heard over the

bigger parties being present from many years back, as with a colorful and special campaign you can

reach out and get the attention wanted through social media, without having to spend a vast amount

of money on more traditional ways of campaigning.

“To be able to have a publically free way of building opinions, and for it to have meaning demands a public space for

them to be aired, created and discussed. Along with the official powers creating a space for this to happen, it shall also

create the opportunity for the people to get in contact and communicate with official people that work as the

representatives of the will of the people.” (Asp & Bjerling, 2014 p.8)

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This citation from the authors of Mediekrati (Asp & Bjerling, 2014) can indicate the possibilities and

the positive sides of using social media in the everyday campaigning of politicians. Not to mention

the campaigning during the electoral run before the actual election. This shows that social media

provides an interactive way to communicate, if not with the electors then at least to them, and being

able to see the reactions and responses the post gets, in an immediate manner. For the lesser

established parties, social media is a good way of being able to air and express the opinions that

might not have been as easy to do in the way of campaigning that is possible for those parties that

have a budget to perform a physical campaign. Online campaigning provides the possibility to reach

a large percentage of the population, for free, and in an interactive way leading to a bigger chance of

making connections with other people with similar opinions and thus growing a larger base as a

party.

3.2 The political electoral system of Sweden

“All official power in Sweden originates from the people” (RF 1:1) The power of the Swedish

people is almighty in the system of a democratic voting system that Sweden has, and in most other

democracies (Asp & Bjerling, 2014). The votes from the people are evolved and put into use

through a system with different parties that have elected representatives that act as a messenger from

the people into the actual system where the votes are given a right to change. This means that

Sweden is a representative democracy (Asp & Bjerling, 2014). The votes of the Swedish people are

selected every four years, meaning the elected politicians then have a four year period to fulfill the

promises made during the campaigning pre election, to make sure they have another four years

coming after that. This is how the power of the people works, they have a chance to change the way

that the country is run if not satisfied with the four years that have passed. This system, however,

requires that the people actually use their right to vote, and to get a result worthy of keeping a

democratic voting system, people need to vote. In Sweden, voting numbers have been relatively high

throughout the years, with an 83% turnout in 2014. Previous elections have had percentages in a

similar range, from the 1994 election with 86,6% of the people allowed to vote that did, and turnout

rates never falling below 80% since. (Valmyndigheten, 2014)

The electoral campaigns in Sweden usually spread over 4-6 weeks. These weeks contain massive

amounts of people who mostly volunteer for the party of their choosing standing in booths around

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the cities of the country. This in addition to the politicians touring the country doing lectures and

visiting schools, central stations and further, as well as doing many television interviews and

discussions. Fifty years ago, most of the Swedish people knew what party they would cast their vote

on before the campaigning started, over 80% in fact had already decided (Asp & Bjerling, 2014 p.8).

Those numbers are today looking a lot different, and in the 2010 election less than half of the people

that were asked had decided before the real campaigning had started (Asp & Bjerling, 2014 p.8).

From the perspective of a communicator or a media strategist, this is a strong indicator that the

campaigning process is a very important time to get the undecided people to cast their vote on their

specific politician. It also states that the four years between this intensive campaigning can lead to

many people changing opinions leading to them being indecisive at the end. A good ground of

campaigning these four years could then maybe lead to the percentage of decided people before the

intensive pre-election campaigning to once again rise.

3.3 Discussion of technology and campaigning in Sweden

This chapter has shown that the way of campaigning has been changing immensely throughout the

evolution of the technology, and politicians and communicators has had and still have to adjust their

way of presenting their main issues and representatives along with the continuous evolution along

with it. Before television only the rhetorical points and pictures were relevant as speeches were

limited to radio and appearances on squares, then came the television were the representative had to

be able to present him or herself in a respectable manner and now there is a time of a constant

availability that both communicators and politicians need to adjust to.

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4. Previous research This chapter will present previous research made by scientists in the field of social media relating

politics. Much research has been done on social media and political external communication from

this platform, but most of it is research on American campaigns. Therefore this study aims to find

more material and contribute to a bigger trend to research the way social media is used and its

effects on campaigning in Sweden.

4.1 Social media and building bonds

Social media is a relatively new phenomenon that has been researched by many, because of different

effects and impacts it may have on people using it in their everyday life. Using social media as a tool

to communicate through with followers and possible electors is something that politicians quickly

got a hold on (Dahlqvist, Melin 2010). The three biggest social media platforms in Sweden are

Twitter, Instagram and Facebook which is why these are the ones that will be focused on in the

explaining of the previous research that has been done within this subject.

As social media is the new way of presenting a politician and an ideology, most of our research is

based on how they are used by communicators and later the politicians. A description of the

different platforms is a way of making it easier for the reader to later in the study analysis and result

be able to grasp the possibilities put forward by our informants as their main points in using them.

Many of the respondents in our research mentioned the importance of adjusting their

communicational strategy depending on what social media the message was to be published on. The

purpose of the different publications needs to follow the same basic message, but developed and

used along with the different perks that the platforms allow.

Most of the respondents stated that they do work with a strategy on what to post to their social

media accounts, and that the strategies differ depending on their planned target groups of the

platforms.

Further will be a presentation of the different social media platforms most used by the Swedish

political partys, what unique traits they have, and to what target groups they are aimed.

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4.1.1 Twitter Using Twitter can give a politician the possibility to show the followers facts and what is planned to

be done within the party, but can also be used as a bridge builder of trust between the politician and

the electors. Twitter is a social media forum, and one of the most popular microblogs there is, where

a person is only allowed to express themselves with 140 characters, which forces a short and

intimate message that is shared with the followers of the account (Kim, Park, Rho, 2015). The

followers at hand can then, if liking the post, choose to “retweet” the post to their own followers,

creating a spread of the post. Since you can only post 140 characters, Twitter is designed for

personal messages that build social presence between people (Wigand, 2010). This social media

channel can be used not only as a bridge builder between people who can have a conversation, but

to share information via links from other web sites, provide sources and share information from the

party the politician represents, which is a key in creating the trust for the representative that is

strived for in using social media (Kim, Park, Rho, 2015).

Most countries have some sort of a mistrust for the government and how they manage the nation,

and according to Kim, Park and Rho (2015) social media can be a solution to the problem. This

through communicating in the direct manner that social media provides, it is an available source for

most people living in an evolved part of the world, where smartphones have the social media

applications available for most in their pockets. By communication through these microblogs that

Twitter is one of, or by posting pictures on Instagram, sharing a post on Facebook, whether it is by

informational purposes, educational purposes or by sharing something of a personal manner, a

better bond of trust can be build between the representative politician and the possible electors or

followers that gets this message (Kim, Park, Rho, 2015). One aspect of the trustworthiness of social

media is that it gives a transparent impression from the the politician sending a Tweet or posting on

other social media, as it is a message that gets directly seen by the follower, and it gives a feeling of

communication between the two even if seen by thousands (Kim, Park, Rho, 2015). An open

politician sharing information about the politics and about the life of the person behind the official

status can create trust as the transparency shows what is felt like the real person sharing information

with you directly.

4.1.2 Instagram

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Instagram is a picture based social media, where shorter videos can be uploaded and shown to the

followers account. A media channel where a person, an organization or a political party can upload

pictures to directly communicate with their followers, and add a text of description underneath.

From the start of Instagram, only pictures could be uploaded to their followers, however, since

Facebook Inc. bought the company in 2012 the launched the feature of uploading videos. This

social media forum often shows more personal sides of the representatives of political parties, where

the posts uploaded mostly consists of the representative meeting supportive followers, family

pictures and behind the scenes of the political endeavours that their life consists of on a daily basis

(Harvey, 2014). In the American election campaign in 2012, Barack Obama encouraged his followers

to post pictures themselves and use a “hashtag” of #BarackObama2012 (Harvey, 2014). The

hashtag is a feature that creates a forum in itself, where all the public accounts using it under a

pictures allows for an enormous collage of, in this case, support for the candidate. It is a way of

using the features of Instagram to become an even more interactive media than it already is as it

connects other people in what they support in more ways than the comment fields of the candidates

picture itself.

4.1.3 Facebook

The most popular and frequently used social media in the world is Facebook (Harvey, 2014). It is a

media platform with the focus on enabling groups and communities which can strengthen the social

ties between not only personal friends but from organizations and other official groups as well

(Harvey, 2014). This social media is built on a persons first and last name, where they work and what

their interests are. There are different “pages” on which the person can click “like” and it will end up

in their interest file, enabling people with similar interests to connect and share. These pages can be,

not only different styles of music or celebrities that the person decides to like, but also of official

people like politicians or the political party in its whole. Facebook was initially started as a

community only for Harvard students, but gradually expanded and is now a worldwide platform

used by more than 1.11 billion people (Harvey, 2014). Since this platform is created to connect

people with similar interests, or at least to have a profile based on what your interests are to be able

to connect through these, a risk of homophily is at hand, which will be further explained in this

paper (Harvey, 2014).

Facebook was first associated with the U.S midterm political campaign in 2006, where the running

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politicians were given an account on facebook to easier be able to connect with possible voters

(Harvey, 2014). In 2008 it was very connected to the Obama campaign, some contemplating if it

helped with the campaign so much it generated the win and the way future campaigns are run, but

has not been fully established (Harvey, 2014). As a new way of campaigning that social media

(Facebook) was in 2006 most politicians did not use this tool to its full possible extent, but as

another one way communication tool, whilst some seized the opportunity and used it to engage and

interest the younger crowd that then were the main target of Facebook (Harvey, 2014).

Facebook also initiated a page called the U.S politics page where updates and information on how to

use social media in political campaigns are uploaded, links to other pages with information on social

media or politics can be found and information of the political situation can be accessed by private

people. A study on politics and voters using Facebook showed that these efforts made by the social

media platform has been successful as the people of America that uses Facebook are more likely to

vote that those who do not have it (Harvey, 2014). Facebook has since 2012 been seen as a standard

way of communicating with voters in a political campaign, and it has also been known to raise an

interest in before not so likely target groups (Harvey, 2014).

Occupy Wall Street (2011) and the Arab spring (2011) have been two different movements that have

gotten vast amounts of time on other media channels like television and newspapers most likely

because of the enormous support the movements got on Facebook, from all around the world

(Harvey, 2014). This can, among all the before stated campaigns that has found success in using

Facebook as a tool of communication, stand as a proof that Facebook is a good way of campaigning

when wanting to reach as big of a target group as possible. This social media platform allows its

users to post longer texts, pictures, videos and share other people and organizations posts.

4.1.4 YouTube

YouTube was founded in 2005 and was bought by Google in 2006 (Harvey, 2014). It is a website

that enables users to easily upload videos, leave comments and share the links of videos and

accounts that they are fond of, all of these services are offered for free. YouTube also leaves the

opportunity to embed the links of the videos onto other websites, making it easy to spread a video

throughout the Internet (Harvey, 2014). After the first five years of the existence of YouTube, they

were placed on the top 10 most viewed websites in the world (Harvey, 2014 p.1411). YouTube

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functions in 60 languages and is spread in 43 countries over the world, meaning a video success in a

campaign can lead to an enormous spread that can help or wreck a political campaign (Harvey,

2014). This makes this media platform a very powerful tool to use in a social media campaign. In

2006, a senator posing for re-election got a social mishap caught on video that through YouTube

spread and became a viral phenomenon. This lead to the senators fall and became an opening of the

gate of politics on this social media platform (Harvey, 2014).

In 2008, the platform became a bigger focus in the actual campaigning for the first time, when

Barack Obama and John McCain used YouTube as a battleground of political speeches (Harvey,

2014). In Sweden, YouTube is used mostly to post political debates by the television channel's

official accounts that post them post airing, and press speeches by the party leader on the official

party accounts. However, slips and mishaps for political officials in Sweden are highly at risk of

being spread quickly on YouTube as well. For example since being elected in 2014 the prime

minister of Sweden has been a target for many shared videos of thing said wrong or slips in general.

YouTube has transformed from the type of medium where political errors were published as a way

of making fun, into a place where the political communication takes place in a serious manner

(Harvey, 2014). It is a way of being able to let communicators use their skills and creating a visual

and interesting campaign as well as publishing speeches and press conferences, along with creating a

transparency from politician to followers.

“YouTube has provided new ways for politicians to reach audiences, particularly younger demographics, and has

allowed lesser-known candidates to have a platform. YouTube has also been credited with increasing the accountability

of candidates, elevating the democratization of information, minimizing political artificiality, and increasing

transparency. No longer can politicians ignore or deny previous statements, as recorded and often unscripted moments

have a way of taking on a new life in the YouTube domain.” (Harvey, 2014 p. 1412)

This shows that there is a possibility of increasing a trust through being visible on interactive media

platforms like YouTube, since there is a more genuine way of communicating with followers and

electors, with the perceived feeling of lesser artificiality in the message brought. If something that is

stated is denied or proved wrong, the politician and his/her statement is recorded and they are

forced to stand by it or publically change their statement. This too is a risk with being on social

15

media, thus bringing the work and strategic planning of communicators to an all that much more

important level, as it is show time all the time and it will stick no matter what.

Barack Obama used Youtube frequently in his campaign and posted 1.820 videos during his entire

campaign on his Youtube channel (Gulati, 2010). Gulati describes Obama’s web initiative in the

following manner “ it was an attempt to demonstrate the participatory and community aspects of the campaign to

both supporters and observers” (2010, p.194). Obama’s online aspect of his campaign was about selling

the concept of his campaign instead of encourage his candidate ambition (Gulati, 2010). The Barack

Obama strategy online and in the social medias was meant to highlight the campaign instead of

promoting the ambition of Obama himself (Gulati, 2010).

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5. Theory

In this chapter the theories used to conduct this study are presented. The theories will be the ground

from which the study will take form and the ground that our analyzed material will fall back on.

Most focus will lay on personalization as it is most fitted with the aim of the research questions of

the study, and social media provides a personalized perspective of campaigning, which are the main

points of this theory.

Social media is available for most people in Sweden. Therefor the public can easily take part in

different parties communication, as well as participate in different events posted on the different

platforms. This is why mobilization is one of the theories that will be presented in this chapter of the

study.

5.1 Personalization Personalization within politics has increased over the last decades (Holtz-Bacha, Langer & Merkle,

2014). Personalization is not a new occurrence, but rather it is as old as politics itself (Holtz-Bacha,

Langer & Merkle, 2014). However the personalization has grown to a new and larger extent and

developed because of different factors related to media. One of these factors is that television

encourage personalization to a larger degree (Holtz-Bacha, Langer & Merkle, 2014). Another non-

media related factors are basically the development of the society and changes in the political setup

in general, that has generated an effect of increased personalization (Holtz-Bacha, Langer & Merkle,

2014). The kind of personalization focused on in this study can also be described as a kind of

“individualization” or a “presidentialization”, because of the leaders of the parties being more

highlighted in the media and to a larger extent work as a representative of the ideology rather than

just someone who is there to represent the votes of the people (Holtz-Bacha, Langer & Merkle,

2014). The leaders of the parties gets exposed in the media even though there is not an election

period in progress or political active period, with their personal life and their families brought into

the light of the media as well. Politicians and their private life are often the topic on a tabloid

headline for example, which can be an example of what was stated above.

Personalization does not focus mostly on the person itself, the personalization in this sense is

focusing more on the character or the personality the individual holds (Holtz-Bacha, Langer &

17

Merkle, 2014). This means that it can be created a whole image and personality through a few

characteristics found useful in, for example, a political campaign. Different countries have different

sorts of personalization within their political climate. The differences occur because of the diverse

electoral and parliamentary system the country currently holds (Holtz-Bacha, Langer & Merkle,

2014). A study of personalization of politics was made in Germany and the United Kingdom in

order to find similarities or differences in the way they practice their personalization. The way the

media approaches elections and politics is also a large contributor to the way personalization look

different in different countries. Discoveries in this study indicated that the focus was on the leaders

of the three largest parties and a very small amount of focus was on the other parties leaders that

represented minor ideologies (Holtz-Bacha, Langer & Merkle, 2014). In Germany the focus was on

the the two top candidates of the largest parties, but in contrast to the discoveries in the UK there

was much more focus on the smaller parties and its leaders, by the German media (Holtz-Bacha,

Langer & Merkle, 2014). Another interesting discovery in this study was that the individual leader

was mentioned more in the United Kingdom press than in the German press (Holtz-Bacha, Langer

& Merkle, 2014). The German press focused more on the political party in comparison to the

United Kingdom press (Holtz-Bacha, Langer & Merkle, 2014).

When researching political personalization there are two types of personalization being introduced,

centralized personalization and decentralised personalization (Balmas, Rahat, Sheafer & Shenhav,

2011). Centralized personalization means that power goes upwards from a political party or

organisation to the leader. This term can also be connected to presidentialization, which is another

name for the same purpose (Balmas, Rahat, Sheafer & Shenhav, 2011). Decentralised

personalization means that the power goes downwards instead, the power goes from the individual

to a group, for example ministers and candidates (Balmas, Rahat, Sheafer & Shenhav, 2011). These

two types are the opposite of each other but it is not uncommon that the two types co-exist within a

political sphere (Balmas, Rahat, Sheafer & Shenhav, 2011). The centralized form of personalization

is the most common and most frequently researched form of the two forms of personalization. This

is because of the growing research of the presidentialization and its surroundings (Balmas, Rahat,

Sheafer & Shenhav, 2011).

When researching political personalization and how the parties work with the different forms and

shapes of of the subject, these two forms of political personalization underlines two interesting and

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important angles. These two angles can be an important part in understanding the relation between

the party and its public. These two forms of political personalization can co-exist and form another

angle and a new way of thinking. When these two processes merge together and create a dual

process the leaders get more power (Balmas, Rahat, Sheafer & Shenhav, 2011). When this occurs

there is not just the leaders that get the power, it works like a synergy effect so the whole

organisation gets more power (Balmas, Rahat, Sheafer & Shenhav, 2011). With this power the

members of the organisation or the members of the parliament can get increased personal power

and get less restricted from the party or the leader (Balmas, Rahat, Sheafer & Shenhav, 2011).

The emergence of the personal voting system in some democracies have created a need for the

candidates and politicians to sell their personality to a new extent through media and social media

(Balmas, Rahat, Sheafer & Shenhav, 2011). Their own reputation has grown to be just as important

as their professional reputation, partly because of the growth of social media and the mediums

availability to enhance your personal views and interests. The role of the communicator of the

parties has become more relevant since recognizing the personalization trend, by the need of giving

the personal role a more central part in the campaigning process. (Balmas, Rahat, Sheafer &

Shenhav, 2011).

5.3 Mobilization Social media can provide the political organisations with a new platform in the way of mobilizing

their party members. The emergence of new technology has provided political parties and

organisations with new ways of communicating their information and propaganda to their the

general public, but also to the members within the actual party. Social media offers the members

something new compared to the traditional media, a larger degree of participation is now possible

(Bacallao-Pino, 2014).

Social networking works as a substitute for traditional media, since it is ordinary people who use it

among professional accounts. This means that a larger scale of the general population will get their

voice heard, considering that the communication can work both ways (Bacallao-Pino, 2014).

Studies have been made in order to research if social media use increase political participation. Social

media expects to encourage political participation because of its function to discuss matters simply

with people around the world (Baek, 2015).

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Social networking is not exclusively designed for a political purpose, but it is easy to use in a political

purpose to share and take part of the political agenda (Baek, 2015).

Studies have shown that the users who tend to use a new medium first is highly educated people

with a high income, and are also involved in politics and vote in elections (Baek, 2015). This shows

that the early adopters of new technology set an early standard in which direction the medium in

question can take (Baek, 2015). Twitter is one social networking service where political information

and material is being shared and created frequently, many politicians and parties have embraced

Twitter and use it to its full extent (Baek, 2015).

Mobilization through social networking for political purposes is growing because of the fact that

social networking is a growing phenomenon in general (Baek, 2015). Social networking sites is in

fact a contributing factor in creating a more democratic society (Baek, 2015). These networking sites

possess the power to mobilize non voters or political inactive persons, this process contributes in

the way of making a more democratic society (Baek, 2015) .

Studies have shown that participation through social media in political matters provide the general

public with a simple way to interact and take part in the national or the international political agenda

(Chen, H., Ping, S., & Chen, 2015). The fact that it is easy to express yourself, provides the

individuals with freedom, which has positive results in studies (Chen, H., Ping, S., & Chen, 2015).

Countries with an open political landscape where people are free to express their opinions on social

media are the countries with the most positive results regarding this matter, where the freedom of

the word is not restricted to such a high degree. This gives the population a chance to mobilize both

against and in favour of different political questions or decisions (Chen, H., Ping, S., & Chen, 2015).

5.4 Branding in official organizations

A political party is an organization, lead by a representative for the ideology that it stands for - that is

the party leader. Marketing strategies and building a brand has become something to consider as one

of the most important aspects of succeeding as an organization (Dahlqvist & Melin, 2010). This has

not only become a must within the business world, but has also had an effect on how public

organizations need to approach their target goal. Coca-Cola is a well-known business, and a well-

known brand. This means that not only the drink that the company Coca-Cola produces is well

20

known, but also the image sold through commercials and slogans is something many can relate to

and enjoy. The brand of Coca-Cola was valued to 60% of the whole company's stock market worth.

This in its turn means that the planning and creation of the brand Coca-Cola has been a very

successful and useful thing for the company, and probably what has lead the company to the

enormous worldly success it today has (Dahlqvist & Dahlin, 2010, s.21).

This shows the value of a good marketing plan to build a brand that is well known in most parts of

the world, which can also show the importance and the status it can bring a company or an

organization. As an example of this sort of branding being brought into the world of politics,

Dahlqvist and Melin (2010) mentions the swedish alliance of political parties being chosen in 2006

with a big focus on ”strengthening the brand of Sweden” (Dahlqvist & Melin, 2010, s. 21). In trying

to do this, the responsible were The Swedish Institute, who were assigned to develop and increase

the possibility of scientists to research in the country, for Swedish literature to go global and trying

to extend knowledge of Swedish culture in the rest of the world (Dahlqvist & Melin, 2010). This

might be a direct result of official organizations getting inspired by the business world and their

communication through building a brand, which can be both a positive and a negative trend. It

needs to be a skill adjusted from being a way of commercializing and selling a product to an actual

showing of an organization's view on what is their goal and way to reach it. This should apply to the

branding in politics as well. This is one of the most important aspects this study will try to find.

What is it that builds the strategy and planning from the communicators behind the social media

accounts, and how they present it. The role of the communicator in trying to establish the brand of a

party leader and an ideology through a social media account, that is.

Dahlqvist and Melin (2010) discuss the possibility of three steps to consider in particular to be sure

of creating a brand successfully in official organizations. These steps are courage, consequence and

perceptiveness. Speaking of having courage as the communicators in organizations, the authors

mean being able to differentiate good from bad ways to go, and maybe having the guts to go to

places no one has been before, marketing wise. They also mention how as a politician and candidate

in a campaign, this might be hard to do as in politics the candidates prefer to be as good as possible

as often as possible rather than showing weakness at one thing and strength in another. In

consequence the authors mean the overwhelming amount of information that is brought to us on a

daily basis in the information age we live in. Here the organization that is brand planning needs to be

cautious as to what they think will stick with people, and what it is that just passes by in the sheer

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mass of information, and act from it (Dahlqvist & Melin, 2010). The last step that the authors

mention as one of the more important, especially in political campaigning or in branding a politician,

is perceptiveness. Perceptiveness to some might speak for themselves as to listening to the

surroundings of what is needed, what is wanted and what is popular in the now. What is the latest

trend and how you in the smartest way possible can join the trend and make it into something that is

related to your candidate, your campaign, your party, and how to do so in a new and exciting way

that will stick to a mind of a person.

5.5 The risk of being on interactive media

Going viral is now just a good or a bad decision away, and the consequences can be thrilling or

devastating for a campaign, on a global scale. This means politicians not only have to be on their

toes in live discussions or interviews on television, but mind all they put up online, and be aware of

all the different interpretations they might lead to, because they will be interpreted by people on a

global level and somewhere along the line, someone might try to twist words to whatever they see

fit. For all possible responses, the politicians must be vigilant, both in tone as well as with what is

politically correct (Madia, 2011).

One thing that goes “viral” can mean a million more clicks online, that may also result in votes if the

politician is successful but just as well, one slip or badly presented idea for a campaign will spread

quickly and is likely to be stuck as a branding on its own on the whole campaign. This is one of the

risks you take when proposing a person as a brand, where you have to have courage, the thinking of

the consequence and the perceptiveness to be able to rely on the message you are trying to present

online, that Dahlqvist and Melin (2010) were mentioning.

5.6 Transparency Private people were the first group of people that started using social media frequently. Public

sectors organisations stated to use social media in their approach in 2009, to a larger extent. It was in

this time social media got established in this kind of arena (Gunawong, 2015)).

Governments and political organisations followed that trend and today almost every political

organisation have a social media account (Gunawong, 2015). Open governments promotes a higher

degree of participation and collaboration, because of the Web 2.0 technologies that exist through

22

social media (Gunawong, 2015). The communication goes both ways, this enhances the interaction

between political organisations, institutions and people involved in politics with the general public.

A study was made in Thailand about how public agencies used social media in their approach to

inform and integrate with the general public of the country. The study showed that only a few

agencies used social media (Gunawong, 2015). The social media platform that was primarily used

was Facebook. The information shared on this platform was first and foremost information to the

employes or general news surrounding the agency (Gunawong, 2015). This can affect the

transparency and its effect in the society. The basics in creating a larger degree of transparency in

social media is mainly adoption, from both the general public and the public sectors (Gunawong,

2015). The next step for Thailand in search for greater transparency, surrounding public sectors and

agencies, is that they adopt social media to the same extent as the general public of the country

(Gunawong, 2015).

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6. Method

This chapter will present the methods used to collect the data that will later stand as the base for the

conclusion and result of the study. There will also be an explanation for how the informants were

chosen for this method, and what it is that they do that is relevant for the study at hand. There will

also be a presentation on the variability that is predicted for the study and and what may cause

limitations and other effects on this study.

6.1 Semi-structured interviews

To be able to reach a result to the research questions, the methods that are used must be grounded

within the theories and the questions that are chosen (Ekström & Larsson, 2010; Østbye,

Knapskog, Helland & Larsen, 2003). A qualitative study like a semi-structured interview is a good

choice of method when the study aims to find different patterns in behaviour or in strategies like

this study does, therefore this method is chosen for this paper. Why semi-structured interviews were

chosen instead of structured interviews or just focus groups was to be able to have some flexibility

in how to lead the interview (Ekström & Larsson, 2010). In structured interviews there is no

possibility to go off script and you do not have the possibility to ask follow up questions (Ekström

& Larsson, 2010). In an unstructured interview you have no script but rather just subjects and let the

informants freely speak of them and the executor then need to find structures in what is said, which

is a method very ineffective for this purpose. Therefor semi-structured interviews were the chosen

concept, to have a script and still be able to go off it and ask questions that may occur from what the

informant then says. It allows structure for both informant and executor but also leaves the

opportunity for more questions and subjects that may be relevant to be used in the analysis

(Ekström & Larsson, 2010).

6.2 Discussion of alternate methods Interviews where chosen above other qualitative and quantitative methods because of its profundity

and personal approach to the communicators first and foremost. The chosen method of semi-

structured interview provides something different than a quantitative content analysis and something

that this essay needs in order to have the best possible outcome. A qualitative content analysis is on

a material that already exist and is unchangeable, compared to the interview that is a more

24

unpredicted and the answers can be adjusted in a manner because of attendant questions (Ekström

& Larsson, 2010).

The quantitative options through surveys and quantitative content analysis is a good option when

investigating a vast portion of information (Ekström & Larsson, 2010). These options would have

been applicable to use if this study aimed to investigate the content of the social media streams

belonging to the parties, the quantitative content analysis in particular. The option of survey does

not hold the same kind of depth and wealth of details as semi structured interviews which this study

will apply in its research.

6.3 List of respondents of the interviews

Following is a list of the respondents that were willing to do an interview for this essay, what their

title is and what party they are representing.

Ulf Schyldt - former communicator and responsible of social media channels in the Liberal party

Amanda Mogensen - communicator for the Feminist party

Karl-Johan Karlsson - communicator for the Center party

Karin Teriö - communicator and responsible for social media in the conservative Moderate party

Maria Starck - media strategist for the Feminist party

Hanna Larsson - communicator for the left-wing party in Gothenburg

Richard Rosander - communicator for the Social Democrats in Gothenburg

Emma Marie Andersson - communicator for the Pirate Party

All the respondents gave answers that fulfilled our purpose for the essay, which made each interview

take about 20-40 minutes per person.

6.4 Selection of the respondents

The respondents that were contacted at first were found on the official web sites of the different

parties that they worked for. We wanted to get a good base of people that we knew were or had

been active in the field of communication for political parties today, and that had a connection with

working with the social media either of the party or of a politician within the party, for example the

25

party leader. We strived to get as much width as possible in the parties from left to right and also to

get interviews from more than just the major parties that have a long history in campaigning and

that also has a budget to perform a physical campaign, but also with the minor parties that rely more

on the social media channels as it is free of charge. We could only reach two communicators that

worked with a younger and minor party, and those respondents are the ones from the Feminist

Party and the Pirate Party, neither have made the percentage needed to be a part of the Swedish

government and are relatively new parties comparing to the Moderates or the Social Democrats.

At first, the goal was to find communicators of all the different parties all in one city to be able to

conduct the interviews in a personal meeting. That was found impossible since some parties did not

specify a communicator or someone in charge of social media, especially not a regional person,

which lead to a wider search from all over the country and lead to interviews held over the phone,

recorded and then transcribed. We sent out emails to all the communicators, media strategists and

social media responsible people that we could find, which was at least one from each party, hoping

that they would all send a reply stating if they would or would not want to participate in the study.

We then had as a plan to ask these communicators to recommend further people who are or had

been working within political external communication or social media in politics, getting a snowball

effect on people to contact. All the communicators did not respond, but all who did respond did

agree to be interviewed but one who thought she was too new at the post to be able to contribute.

This means that eight semi-structured interviews were executed with former and latter-day

communicators and media strategists at first hand. Respondents from both bigger parties and

smaller ones were interviewed to better see differences. The snowball effect we had planned turned

out to be unsuccessful since the respondents did not forward us to further communicators due to

lack of their time.

All interviews were then conducted over the phone by either one of us, then transcribed and

analyzed. If the respondents had anyone for us to contact they then did not respond, so our wanted

snowball effect did not pan out.

6.5 The interview questions

The questions asked for the respondents to answer were formulated early in the study, to better be

able to evolve them. They were developed through the process of working on the theories for our

26

research questions, all to better be able to ensure that the result and the answers would follow our

thesis. Most of our questions stemmed from the perspective of personalization, what personal traits

are more focused on and why, if there is any logic and reason behind how much of what is uploaded

is personal and so forth (Appendix 1).

Another big part of the interview was to find out what it is that the communicators feel is their

biggest task in running the social media accounts, how they can effect what is uploaded, and if there

is a strategy or a plan behind what is uploaded both on the private social media accounts of the party

leaders but also on the official party account (Appendix 1). A smaller part of the interview focused

on mobilisation and if the respondents felt that having social media lead to a mobilization for their

followers. We wanted to find out how big their role in the social media accounts is, to be able to

structure how much planning does go on behind the social media accounts both of party leader and

official account. We asked questions of how big of responsibility the communicators have, how

much influence on the accounts they have, why they use social media and if they mostly seek to

answer to the needs of already existing electors or to possible new ones. To be able to see how they

work with branding for the party, the questions of what personality traits are focused on enhancing,

and what traits are more attractive to the followers on social media were made to be able to see a

pattern of using branding in the communicational strategy.

The interview was constructed in a way that they would all start in the same manner, with the

respondent naming themselves, what their role in their party’s social media platform is, and stating

that they accepted being named in the paper, that they accepted being recorded and that the material

gathered from this interview was to be analysed and compared with others people of similar titles.

6.6 Validity and reliability

Validity means that what is said to be researched, our research questions, will be reflected

throughout the essay to be answered (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2014). Since the method of this study

was an interview, it is expected to get a result in which it is possible to see how the communicators

themselves stand towards the subjects that the interview questions are formed around, which is how

they strategically plan and work with the social media accounts of the parties and of the political

party leaders accounts, along with personalization of the messages they want to communicate and

the mobilization that can occur easily from using social media platforms in campaigning. This to

27

better get an overview on how their work may differ or show similarities, to get a result that will

answer our research questions. It has been an important factor when conducting these interviews to

try and see if the respondents themselves refers to these theories, if they refer to any other theories

or media landscape phenomenons to see if the unintentionally mention working with something that

leans on strategic planning for the social media accounts and their communicating through it.

The number of respondents that we were able to interview for this study is a smaller number than

we had hoped would be able to participate. However, the content we were able to collect from each

interview gave us enough material to be able to form an analysis and reach the conclusion that

would answer the research questions that we had planned. We want to stress that with more

respondents the result might have differed or we would have had a more valid ground to stand on

when conducting the analysis, but since the respondents all gave vast amounts of information on all

questions asked we still feel confident in the reliability in the results gathered.

All the respondents that did agree to our interview were relevant and fit the profile of who we

wanted to gather data from. They answered and fully understood all questions that were asked, and

gave relevant answers that could all be used in the study. It was hard to know if we asked the right

questions during our interview, but considering that the answers we were able to gather from them

we feel confident in the result of it. We may have gotten a better result if the interviews had been

able to be conducted in a personal meeting, but only two respondents did not agree to an interview

over the telephone so we still feel that we benefitted from using a semi-structured interview so that

we could include some follow-up questions and ask our respondents to evolve their answers if we

felt that something was unclear, when speaking to them over the telephone.

Doing semi-structured interviews there is always the risk of the respondents drifting away from the

subject or misunderstanding the question and answering something that is not of interest. At a few

times during the interviews questions were misunderstood, however they were corrected so that the

answer did not affect the end result of the material gathered. Drifting away from the subject did also

occur at some times in the interviews but rather than hurting did it it gain the material since it lead to

a fuller answer that gave more substance to work with, as all the respondents drifting away did find

their way back to the questions that at first were the topic.

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6.7 Analyzing the interviews

Shortly after all interviews were conducted we sat down with our own material and started to

transcribe the recordings that we had. The material gathered was analyzed to be able to see if there

was a pattern or specific subjects that were brought up by several of the respondents. Ekström and

Larsson (2010) states that when analyzing interview material it is important to try and structure the

material after themes that occur in the answers that the respondents have given. After being able to

see these different topics that kept occurring in several if not all interviews we began structuring the

analysis with subheadings were we could show the differences and similarities in the answers that

were relevant to the research questions of the study.

6.8 Ethical guidelines in interviews

Before each interview, both the ones that were conducted through the telephone and were recorded

on speaker phone, and the few that wanted the material in writing and wanted to answer to us

through writing as well, we presented them with the conditions for the interview. We asked them if

they would accept the interview being recorded, if they accepted that we used their name and title as

sources for their answers in the study or if they wanted to be anonymous and if there were any

questions that they felt they did not want to answer they should not feel obligated to do so. We also

stated that if they felt that they had something that they would like to add on any of the topics that

had been brought up or wanted to add something post interview they could feel free to do so.

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7. Result In this chapter the content gathered through our semi-structured interviews that have been analysed

will be presented. It will be compared and put together as a summary to later in a conclusion be

stated against the theories presented before, to connect to our research questions. The material that

is used in this chapter of the study is collected and selected from what the respondents have

answered to the questions asked. What what said in the interviews that was not of use has been

discarded.

7.1 Personal and professional approaches on social media In the theory section of this study (see chapter 4) concerning personalization, the personal approach

of leaders of the parties is being discussed. Personalization can be used to various degrees depending

on what the party want to communicate.

When doing our interviews we got the following answer from two of our respondents that it is

important to be personal but not private, in their communication through social media platforms.

The focus should be on the professional and first and foremost on the political agenda of the party.

Personal things being posted on an official account of either the party leader or from the party can

contribute with something that people can find a connection to. According to the person at charge

of media strategic matters at the Center party, the leader of the party Annie Lööf post pictures on

her social media when she is running and exercising on her spare time. This can create a connection

between the followers of Annie Lööf that share the same interests as her and contribute with a

growth of her personal brand, instead of just the professional side of things.

Annie Lööfs personal posts is not something that the media strategic department or the

communicators has something to do with, in this case with the center party approach to the social

media. Instead they are focusing on the professional matters and let the party leader herself be

responsible of the personal things she want to share to her followers.

The person responsible for the communication in the Moderates think that the important factor in

this sense is to create a mix between the professional and the personal. As Annie Lööfs approach in

her social media channels, she announced her pregnancy on her social media channel and combine

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these highly personal posts with post surrounding her work. Ulf Schyldt who used to work for the

Liberal party said that it is not as much planning behind the scenes as you can think, when it comes

to a the personal post that a leader of a political party or another public member of the party.

One of the most important personal aspects to be highlighted in the social media is trust and

confidence. The leader of the party should transmit those two qualities according to most of our

respondents, it is important that the person at charge for such a large political organisation spread

this confidence in order to gain the trust of the general public. Emma Marie Andersson (Pirate

party) think that it is important to be personal to a large extent but that is not positive to be too

personal in a strategic point of view. Personal things being shared through social accounts can be

positive in a strategic point of view if the person is being successful and creates a trust and a

credibility according to Emma. She also said they they try to approach different kinds of accounts in

different fashion.

“On our official Facebook page we want to to be clear and just talk about the political questions of ours, on the

individual accounts however when it comes to a Twitter account for example, when they are their own personal

spokesperson they can sit and talk about their favorite TV show” (Emma Marie Andersson).

The factor of presidentialization is not an imminent occurrence when analyzing these results. One

factor can be how the Swedish political system is constructed in contrast to the United States,

Germany or the United Kingdom. Social media contributes a small degree of presidentialization (see

chapter 4) to the leaders of the Swedish parties, the leaders get another platform to showcase their

own persona and opinions. The leaders of the party can in this way distance themselves from the

party and be recognized as their own person. Most of the leaders which party representatives that we

interviewed, told us that their leader has their own Twitter account where professional post are

combined with more personal posts.

7.2 Different strategies and approaches for different social media channels

Earlier stated, in the chapter of previous research (see chapter 3.1), where the research made on the

different media channels, how they had been used in American campaigns and for what

communicational purpose. It stated that Instagram and Facebook allowed more personal posts,

YouTube allowed press conferences, speeches and visual campaigning material and Twitter was best

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suited for short messages, links to other media, discussions and so forth. Some stated that they use

different strategies for different media, but the overall opinion seems to be that the communicators

plan a ground strategy, a thread to follow on all the social media, and then adjust to the different

channels according to target group and ability to upload different media (pictures, videos, texts).

“It has to be a good mix of personal and professional posts no matter what the social media platform you use. The

important thing with all of the platforms is to show the party standpoint even in personal posts [...] this is something

that we work with frequently, laying a strategy on what to post on what platform to best fit the target group the

platform provides.” (Karin Teriö)

7.2.1 Facebook

The respondents unanimously agreed that Facebook is the broadest of the different media channels,

with the biggest audience. It was mentioned in most of the interviews that Facebook is looked upon

in the strategic planning as the social media platform that almost all people have, meaning that this

media channel is where there needs to be most planning and the most blend between personal and

professional posts. This to be able to reach the largest amount of people in the target group.

Facebook is mentioned in the interviews as a good medium not only because of the fact that it has a

vast amount of users, but also in the way of being able to upload different types of media, with

pictures, longer texts, videos and sharing of links from other platforms as well. Karin Teriö of the

Moderates stated that on Facebook, most posts from the other platforms are forwarded as well, so

all posts that are published on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube will show up on the Facebook page

as well.

“We do in some way adjust our communication through the different social media platforms. It all comes down to

showing our political standpoints in the best way for the different target groups that use these platforms. For example

on Twitter we post the things that needs to get out there quickly, like press speeches and conferences that we do not

usually post on Instagram and rarely on Facebook. It does not make very entertaining posts on the later mentioned

platforms. On Facebook we are allowed more space and can post longer texts and share via the other platforms as well,

and on Instagram we can post powerful pictures with a shorter text attached to reach out to the younger electors.”

(Karin Teriö)

7.2.2 Instagram

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The answers on the use of Instagram as a social media platform for official party accounts, as well as

for the party leader, stated that they all use it as a tool to reach to their younger target group.

Karin Teriö (Moderates) states in her interview that this is a media channel where mostly younger

audiences are to be targeted, pictures that are uploaded needs to be the main focus, even if there

should be a text with it to clarify, the message should be clear in the picture itself. It is clear from the

interview material that Instagram has the youngest target groups of the used social media channels,

which means that the focus is not on debates and information about when and where press

conferences will be held, but rather more visual aids to show the main points of the ideology, to

create an understanding of what is the standpoints of the party and to try and intrigue the younger

audience into finding politics interesting.

“A lot of strategic planning goes into Instagram as it is the platform where most young people are, as they are the

possible future electors of ours. A lot of focus is on posting a clear picture where the message stands for itself, but to also

be able to clarify with a shorter text underneath helps to strengthen the message.” (Karin Teriö)

The interviews showed that this was the media platform, along with YouTube, where the party

leaders most often did not have a personal account, but the communication on this media platform

mostly occur through the official party accounts. These accounts are run by the communicators that

were our respondents in most cases.

7.2.3 Youtube

This platform was one of the most used in the successful campaign of Obama in 2008 (Gulati, 2010)

and is through these interviews shown to be one of the more important ones in Swedish

campaigning as well. The analysis of the answers from the respondents showed that most political

parties use YouTube as a way of uploading videos from speeches, press conferences, debates and

other happenings in the same sort of situation. This along with publishing commercials created for

television and other visual campaigns, to be able to easier spread them to a bigger audience.

“Youtube is used for posting videos, we use this platform especially right before the election time, just as videos are a

faster way of making an impression. A lot of protesting and other material have been posted by us on this platform

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firstly to then be shared on Facebook, and as a link and shorter version with a link attached on Instagram.” (Maria

Starck)

Since YouTube allows the sharing of links on other social media and on websites it is an easy way to

reach many target groups, as the spread does not only reach along the borders of the platform, but

reaches all of the target groups through sharing over them all. The link is less than 140 characters,

meaning it can be shared on Twitter, a function on Facebook means that a video from YouTube can

be shown on Facebook and not only the link to be clicked on, and the link can be uploaded with a

print screen or a preview on Instagram. This makes this media platform of very good use as a tool in

communication.

Along with the fact that it is easy and free of charge to share, YouTube allows the communicators to

spread shorter clips from debates that are considered successful. Karin Teriö (Moderates) mentions

in her interview that it is always planned for a good one-liner or punch line to be included in a

debate in both television and radio, not only to make a good point or to win the debate, but also to

be able to make it into a clip that can spread and become a hit on social media. Once again being

able to reach as big of a target group as possible, and in doing this, trying to emphasize as good of a

representation for the party as possible.

“If you manage to get a good one-liner in a debate or similar context, it can be spread as a clip on all social media.

Since these things spread so fast it can become a hit and be seen by a vast number of people, which in its turn can be

lucrative for the party. Some props are used these days to make a big effect, but we believe more in the effect of the

spoken word.” (Karin Teriö)

7.2.4 Twitter The microblog Twitter is a social media platform that all the respondents shared the opinion of it

being one of the most important platform to have as a communicational tool. The interviews

showed them all bringing up the concept of Twitter as a growing one in Sweden in particular, seeing

as it is already a very established social media in the USA. On the subject of Twitter and its target

group, journalists, PR-people and “know-it-alls” came up as the followers of the official party

accounts, stating that many times Twitter posts leads to heated discussions and a bit of a childish

atmosphere, mostly between the people commenting on a post from the official party account or a

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post of the party leader. For these mentioned reasons, two communicators stated Twitter as a

platform where faster messages were uploaded, more as an invite for the press to see upcoming

events like press conferences, speeches or links to debates and events in that liking.

7.2.5 Summary of the different approaches for the different social media

channels

Most of the respondents that we interviewed showed a vast amount of similarities in the answers

that they gave. It seems that the overall agreement on Facebook being somewhat of a gathering

media platform for all the shared material to be able to reach the bigger target group, where Twitter

and Instagram have a smaller and more angled target group that needs more adjusted

communication that can then be spread to Facebook as well. YouTube seems to be a source where

television events can be spread for a second time to be able to reach more people and to try create a

spread of the material in a bigger manner. They unanimously agreed that the strategy behind the

communication for the social media accounts needs to have a stable ground, a ground based in the

politics and the values of the political party that is to be represented. The red thread is mentioned

frequently in the interviews as the ground strategy that then needs to be slightly adjusted depending

on the target group of the social media platform that is being published on. Along with this is the

opinion that the messages that needs to be presented in both personal and professional manner no

matter which social media that is the platform needs to be grounded and well presented as a

representation of the grounds for the political ground of the party.

7.3 Negative aspects in using social media in a political campaign One large negative aspect to social media in general is the aspect of “trolling” and the way of

negative and hatefully obtained comments and posts online. Trolling means that a person or several

persons post negative posts on a discussion thread, comment section or on a social media platform.

This is done in order to hurt a person or spam the account or site in question. Several of our

informants experience this as a large obstacle when it comes to giving answers to the followers

questions or feedback. Time and resources have to be allocated in order to sort these kinds of posts

away from the other posts that can result in a serious discussion or a question that is in need by the

public to be answered. This takes time away from the ordinary ways of work for the communicators.

Stress can be a factor that is coming from this phenomenon according to the respondent from the

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feminist party.

“It is a stressful situation[...], it is the psychological stress that is a problem when a mishap has happened or similar to

it. People are there immediately and always, and they do not ask questions of why something has been said, but they

get angry and write bad things surrounding the entire ideology, that might not have had anything to do with the post at

all.” (Amanda Mogensen)

Social media never rests and the users have the opportunity to be online at all hours of every day.

This can contribute to a warped view of the reality contra the flow on social media, where the tempo

always is in a very high speed as she describes it. The tempo in politics is high in its own, and the

stress of another media platform constantly on the watch of what is said or done leads the

communicators work to be even more important as it is of importance to be able to sort out what is

good and bad to comment on social media. Maria Starck who was hired to represent the Feminist

party during the 2014 campaign thinks that problems can occur if people are not used to work with

social media and does not understand it to its full extent. She also said that she think that it is not

necessary to be on social media for a political party.

“If someone is not used to working with social media, things can get very wrong. It needs to be understood that it is OK

not to be online.” (Maria Starck)

This is just the opposite to what Amanda Mogensen who also represent the Feminist party told us.

She stated that it is vital for a non-profit party with no employees. She talked about social media as

their most important communication and campaigning device for a party with these kind of

preferences. Social media is free to use and it reaches a large audience that can absorb and be a part

of the information and discussions through these channels.

“It is fundamentally important for us as we mobalize ourselves through groups and such. We are available, our party

leaders are available and that makes social media a very good way of communicating. It is also free of charge, letting us

put all our efforts in communicating through social media.” (Amanda Mogensen)

The respondent from the Left-wing party said that the possibility to be anonymous enhance the hate

and the negative posts, another factor according to her can be overuse of the social media channels

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that leads to spamming in the end. She compared the communication they have online with the

possible voters and when it comes to talk face-to-face out in the city or the street, the speaking tone

is much nicer and effective when it comes to face to face communication, compared to the

discussions and they have online on the social medias. The respondent from the Pirate party said

that these trolling phenomenons is something of a shift in time that we have to go through in order

to accept this changes in the interactive climate.

In one way this vast amount of comments is a positive thing for the parties according to Ulf Schyldt

(former communicator of the Liberal party).

“Nowadays the communication can travel both ways, we are meeting the public on new terms, before social media you

would not get anywhere close to the feedback you get now. Now you know how many individual electors think and feel.

This affect the politics in a large sense” (Ulf Schyldt)

7.4 A mobilizing factor for the party All of our respondents thought that social media was a good tool to use in order to mobilize your

own party and its members. Factors such as organising and inspire each other in order to get a better

professional result in the end was one of the answers.

“Mobilization is one of the ground factors for us using social media channels. Partially for inspiring our followers to be

more active, but also us within the party, to do better work and be more professional” (Amanda Mogensen)

A social media channel such as Facebook with its big reach and the large amount of users in Sweden is a great tool

when it comes to mobilizing. Twitter is a great tool in the way the party can mobilise against new proposals coming

from the government and if the party is good at this kind of mobilisation it can be very effective. (Karl-Johan Karlsson)

Ulf Schyldt who used to work for the Liberal party thinks that the mobilization is the foundation of

social media in politics, at least for the Liberal party.

This was clear in many of the respondents answers as shown above. Mobilization is one of the more

important factors in using social media platforms in the communication of political partys. Not only

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for the followers in getting them to be more active in politics, but also to inspire each other within

the party, to get each other to perform better and reach better results.

7.5 Can a successful social media campaign contribute to a better result in

an election? The respondents had different views surrounding the topic of a successful social media campaign

resulting in a better percentage in the following election. Some of the respondents told that they did

indeed believe that a successful campaign can result in immediate results in the election. Several of

the respondents did however respond that it is not social media alone that can make a difference in

an election or a campaign, but social media can help raising questions and discussions into the

traditional media, making social media an important tool in the media climate of today, but not the

most important at its own stand. Public service is still one of the largest sources for information

when looking at all the age groups according to Amanda Mogensen who works for the Feminist

party.

The collective opinion gathered in the material of the interviews seems to add that traditional media

contributes in raising questions or phenomenons that has gone viral and grown popular on the

social media platforms, leading to the most viewed phenomenons on social media leading to the rest

of the media platforms as they have related most views online and thereby will sell papers and so

forth. This then leads back to the question of being careful of what is said in social media as the

slightest mistake can lead to an article or a video clip going viral. These questions or discussions gets

time on broadcasted political debates or on the news for example and relates more attention to the

politician and the political party, either in a negative or a positive manner. This means that the

attention gathered from successful strategies and plans whether on social media or on other

platforms receives attention throughout the media channels. However, the collective opinion within

the respondents for this study shows that the social media campaigning needs to be looked upon as

a valuable tool, that works well since it is available for most people wherever their location, but it is

not in itself a success for a campaign.

Karin Teriö (Moderates) mentions that a successful media campaign, only looking at social media,

can tip the scales of percentage merely if there is a situation where the results are intensely close, but

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doubts that a social media campaign that has been a success in its own can lead to a shocking result

for a party that previously did not get a high percentage of votes.

The differing respondents were the representatives from the Feminist party. These respondents

work as nonprofit communicators, and they both expressed that social media is their only chance in

campaigning, since the party has not yet reached the percentage high enough to enter the

government of Sweden. They stated that without social media campaigning they would not have

reached the high increase in votes that they did between the 2010 and 2014 election. Amanda

Mogensen says that their social media works as a platform of an in person mingle, only it is not in

person, but available for as many as possible to gather the electors who feel as if they connect with

their message. The pirate party which is being connected strongly to questions surrounding Internet,

their respondent said that she does not think that the social media in this time can create a large

difference to the final result in an election. If that was the case she said that the pirate party would

already be in the government by now because of the parties large online community and

campaigning. According to Emma Marie Andersson communicator of the Pirate party said that the

Pirate party is the largest party on the internet in many ways, she thinks that it can not influence the

final result but it has the ability to reach out to people in other aspects.

“It is a good tool to create bonds with your public and your electors but you can not win elections or improve your

election result significantly through channels of social media on its own.” (Emma Marie Andersson)

It seems that it differs between the parties that have the ability to perform a physical campaign and

the party that only has communicators working for non-profit. The bigger parties that have a bigger

budget expresses that social media is a really valid complement, but needs to be used together with

the standard way of running a campaign. The smaller parties leaves more to social media and express

bigger gratitude to the social media campaigning on its own.

7.6 Branding and presenting the ideology

Karin Teriö (Moderates) explains in her interview that the brand of the ideology is what lay as a base

for all communication that is posted in all media channels, social media platforms included. Teriö

presents that a personal side of a politician as well as a flow of important information is necessary on

social media, but that all that is published needs to be based from the ideology at hand.

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“There are of course traits in a party leader that you as a communicator want to emphasise. Our most important

ground value are the jobs and the economy and we want to show that we take responsibility for this matter. We want

to show that we have a lean forward approach in our politics and want to show through our party leader that we listen

to our followers. You also want to show that the party leader does visits and meets people to evolve our politics. It is

basically about lifting our politics through all communication and what it is that we stand for” (Karin Teriö)

When planning and building a strategy around the communication from the party and its leader it is

important that it stems from the values of the ideology. Teriö mentions the “packaging” of the

ideology as the most important aspect in the planning of a communication plan, that the

representative accounts, whether a party leader, a regional politician or another possible

representative are in all possible ways grounded and showing off the brand that is the ideology. This

means that the team of communicators that work with social media needs the thinking of building

the brand to represent the ideology as a priority. Teriö also mentions the thread through the building

of the brand. She mentions that the flow of information needs to be coherent between all the

official representatives in the party, to better be able to show a clear message and a clarity in the

party itself to the followers and the possible electors. The profiling needs to be coherent within the

party to create the brand and be able to communicate the ideology on social media platforms. Teriö

also mentions that the building of the brand is made easier since it gives the width in the

communication together with the physical campaigning. Physical campaigning means getting out in

society, knocking on doors to contact people personally, showing up on lectures, having meetings

with organizations. Social media gives the opportunity to show all this work to a bigger audience,

meaning that the personal and online campaigning needs to co-exist to better build a representative

brand for the ideology. This leads to the respondents opinion on the transparency created through

using social media.

Like stated previously, opinions on this subject also relates to the parties and politicians being where

the electors are. Karl-Johan Karlsson (Center party) says he thinks that the electors finds it relieving

to see their political representatives “moving around with the people” online and being there to answer

people directly. Karlsson says it is basically the same principle as people appreciating how politicians

answer questions on square meetings, now social media gives this opportunity no matter where they

are. However, all the respondents did mention that no matter the importance and value of the

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transparency it is important to pick the battles on all social media. This too can be a way of building

the brand of the ideology, showing the ability to ignore what is unnecessary picking of fights, answer

questions and discussing what is important and being able to separate the two. Karlsson emphasize

that it is important that you still hold onto your largest political questions which is being related to

the party, if the party have patience with these core question it will be rewarded in the end. In last

years EU election there was a question that was highly recognized on social and traditional media,

which was one of the core questions for the center party, the party acted quickly to turn these events

to their advantage and produced a campaign around it. At the same time it is important to be

updated and have a knowledge surrounding new topics that is being discussed in the media

according to Karl-Johan Karlsson.

“It is important to cover all aspects of your political standpoint, without being too much here and there, you have to

have a clear profile. We have to talk about our biggest standpoints in our ideology but also be aware of what is

happening around us and be able to adjust this into what we stand for to keep our profile clear no matter what the

message” (Karl-Johan Karlsson)

Throughout all the respondents answers it is clear that the thread of communication between all the

representatives of the ideologies is the most important part of building both a brand and a strategy

for the social media platforms communications, that connects with the other parts of campaigning

and communicating. Being able to build the base of the ideology and the values needs to be put first,

according to all the respondents and the communication needs to come through that base.

7.7 Minor and major parties in communicating on social media

Social media are platforms that are free of charge and allow organizations and political parties to

reach as big of a target group as possible. There is some contradiction in how useful it is for the

minor and major parties, since there are many other factors to take into consideration. The fact that

minor parties do not have the budget to perform a campaign without the social media platforms,

means that they need to rely on the campaigning on social media. The fact that they have a smaller

or non existing budget means that they can not afford to hire a team of communicators to conduct a

strategy or a plan to stand behind the communication from the party. This either means that the

party needs to rely on volunteers that share the passion for the questions the party has as basic

values, that agree to work with the campaign for a nonprofit, or run the campaign without any

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strategy or plan overall. This is the benefit that the bigger parties with a bigger budget have when

starting to plan on online campaign. They have the ability to hire communicators with a salary which

leads to people with an education and possibly many years of experience to plan their

communication.

Minor parties that does not have the same economical strength as the major parties can benefit from

these social media platforms in an economical sense first and foremost. In contrast to what Maria

Starck said about parties not having to be represented on social media, the respondent of from the

center party states that it is vital for both small and large parties to be represented on social media. If

the major parties does not appear in social media they would soon be the minor parties themselves

according to Karl-Johan Karlsson.

“The minor parties have a chance to reach more people obviously and grow as a political organisation. The major

parties have to be active in these channels to in order to move forward and keep growing or keep their place in the

political food chain, if they do they can lose electors and soon it will be themselves who are the minor party” (Karl-

Johan Karlsson)

Hanna Larsson from the left-wing party agrees with Karl-Johan Karlsson and thinks that there is no

difference whether it is a question of a major or a minor party, it is just as important to use social

media for them both. Karin Teriö (Moderates) expressed her opinion in the following manner:

“The minor parties definitely benefit from using social media considering that it is more cost efficient rather than using

bought communication. However, social media has such an obvious role in todays media landscape that we as a major

party still want to prioritize social media, we want to be where the electors are”. (Karin Teriö)

Maria Starck highlights the fact that it is the same basic conditions and possibilities for every party to

reach success when it comes to using these channels of communication. Emma Marie Andersson

(Pirate Party) explains what perspectives to have in consideration when both in long-term and short-

term use of social media channels.

“In short-term perspective it can be more important for the minor parties to be on social media, but in the end it is the

long-term perspective that counts, and all parties need to be on social media”. (Emma Marie Andersson)

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The respondents from every party were positive surrounding the implications social media can have

on political campaigns but in the sense of economical resources and the urgency to be on social

media there were two parties that stood out from the rest. These two were the Pirate party and the

Feminist party which in this period in time are not included in the government. The two

respondents from these two parties expressed a large amount of admiration and gratitude, especially

when it comes to the Feminist party. Amanda Mogensen said that the online campaigning through

social media was their main area of their pre-election campaign when it in 2014.

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8. Analysis

In this chapter there will be a comparison between the material gathered in the interviews conducted

for this study with the theoretical material presented as a ground for the study. What has been

mentioned by the respondents will be presented against the theories to examine any possible

differences or similarities between them.

8.1 Personalization

As mentioned in the theory section of this essay (See chapter 4) concerning personalization, there is

a debate regarding the “individualization” and “presidentialization” of politics in general (Holtz-

Bacha, Langer & Merkle, 2014). The political system in Sweden differ to some extent from the

United Kingdom, Germany and the United States political governance. According to our research

the term individualization is more applicable than the presidentialization in the Swedish political

climate. Most social media accounts of the party leaders are being run by the leader themselves and

can choose the degree of personalization on the account, whilst still adjusting to the strategy laid

from the communicators of the party. Examples of this individualization of political leaders in social

media in Sweden is the way the center party's leader Annie Lööf choose to share personal interests

and personal events that occur in her life. The characteristics of the person behind the party leader

gets a chance to come to light with social media, which is a very customized media when it comes to

what you wish to publish and post. The majority of our respondents answered that it is important to

include personal posts when approaching social media as a politician. The personal approach can

enhance the way of understanding and create a sense of belonging with the leader of the party for a

follower. There is a chance that these feelings can generate a positive professional aspect for the

whole party which can generate more votes in the election process.

There were two types of personalization being introduced in this essay (See chapter 4), Decentralised

personalization and centralized personalization (Balmas, Rahat, Sheafer & Shenhav, 2011). In

comparison with the data we collected in our interviews, there were connections between how the

Swedish parties work with their communication and these types of personalization. There were

similarities between both of the types with the data from the interviews. There are similarities in the

centralised personalisation and in the way parties work with social media, our respondents said that

the strategic planning of the social media accounts are being planned together with media strategy

44

personal, communicators and the politicians. Most of the work in this stage of the campaigning is

being done as a team when it comes to manage official accounts of the party. The power is going

downwards from the political parties organisation to the party leader (Balmas, Rahat, Sheafer &

Shenhav, 2011). When analyzing how the accounts of the individual party leader is being managed

there were a distinct connection with decentralised personalisation. According to all of our

respondents; the one who has the final word in how to use the individual account for the leader is

the leader of the party. However these posts need to be adjusted to the mutually agreed strategy for

the party as a whole. In this case the power to choose to what degree the personalization should rise

to on the account and how to mix personal posts with professional is in the end the party leaders

responsibility.

8.2 Mobilization and Transparency

Mobilizing through social media in a political point of view is vital according to all of our

respondents from the interviews. Social media provide the political arena with a democratic platform

to discuss and share views and ideas. The progress and increased popularity of social media results in

more people being active on these kind of channels (Baek, 2015). According to our interviews, social

media is frequently being used to mobilize within their own party. Information is being shared in

order for the members of the organisation to be updated, the possibility to be briefed quickly is

possible due to the availability of social media. These social media channels are convenient to use

with the development of smartphones and the user can access the information almost anywhere,

which is the core of mobilizing through these channels according to our respondents.

The possibility to mobilize and find new possible electors from the general public has become a

viable factor since information can travel both ways and the possibility to take part of the

information instantly (Bacallao-Pino, 2014). The instant communication is factor that the parties

themselves try to embrace according to our respondents in the interviews. The major obstacle for

the parties is the way people mismanage this opportunity to participate and communicate with them.

The parties has to act in order to decrease and manage the “trolling” aspect, thus they have to hire

more people to work with social media due to the extensive amount of traffic their accounts is being

exposed to. For the feminist party, that does not have any employees currently working with social

media, this might result in negative effects on the party when it comes to resources, if they do not

45

succeed hiring and organize with the non-profit making staff this can have large negative

consequences for the organisation.

All of the parties included in this study possessed social media channels and had a lot of followers.

Social media is wide adopted in the swedish politics. This means that the mobilization can go both

ways, the parties can mobilize their own organisation and the general public can mobilize through

social media, to show where they stand in different political questions and express their opinion

through a medium that offers direct contact and is easy to get access to (Chen, H., Ping, S., & Chen,

2015).

The political landscape of Sweden should therefore promote transparency to a higher degree,

compared to the study that was made in Thailand (Gunawong, 2015). The political parties and the

general public have adopted social media to a larger extent in Sweden compared to the situation in

Thailand (Gunawong, 2015). The agencies that used social media in Thailand was primarily on

Facebook (Gunawong, 2015). The Swedish parties had a larger variety in their approach, when it

comes to using different channels of social media, which means that more people can be reached

and take part of the information published on the accounts. This is positive aspect for the

transparency of the political climate of Sweden.

8.3 Branding

The importance of “packaging the ideology”, making sure that the core values of the ideology

remains as the foundation of the brand that is later presenting to the followers on social media. The

ideology needs to be the base for all later strategies building the foundation that can then be evolved

with personal traits and so forth that is presented on the social media channels in the politics, both

personal and official party accounts (Karin Teriö, interview).

In order to be recognized by followers and possible electors, the brand of the ideology needs to be

built. A brand needs a strategy and a foundation before being recognized by anyone (Dahlqvist &

Dahlin, 2010), which means that for a political party or a representative of a political party, this

aspect is crucial. Again we see that the social media channels that are used to express the

communicational strategy and the message in need of presenting is a tool to reach a big goal target.

Social media allows for the strategies to be expressed in different manners to different target groups

46

through the social media channels, than previously possible. However, changes that contribute to

the way that the party presents themselves in branding the ideology has merely changed, it has rather

been adapted for the interactivity and open forum that the social media platforms provide.

8.4 Critical discussion of social media use in campaigning

Social media is according to all the respondents of this study a useful tool in communication

regardless of how it is used. Whether the respondents from the smaller parties who rely mostly on

social media platforms or from the more established parties who have a solid budget for

campaigning, they all agree on this matter. However, the most expressed opinion is that it works

best as a complement to the more standard ways of running a campaign, as it is still considered less

personal to communicate online rather than physically, like on city squares or personal meetings

from representatives of the party. The fact that social media is mandatory for all the parties is

according to the respondents a fact, but considering that the smaller and the newer parties like the

Feminist Party and the Pirate Party have not had the percentage that is needed to be a part of the

swedish government, a successful social media campaign shows not to be all that matters. Surely the

experience and the history of the popular parties plays a major part in this, since the brand and the

values of these parties have made an impact on the Swedish citizens, giving the smaller parties a

disadvantage in taking a part in the campaigning. During this study the question regarding if social

media praise is a undeserved hype, and needs to be seen as what is expressed in these interviews,

which is that it is a useful tool to raise awareness and needs to be seen as a complement to the type

of campaigning that needs a budget. Social media do in fact reach an excessive target group, on the

other hand it excludes people that do not have access to a smartphone or computer in the Swedish

society.

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9. Conclusion As stated in our problem definition, this study aimed towards finding answers to our research

questions on how communicators work behind the social media accounts that are seen by the

public. How do they work with a strategy on what to post with personal and professional posts and

why. We have found that the work behind the social media channels differ in many ways, and the

view on how social media is important for the campaigning of the parties differ vastly.

What has been demonstrated throughout this study is that the team of communicators behind the

social media accounts differ from about forty people and higher work as a team, building strategies

and the brand of the ideology together. The work of the communicators is necessary for

constructing the foundation and a theme for the communication that is to come from both official

party account, but also party leaders and their accounts that are “private”.

The foundation needs to represent the core values of the ideology that the party stands for, leading

the following communication to stem from the same core values. This means that all the

representatives from the party that use social media accounts regardless of which needs to follow the

strategy that is made by the team of communicators, as a result followers are able to experience

consistency in the way that the politicians express themselves, an important strategy in its own,

demonstrating that the representatives of the ideology all strive towards and stem from the same

core. This kind of coherence within the party is what the respondents of this study mention as one

of the most important aspects in making a successful social media based campaign for an election,

which shows that there is still focus on the political part of the branding, rather than voting for a

person that stands as a representative, even though that is something that can tip the scale.

However, showing the followers the persona of the representatives in the party is something that the

communicators have stated that they use in the strategy and planning of the communication for

campaigning, both online and offline. It seems to be of importance to not just be informative, but

also try to demonstrate that it is a human being trying to communicate information, and as a result

create a bond between the possible electors and the politicians. After all Sweden is a democratically

ruled country and what the people want they shall get, hence getting that personal bond and trust

from the possible electors is a factor that the communicators see as one of the most important

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aspects in the strategy for their party.

A distinction made from the communicators in what is relevant to use in a social media campaign

and its strategy is the fact that it is important to show personal sides in the posts on social media,

but never become private. They are two very separate ways of communicating on social media that

should never interfere with the strategy that is put together by the communicators. When becoming

private in a communicational situation for a politician in a public situation, there is the risk of

alienating the followers, which is never the intention on a public account. Showing a personal side

creates trust as it allows the followers to see the person behind the politician, but it has become clear

when doing this study that the posts should always stem from the strategy and plans from the

communicators, even if the representative politician is given the freedom of controlling their own

accounts and posts most of the time.

On the official party accounts the personal side of the communication strategy is almost never of

importance. These accounts have been shown in this study are mostly used as a mobilization tool

and of informative purposes only. This to inform the people of appearances in other media

platforms, of press conferences or other events and happenings that can interest the followers or

give them relevant information on where to get it further. This type of communication differs within

the use of the different social media platforms. It is clear after this study that the strategy behind the

social media communication not only needs the previously mentioned foundation that shows

through the entire social media use, but that it needs to be adjusted according to the target group

that mostly use that platform at hand.

The social media channels that are mostly used to spread information surrounding the happenings

of the party are Twitter and Facebook. Instagram and YouTube are used in a more relaxed manner

due to the younger base of users on these platforms. The study shows that with Twitter it eases the

way that the political representatives and the information shared from the official party account

leads to much contact with journalists and other people that can spread the information further.

This platform is used to share what has been uploaded on other platforms for this reason as well.

The platform that works as a collective of all the other platforms is Facebook. The most influential

social media channel of them has the most extensive online target group, which means that the

adjusted communications on the other social medias need to be gathered on this platform to be able

49

to reach as many people as possible. YouTube is more of a creational communication channel,

where visual campaigns can be uploaded for the purpose of expanding to other platforms, and

smaller video clips from debates as well as other appearances can be shared. That means that Twitter

and Instagram are the social media platforms that have the smallest target group: YouTube leaves

room for visual campaigning to be able to spread information to the other platforms, and Facebook

is the collector of them all where all sorts of campaigning can be shared, along with longer posts,

pictures and videos from party leaders as well as the communicators for the official account. It is

clear that the purpose of using social media over all in the campaigning for politics is to be able to

reach out to a extensive target group than previously possible.

This is where the factor of the minor and the major parties comes into consideration. The major

parties have a budget that could suffice for a standard campaign where money needs to be spent to

communicate their message. They have the ability to reach a large amount of people without using

social media channels, that are as stated free of charge. The fact that social media is a platform that

is free of charge gives the smaller parties a chance of reaching the target group that they desperately

need to be able to be successful in politics. However, in doing this without access to capital the

standard way of campaigning with flyers, speeches and so forth, results in a risk of having to fight

for a long period of time to get the wanted effect. The minor parties that do not have the capital are

not able to hire a team of communicators to perform this type of strategic planning for campaigning,

which means that they need to rely completely on nonprofit volunteers that have a passion for the

message that they want to reach out with.

This study demonstrates that social media has changed the way that campaigning in political

elections in the way that it gives the communicators behind the parties the chance to gain support

from a wider target group. It also shows that communicators need to be flexible in the way that they

plan a campaign and the strategy behind it. It gives the public a chance to see a wider spectrum of

opinions as it gives minor and major parties the room to air opinions no matter the budget that they

have. As a result it could create a fundament for a well functioning democracy. However, since

major parties do have the established brand for themselves since they have many followers without

the effort that has to be put in by minor parties. Considering the media climate that exists today

where social media plays an extensive role in most lives of the Swedish people, social media is a

powerful tool at the hands of the communicators. However, it is clear after this study that it is a tool

that works well when having the ability to reach a target group outside of social media as well. Being

50

able to conduct a physical campaign and performing personal meetings with the possible electors

still weigh heavy on the trust of the people who are to be won over as electors.

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10. Future research This study focuses on the work that goes on behind the social media accounts of politicians and of

official party accounts through communicators. The research questions of this study were:

- Do the strategic work from a communicator affect what is published on the politicians personal account and the

official party account, and to what extent?

- How do the communicators of Swedish political representatives use social media? Do they express their

communication in a personalized manner or focus mainly on the professional part of their assignment?

- What are the most important aspects in communicating through social media?

What has been shown in this study is that social media is one of the most important aspects in

communication in politics. The communicators do differ in opinions concerning how important of a

tool social media is, but since all the partys use the platform, it seems to be a growing

communication tool. It is clear that the communicators have an effect on what is published on the

accounts and that all the Swedish party work with strategies to find the best way of reaching out

through social media. Personal and professional posts need to be blended to reach as good of a

result as possible for the followers to understand and to create an arena of discussion that has a

healthy climate. To be able to adjust the communication to the target groups connected with the

different social media platforms has also been a main focus mentioned of the respondents.

Since social media channels are a fairly new communicational platform for politics - new fields of

research will emerge. As social media continues to evolve, new research will show different results

over time. As of writing this study snapchat has become a platform used by many official people,

and has not been considered in this essay. This is a platform that can be studied further in

communicational purposes for politics as it will most likely have a bigger role in the future. Along

with the development of Snapchat during this study, a new platform has emerged called Periscope.

A platform where live video sessions are broadcasted and viewers can ask questions via text and be

answered live. These types of developments will continue as new platforms emerge, and therefore

52

this study can continue to change over time. The fact that these platforms are in an ever changing

and adjusting phase can also be a problem for the communicators to adjust to, which can be a future

field of research. New research can be focused on the problems of adjusting for media strategists

and communicators, and continue a focus on the work that the communicators do with these

platform, but the research can also be focused on the new platforms evolving and what affect they

have on official communication as a whole.

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11. Implications for society More and more people use social media platforms to take part in daily political debates online. Social

media has become a way of communicating not only with each other but to research and find where

a person stands politically. As of this change, political accounts has become less of just personal

accounts of the politicians, and more of a place to represent the ideology at hand. In this

development, political transparency has become of larger importance. Statements online can be

found, spread and used for and against a politician in a faster manner than pre-social media. It leads

to communicators that are planning for social media publications having to be very careful and clear

in what is published online. This can be an important and successful development for the

democratization in society, as people can respond, object and get their voices heard, as well as

getting a direct response on the questions that they might have. It can also go the opposite direction

where the material published is too censored by the communicators leading to a message published

that is edited to the point of earlier ways of campaigning. From an organisational perspective, this

development leads to a new way of working as communicators and strategists. It has lead to a vast

number of new occupations and a development within the field of communication in politics. The

occupation of communicators and strategist will along with the evolution of social media and the

adjusting of existing ones be a changing one, as it needs to adjust to what changes might be.

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Kim, S. K., Park, M. J., & Rho, J. J. (2015). Effect of the Government’s Use of Social Media on the Reliability of the Government: Focus on Twitter. Public Management Review, 17(3), 328-355. doi:10.1080/14719037.2013.822530 Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2014). Den kvalitativa forskningsintervjun. (Uppl. 3). Lund: Studentlitteratur. Larsson, A. O., & Kalsnes, B. (2014). ‘Of course we are on Facebook’: Use and non-use of social media among Swedish and Norwegian politicians. European Journal Of Communication, 29(6), 653-667. doi:10.1177/0267323114531383. Madia, A, Sherrie. (2011) The Social Media Survival Guide for Political Campaigns; Everything You Need To Know To Get Your Candidate Elected Using Social Media. Voorhees: Full Court Press. Spiller, L. & Bergner, J. (2011) Branding The Candidate; Marketing Strategies To Win Your Vote. California: Praeger. Valmyndigheten (2014), Val till Riksdagen - röster. http://www.val.se/val/val2014/valnatt/R/rike/ Wigand, F. D. L. (2010) Twitter in Government: Building Relationships One Tweet at a Time. Paper Presented at the Seventh International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG), Las Vegas, NV, April 12–14.

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Appendix Intervjun påbörjas i samtliga fall av formaliteter som namn, frågan om det är okej att intervjun spelas

in och var informanten arbetar och vad informationen vi samlar kommer att användas i för syfte.

Eftersom detta är en semistrukturerad intervju kommer möjligen följdfrågor tilläggas på vissa

informanter och intervjuer.

1. Vad är/var din roll i ditt parti sociala medieflöde?

2. Varför anser du att det är av vikt att ni använder er av sociala medier för partier och partiledare?

3. Tycker du det är av mer vikt att rikta sig till sina redan existerande väljare eller till allmänheten

som kan komma att bli framtida väljare via en partiledares konton på sociala medier?

4. Bedömmer du att du som kommunikatör eller ansvarig för sociala medier har stort inflytande i

vad som kommer att postas på kontot hos partiledare eller för partiets officiella konto?

5. Finns det något som gör vissa konton på sociala medier mer intressanta än andra, i ögonen hos

allmänheten? Om så är fallet; vad och varför?

6. Tror du som kommunikatör att det är viktigare för de mindre partierna att nå en stor bas via

sociala medier än de större partierna?

7. Vad tycker du är av vikt att tänka på som strategi bakom en offentlig persons twitter, facebook

osv, speciellt inför ett val eller en valkampanj?

8. Vilka egenskaper vill man som kommunikatör/mediestrateg belysa hos en partiledare eller

offentlig person genom ett socialt medie-konto, finns det någon sorts strategi i att forma än

välbyggd karaktär hos en partiledare för att belysa en representant för ideologin?

9. Hur stor vikt tycker du bör läggas på att använda sig av personliga inlägg respektive professionella

inlägg?

57

10. Hur mycket planeras en balans mellan det personliga och det professionella bakom ett offentligt

konto på Internet för en offentlig politisk person?

11. Tror du att sociala medier har förändrat sättet att föra en valkampanj på en längre tidsbasis

framöver? I så fall; på vilket sätt?

12. För olika mediekanaler (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) arbetar ni med olika, anpassade strategier,

eller lägger ni upp en samlad strategi för sociala medier överlag? Tycker du att de olika kanalerna

fungerar för att belysa olika karaktärsdrag (till exempel personliga bilder på Instagram, presstal på

Facebook, öppna diskussioner på Twitter)?

13. Tror du att faktumet att sociala medier är så interaktiva i sig själva skapar en sorts förtroende hos

väljarna för de politiker som använder dessa kontinuerligt, då det är öppet för allmänheten att se

andra människors åsikter och kritik samt svar från politikern i fråga?

14. Hur arbetar ni med att utveckla sättet att kunna snabbt kommunicera med potentiella väljare

som kontaktar politiker via deras sociala medier?

15. Ser du några negativa sidor med att använda sig av sociala medier som ett verktyg i sin politiska

kampanj?

16. Hur ser du på riskerna med att använda sig av sociala medier, så som att ett felsteg kan spridas

och bli viralt väldigt snabbt påverkar återhållsamheten i sociala medier och vad som skall publiceras?

17. Hur stor påverkan tror du att antalet följare på sociala medier påverkar de slutgiltiga

valresultatet? Tror du att en positiv onlinekampanj från en partiledares sociala konton kan leda till en

förhöjd folkvald procent för ett helt parti?

18. Upplever du att sociala media funkar som ett mobilisations verktyg inom partiet på dess

medlemmar?

58