It is a weapon of weight for the candidates in the presidential election and they are taking up more and more space. In the campaign, social networks make it possible to reach a younger electorate and more distant from the polls. All this at a lower cost and bypassing the speaking times imposed in the traditional media. But not all candidates make the same use of it.
Mélenchon first to invest in TikTok
On the first place of the podium we find Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The Insoumis candidate has the largest community with, in mid-February, 5.6 million subscribers. The MP for Bouches-du-Rhône is on all social networks, from Twitter to LinkedIn, via the Twitch video streaming platform. And he was one of the first to invest in TikTok, the latest arrival in social networks, where you can see short and powerful videos. The leader of the far left perfectly masters the codes of the network and does not hesitate to stage himself on electro or rap music.
The growth of Zemmour accounts
It is also on TikTok that Éric Zemmour stands out. The polemicist posts there more intimate videos of himself, during a football game or a bowling game, which aims to attract the sympathy of voters. At the other end of the social spectrum, Éric Zemmour is Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s challenger. Not by its number of subscribers, which is more modest, but by its growth: +7% since September. For the president of the Reconquest party, it is also 800 tweets per month, 200 Facebook posts and more than 300 on LinkedIn according to Favikon, software that analyzes the performance of influencers on social networks.
A “pathetic” number of cumulative subscribers for Pécresse
According to the general manager and co-founder of the software, Jérémy Boissinot, “each social network corresponds to a very specific audience and very specific codes.” However, many candidates – like Valérie Pécresse – copy and paste their content on all the networks. They do not adapt to the target audience. Valérie Pécresse has only 600,000 cumulative subscribers. “It’s quite pathetic”, judge Jérémy Boissinot at the microphone of Europe 1. His TikTok account only has 4,000 when Jean Lassalle won 30,000 subscriptions in just one week.
The “old fashioned” use of Hidalgo
This problem of tone and use of “very old” social networks is found in Anne Hidalgo, dunce of the ranking. For the co-founder of Favikon, “what interests on the networks is to see the more human and authentic side of the candidates.” And the goal is not just to clown around. We see it with Jean-Luc Mélenchon. A light video, followed by a serious video (an excerpt from a speech at the National Assembly for example) has a real impact on the second.