IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 37

Methods
In order to explore the uses of social media as online
campaign tools in 2013 presidential elections in
Cyprus, people in charge of social media communication in five political parties were interviewed. The five
political parties were: Democratic Rally, Democratic
Party (DIKO), The Movement for Social Democracy
(EDEK), The Ecological and Environmental Movement
of Cyprus and the Citizens' Alliance. DISY is a rightwing party that is currently the largest by vote in
Cyprus. In the last parliamentary elections in 2011 it
won 34.3% of the vote and holds 20 seats in the parliament. DIKO is a center-right party that is the third
by vote, having won 15.8% of the vote in the last elections and holds 9 seats in the parliament. EDEK is the
fourth party by vote. It won 9% of the vote and holds
5 seats. The Ecological and Environmental Movement
or Cyprus (Green Party) took 2.2% of the vote and has
one seat in parliament, while the Citizens Alliance did
not participate in the 2011 parliamentary elections as
it was founded in 2013. (Note: AKEL, the second political party by popular vote, was not included in the
analysis because, despite efforts by the researchers,
it was not possible to arrange an interview with a
party representative.)
Interviews were arranged by phone in the period September-November 2014. Interviews were conducted in
the participants' mother language - Greek - and the
interview schedule was translated from English to Greek
and then independently back-translated to check the
wording. Interviews lasted from 30 to 60 minutes and
were recorded and transcribed [5].
Questions asked related to which social media were
used; reasons for using social media, their importance
and benefits; effectiveness for targeting different age
groups; marketing tactics to mobilize young people; and
tracking young voters. Results are presented and discussed in the section that follows.

Findings and Discussion
Table 2 summarizes the responses of the parties' representatives to the questions posed at the interviews. As
the table shows, all parties use Facebook, three use Twitter, two YouTube, and one Google ads. The fact that
Facebook is the most used social media platform is probably not surprising given its high penetration and use.
A number of reasons are mentioned as to why political parties use social media. Some have to do with communicating more easily (e.g., "offer immediacy," "offer the
ability to express political views and opinions online,"
"uploading promotional materials or political masseges,"
"interact with the others online"), reaching special age
groups ("penetrate into age groups that we couldn't do
through television"), and cost savings ("they are relatively
JUNE 2018

∕

Persuading young people to vote
for a candidate may be different than
for the rest of the electorate.

inexpensive"). The benefits from the use of social media
and their importance are linked to similar reasons, i.e.,
communicating more easily and cheaply, and reaching
groups that are more difficult to reach with traditional
media (four out of five party representatives agree with
this last statement).
Political parties employed a number of tactics to
mobilize young people. These included using more
bright colors, having advertisements that have their
wording adapted for young people on YouTube, and promoting events or statements. The main argument was
that young people use the Internet more and are convinced differently. According to one respondent: "We use
different language for young people, more vivid, and
more bright colors. We also designed some advertisements that played only on YouTube, not TV, because we
felt this was more effective in reaching young people."
Only one party acknowledges that social media help
them track voters; other parties claim that they do not.
The "tracking" in the case of this party takes the form of
following voters' comments and suggestions. As the representative of the party specifically stated, "Yes, [we
track their views] since from there [social media] you
can interact with the users and comment on activities or
policies." One party representative expressed the view
that tracking voters is illegal and unethical, apparently
thinking about the practice of following as taking note
of a voters' views.
Overall, social media seemed to have been used to a
significant extent in the 2013 election in Cyprus. There
does not seem to be significant differences between
political parties in relation to the reasons for using and
the benefits of social media. There was a difference in
how representatives viewed "tracking voters," even
though the kind of answers given may suggest that the
meaning of the word "tracking" may have been understood differently by party representatives. In relation to
young people, there is evidence that political parties treat
them differently, acknowledging both young people's
familiarity with social media and the fact that the tools
needed to convince individuals from this group category
may differ compared to the rest of the electorate.
Because of the exploratory nature of this study and
the lack of comparative historical data in Cyprus, it is
not possible to comment in relation to the changes that

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018