Labour Leads in Social Media Followers as Reform UK Surges in Online Engagement Ahead of General Election

Labour leads in social media following on key platforms

Labour boasts the highest number of followers among major social media networks, while Reform is "outperforming expectations."

By Sam Doak, Open Source Intelligence Producer

Wednesday, June 5, 2024, 9:

As the nation approaches a general election, political groups are actively using social media platforms to communicate their agendas to the voters.

Sky News monitored the online activity of the top six polling parties on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, examining how they are faring in their efforts to engage with digital audiences at the start of the election period.

X (Previously known as Twitter)

Utilizing the analytics platform SocialBlade, Sky News analyzed follower trends on the social media site X (previously known as Twitter) for various political parties. Over the past month, Reform UK experienced the most significant growth in followers, with more than 11,000 new users adding their official account.

The Labour Party saw a comparable performance, gaining 9,366 new followers by the end of the period. Meanwhile, the Conservatives managed a smaller growth, acquiring 4,379 followers.

The SNP saw the poorest performance during this period, gaining only 159 new followers.

Over the past month, Reform has shown the strongest performance on the platform, yet this surge hasn't significantly altered the broader landscape. Currently, the Labour Party leads with slightly more than 1.02 million followers, with the Conservative Party trailing at 623,731 followers.

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The other four parties are closely competing on the platform, each having about a third of the total that Labour has.

Exploring Instagram

On Instagram, the Labour Party holds a narrower advantage in followers. They currently have almost 295,000 followers, compared to the Conservative Party's 207,795.

Among the six groups, the Liberal Democrats boast the least number of adherents on the platform, possessing slightly fewer than 44,000 members.

In the past month, the Labour Party has seen a significant uptick in its platform presence, gaining more than 20,600 new followers. This was the largest increase among the parties, with the Green Party securing the second-highest growth, followed in order by Reform UK, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives, and the Scottish National Party.

TikTok

TikTok simplifies the follower count shown on profiles by rounding down to the closest significant figure. The specific increments used change as the total number of followers for an account grows.

Although detailed statistics on TikTok are scarce, the Labour Party's newly created account leads with the highest number of followers, surpassing 165,900. Following behind is Reform, which has maintained an official account on TikTok since 2022 and has accumulated more than 141,000 followers, making it the second most followed among the mentioned parties.

The Conservative Party, which also joined the platform not long ago, had garnered over 51,700 followers, a number that was less than one third of Labour's following.

Among the six top-ranking parties in the polls, the Liberal Democrats have the fewest followers on TikTok.

TikTok provides a feature where users can see the total number of likes received by a page's posts. Among the six groups, the Labour Party received the most likes, amassing over 3.6 million. Following them, Reform secured the second position with their content gathering more than 1.4 million likes.

Meta

On Facebook, the Labour Party boasts the biggest following, with over 1,069,000 followers on its official page. Trailing behind, the Conservative Party has garnered a substantial audience as well, with over 752,000 followers.

Over the past month, Reform UK has experienced the largest surge in followers, concluding with a gain of over 12,000 in its audience size.

Relative to their overall follower count, the increase in supporters for the parties was relatively slight during this period. The SNP was an exception, concluding the interval with a slight decline of just over 400 followers on Facebook.

Insights from the Data

Discussing the dynamics of the electoral contest on social media platforms, Kate Dommett, a professor specializing in digital politics at the University of Sheffield, noted, "Across all four platforms, the Conservatives find themselves trailing behind Labour, having approximately 900,000 fewer followers."

Dommett noted that although it's not a definitive predictor of success, this gap leaves the Conservatives at a clear disadvantage in their communication efforts with voters.

Dommett highlighted that Reform UK is performing exceptionally well, gaining a significant number of followers and competing strongly with more established parties across various platforms.

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