Queensland election: It’s on for young and old with social media

Underdog appeal is helping Deb Frecklington garner support on Facebook while Labor looks for the youth vote on TikTok.

Annastacia Palaszczuk at Townsville’s Murray Sporting Complex on Thursday. Picture: Dan Peled

Underdog appeal is helping Deb Frecklington garner support on Facebook while Queensland Labor looks for the youth vote on TikTok.

While Facebook has lost some of its appeal with the younger generation, it is still the favoured platform in the increasingly ­diverse social media landscape.

A Roy Morgan survey conducted last year showed more than 80 per cent of people born after 1964 use Facebook.

Picture-based Instagram, also owned by the platform, continues to grow in popularity among young people and politicians looking to reach them. Some politicians are also trying their luck on the relatively new Chinese-owned TikTok to engage with ­potential first-time voters.

Data from CrowdTangle, a public insights tool owned and ­operated by Facebook, showed that in the month to last Friday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk managed a higher number of likes, comments and shares (611,641) than the Opposition Leader, Ms Frecklington, largely in part to the frequency of her posting. However, the LNP challenger is gaining followers at a faster rate.

Deb Frecklington at BSE Maritime Solutions in Cairns. Picture: Sarah Marshall

Axel Bruns, of the Queensland University of Technology’s Digital Media Research Centre, said Ms Palaszczuk’s higher follower count (166,500) may have reached “saturation” levels.

“Supporters of the challenger tend to be more motivated to ­disseminate their leader’s content, especially if they feel that they’re trailing the incumbent and/or have a chance still to make up ground,” Dr Bruns said.

Ranking engagement on Facebook of current sitting members over a 30-day period showed the two leaders easily ahead of the pack when it came to likes, comments and shares. They were followed by the Deputy Premier and Health Minister, Stephen Miles. Former minister Jackie Trad had the fourth-highest engagement level over the month, with the Greens’ lone member, Michael Berkman, ranking seventh.

The Katter’s Australian Party’s strong presence in northern Queensland also translates online, with Robbie Katter and Nick Dametto ranking 10th and 11th against other members, each achieving about 12,500 interactions for the month.

Dr Bruns said that during the 2017 election the LNP tended to be less prolific on social media than Labor.

Last month, Ms Frecklington posted with less than half the frequency of Ms ­Palaszczuk and Mr Miles, who regularly posted pandemic updates with eye-catching graphics.

“Deb Frecklington does post a lot more longer-form (three-plus minutes) videos,” he said.

“This might be seen as somewhat old-fashioned campaigning — certainly it’s not TikTok — but perhaps this style is suited to the LNP’s demographics, which I­ ­believe skew older and are thus more accustomed to TV campaigns.”