It is interesting how this year’s European elections are being promoted, compared to previous elections. Questions about the role of the influencers arise since many of them were seen for the first time wandering the corridors of the European Parliament, both in Brussels and Strasbourg.
The use of social media is essential for the election campaign, which aims to encourage citizens to make the most of their vote. That was the central message of the ‘Use your vote’ campaign. The entire campaign in 27 Member States and at least 24 languages cost €37 million.
Perhaps the main aim of this campaign was to reach out to young people so that they could upgrade their knowledge of the European Parliament. Working with content creators is part of its communication strategy since most of them have a passionate young audience, and this would make it easier to get the message across to get them to the polls to vote.
What we were specifically told was that influencers can help Parliament to reach different audiences, including – by way of example and not limitation – young people, who are one of Parliament’s targeted audiences but tend to follow political developments less closely or are less informed by the media and generally participate less in elections.
The Parliament’s communication team is constantly working with content creators from all over the European Union and organizes seminars selected for their interest in specific topical issues. In connection with these, MEPs can help them to understand Parliament’s priorities and positions.
During the events, the Parliament provides personalized information about its work, relevant to their profiles and their communities. When inviting influencers to specific events, Parliament ensures that they are aligned with EU values, respect codes of conduct, and are genuinely interested in the issues at hand.
At this point, the question came up as to whether or not they were being paid to go ahead with this promotion. The answer we got was this: Parliament does not pay influencers for the content they produce. They are encouraged (but not required) to share content about their visit to Parliament.social media influencers. European elections, influencers, social media
