Sky’s general election coverage will boost social media campaigning

Candidates who make extensive use of social media will receive a boost to their election campaigns, courtesy of Sky News’s plans to feature such material in a set of special constituency pages being created for the election.

Each constituency will have its own page and those pages will pull in feeds from candidates. Sky is asking for information on candidate blogs, Facebook fan pages and Twitter accounts, In addition, Sky will also pull in photos from Flickr and films from YouTube if they are tagged with the names of both the constituency and the candidate. (Let’s hope Sky are remember to do some moderation, else there could be some exploitation of that system…)

Sky’s decision to republish and promote content from candidates will help it reach a wider audience, benefiting those candidates who make good use of a range of online services. In particular, the inclusion of photos from Flickr and videos from YouTube is likely to benefits candidates using those ahead of candidates just relying on the written word as they are likely to look more interesting and attractive on the Sky pages, garnering more attention from the public.

If you are using YouTube yourself, my six tips for getting more viewers still apply.