How do political parties use Facebook at election time to extend or accelerate their reach within the electorate? How successful are these efforts?  

These questions are addressed in the recently published article “Facebook affordances and citizen engagement during elections”, which can be found here.  

Authors Karolina Koc-Michalska, Darren Lilleker, Tomasz Michalski, Rachel Gibson, and Jan Zajac find that the timing and visual content of posts are important in increasing voters’ attention and that interactivity matters most. Responsive party posts on Facebook are significantly more likely to be shared, liked, and commented on by users. These findings enhance our understanding of the effects of social media campaigns and provide insights for parties themselves into what makes a Facebook campaign effective, in terms of reach.  

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