Forging a democratic path online
Super City’s youngest mayoral candidate says the secret to being liked as a politician is just telling the truth Everything is coming from an honest place, and without sounding self-aggrandising people seem to engage with that.
If the race for Auckland’s mayor were to be won on social media, Chloe Swarbrick would leave everyone else in her digital dust. The 22-year-old is the standout performer in the online battle to secure leadership of the council.
Despite entering the contest late as an unknown quantity with a limited budget, she has gathered traction with her engagement on social media channels.
Swarbrick told the Herald the secret to her social success was simple honesty.
“Given that I initially had no money whatsoever, the big question was how do I get the word out there . . . It made sense to use social media.
“Everything is coming from an honest place, and without sounding self-aggrandising people seem to engage with that.
“I’ve found the secret to being liked as a politician is just telling the truth.”
Her day job is producing social media strategies for businesses, but she said her campaign broke all the commonly held rules of the medium, including that brief is better.
“The biggest post I’ve had so far in terms of engagement was a video that was over eight minutes long.”
She felt she had been excluded somewhat by the traditional media outlets, and that going online allowed her to counteract that.
“Social media lets me, as it does with all candidates, create our own content. What social media and the internet did was democratise information.
“People can ask questions and get answers in real time. One of the key fundamentals for me is being quite open and honest with it.”
Although most of her online audience has been young people, Swarbrick said she wasn’t aiming to engage just one demographic.
“The majority is young people through social because young people are more inclined to use social, but I’ve had messages from 50- and 60-year-olds saying they’re excited by my message.
“They’ve watched my interviews or have seen me at a debate and they’re going to vote for me. Older people tend to be the ones who are sending me the more detailed questions which is brilliant because it allows me to go deeper into my policies.”
Swarbrick said young people who had never voted before cited her as their motivation for enrolling.
At a Social Media Club Auckland event, Swarbrick said her campaign was initially 90 per cent social media, but as she got involved in more debates and other media it was now more like 60 per cent.
Not all the online interaction has been positive.
“There’s always ad hominem attacks, my favourite one was one guy who said he wanted to run me over with a [Toyota] Prius.
“There’s also been a number of comments on my appearance, which I guess is the case with any politician, particularly female politicians, but I’ve had some really good discussions about my policy.
“People who just want to attack you, you’re not going to get anywhere but those people who say my policy is ridiculous, I can back up everything with references and explaining where the idea came from and how it works.
“The difficulty there is how do you go about having that really detailed conversation on the defined platform that social media is.”
Casting her eye over the rest of the field, Swarbrick said a lack of strong social media engagement inspired her to throw her hat in the ring in the first place.
She said she noticed her effective techniques had since been imitated by her competitors.
“I have noticed there has been a move towards video, and I’ve seen videos similar to my own.
“I was a bit of a hesitant politician. I obviously entered late into this race and that’s because I was waiting for somebody with more experience to do what I’m doing.
“All of my [social media] language is quite considered about using ‘we’ and ‘ you’ instead of ‘I’, and that’s definitely a change of language that’s happened with the others.”
Swarbrick feels her personal approach is the key to outperforming her rivals.
“It’s definitely a reflection of how it’s being used. I do all of mine [social media responses] myself, I know Phil [Goff] does respond to some questions himself but he does have a team that does it for him.
“I use it basically as a portal for people to talk to me directly whereas for others it might not be.” Graduated from Auckland University yesterday with a Law and Arts conjoint degree, majoring in philosophy Skipped Year 13 to attend university early at 17 Worked as a journalist for 95bFM
Chloe Swarbrick Auckland mayoral candidate
Doesn't own a home or a car