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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 11 JUNE 2017 News YANNICK PACE SURVEYS preceding the June 3 election indicated that Joseph Mus- cat's Labour Party (PL) was heading towards victory but the size of the win caught many by surprise, with the general feeling in many circles having been that a win was within the Nationalist Party's (PN) reach. Labour won instead, with a land- slide. While both parties made exten- sive use of social media throughout the campaign both the PL and PN weren't as effective as they hoped at influencing new voters, according to Gege Gatt, director at ICON, a leading software development and digital marketing company. ICON, together with data mining platform Minely, carried out what Gatt described as a big-data exer- cise that sampled over two million "actions" on Facebook in an analy- sis of the general election on social media. The exercise – which can be ac- cessed at www.icon.com.mt/malta- elections-2017/ – allowed its devel- opers to collect various metrics that relate to how Facebook users inter- acted with content coming from both campaigns. A prediction from the exercise based on the number of active users interacting with political and news portal pages, estimated the Labour Party winning 53.8% of the vote, with 42.56% going to PN – con- siderably closer to the actual result than some surveys. Gatt said that neither of the two parties had offered "anything novel" in terms of their digital campaign- ing and lacked content tailored to specific sub-groups, for example. Rather than translate into more votes, he said both campaigns prob- ably played more of a role in "reaf- firming" voters' views and increas- ing the campaign's tempo through live broadcasts. In many cases, the parties were preaching to the con- verted. He explained that Malta's high use of Facebook together with the "pas- sionate participation in a polarised political environment" contributes to an "echo chamber effect" and reduces the likelihood of Facebook users searching for "objective truth" beyond their own timelines and cir- cles of friends. The term 'echo chamber effect' is commonly used to describe the occurrence of Facebook users fol- lowing pages and people whose views they share while avoiding those with different opinions. This, it is claimed, leaves the user feeling more strongly about their opinion and less likely to be convinced oth- erwise. "Voters get a skewed impression of what other citizens think, and both parties seem to have been more able to pander to their existing cohorts than to influence new ones," said Gatt. Asked which age group was most likely to be influenced by social me- dia content, Gatt said that one could not consider age alone, and that fac- tors like cultural circumstances and educational upbringing are likely to be more determining factors. "Social media prizes emotional- ism over reason," he said. "The more frenzied the message, the quicker it circulates, and the longer it holds the ever-moving public eye." In addition to communicating a message to voters, social media can also be used to collect data to inform campaign strategy and po- sitioning. "More sophisticated campaigns generate psychometric variables to profile users and target them with the right message at the right time," he said. "In this way, social media becomes both a listening tool and a broadcast medium at once." Ultimately Gatt argued that po- litical campaigns "are all about targeting" and that while normal demographic profiling is effective, analysing a country's digital foot- print would inform parties on what messages work with different indi- viduals. "As campaign teams become bet- ter at combining data points from online users they'll be able to pre- dict with some accuracy what mes- sage would be most effective for each person," he said. "Rather than having one national campaign, parties will likely need to have multiple sub-campaigns built on expertise and intelligence de- rived from social data." ypace@mediatoday.com.mt Open House organised by Frank Salt Real Estate - Fgura Branch For more information call on 9946 4552 or email fgura@franksalt.com.mt €465,000 SOLE AGENCY Double-fronted, expertly converted and full of original features and charm, this 4-bedroomed house of character comes with an abundance of living space as well as its own garage. €325,000 SOLE AGENCY Centrally located, fully furnished house of character with central courtyard, 2/3 bedrooms, flagstone flooring throughout, beautifully rendered walls and wood- burning stove. Follow signage from Żurrieq Church Two beautiful houses of character in Żurrieq OPEN HOUSE TODAY From 10am till 6pm 'Social media campaigns didn't change voters' minds'