Power to the people: mobilising political and civic engagement through social networking

Individuals who remain involved in local constituency activities arguably have a key role in the creation of brand images of local politicians. Such local community opinion leaders also appear to be able to mobilise local support for local issues, and increasingly use social media as a means of forming virtual communities focusing on these issues, acting as an online lobbying tool, and as a means of conveying their insight of a local politician’s brand to others.

During the election campaign for the Welsh Assembly elections of 5th May 2011 a key event which appeared on both Facebook and Twitter involved a proposed housing development on the former Bedwas Colliery site in South Wales. In order to investigate the way social media can be used to mobilise such civic engagement, this paper takes a case study approach to exploring the online presence of this local campaign that has not only appeared to have mobilised wide local engagement with public affairs, but which has also engaged support from local politicians.

Results point to the way social media is being mobilised by opinion leaders, which in turn appears to have the ability to affect these politicians’ brand images.