James Fisk works for Knox Digital and is Director of Communications for the Next Gen Tories.
Tiktok doesn’t feel like our natural territory.
As one MP who I advised to start posting on TikTok quoted “it feels a bit like campaigning on a university campus”.
But it doesn’t have to be this way, and in many ways, it isn’t.
TikTok’s rapid growth in the UK has been extraordinary, developing from a dancing app to a platform with millions of active users in just a few years. Tiktok has rewritten the social media rulebook, forcing all the major platforms to embrace short form vertical video, and completely democratising whose political message can reach you.
That’s why Knox Digital has recently launched the Knox Index, a one stop shop to know exactly what is happening on political Tiktok. It gives you real time data on what politicians are cutting through, what formats are performing well, and what topics are salient online. If you’re an elected official, an adviser, or just want to keep up to date with exactly what is trending in SW1, then signing up to the daily briefing is a must.
So what does it tell us about how the party is performing on Tiktok?
Let’s start with the good news. The Conservatives Tiktok page is improving quickly, and has seen increasingly favourable results in the past six months, the digi team at CCHQ deserve a lot of credit for this. The Conservatives are the fourth biggest party on Tiktok and have the third highest number of views.
Considering our account was made way after the other parties, and is continuing to grow, CCHQ have proven that we can succeed on Tiktok, and the more we post, the more are growing.
However, it is not all sunshine and rainbows. While the party’s account is performing well, our messaging is being squeezed by a lack of support from elected officials.
Only two of our MPs feature in the top twenty most followed MP pages (Katie Lam and Luke Evans). Only six of our MPs feature in the top 30 MPs with the most views and a grand total of one MP (Matt Vickers) sits in the top 20 most engaged with parliamentarians this year.
Compare this with the other parties, and the difference is stark. Four of Reform’s MPs sit in the top 20 most followed, with nine Labour MPs in the same category. Sixteen Labour MPs, four Reform MPs, Zarah Sultana and Rupert Lowe all sit in the most viewed accounts and fifteen Labour MPs are among the top 20 most engaged with political accounts. The message of Labour and Reform isn’t just coming from accounts run by the party, but is being reinforced by a patchwork of support online voices. Our elected officials simply aren’t in the fight.
And I mean this literally, 51 per cent of Labour MPs are on Tiktok, 75 per cent of Reform MPs and 80 per cent of Green MPs are using the platform, with the smaller parties being aggressively more active.
Just 38 per cent of our Parliamentarians are on the UK’s fastest growing social media tool. Kemi is the only party leader without a Tiktok account. Considering she is the most popular party leader in the country at the moment, why not expand people’s access to her?
Nonetheless, there is a reason for our low numbers on TikTok – China. Tiktok is owned by a company called ByteDance, which is based in Beijing. Theoretically, the Chinese Communist Party could legally request the data of UK users, and mandate that the site begins pushing pro-Beijing messaging directly onto the phones of Britains youth. This is a national security risk, and the reason that many prominent Conservative politicians refuse to use the app.
However, X is owned by someone who has endorsed Restore Britain, we know that Musk’s platform pushes extreme right wing rhetoric, we know he re-platformed Tommy Robinson, and yet we still use X to house our political discourse – because, for better or worse, that is where the audience for political commentary is.
Cambridge Analytica stole the private data of up to 87 million Facebook users without consent, Mark Zuckerberg refused to accept responsibility and only changed his data handling policy when forced by international Governments. We still use Facebook to talk to constituents because that is where they are.
Tiktok does pose a risk, but so does every single social media outfit we use. The reality is that the electoral reward offered by increased TikTok usage is too large. Should Beijing choose to use Tiktok to their advantage, would we rather they do it with an established Conservative presence ready to fight back, or do it where only the Labour Party, Reform and the Greens are actors?
The fact is, TikTok is where voters are. This is not going to change, and as Tiktok continues to grow year on year, the case against talking to voters where they are active, engaged and willing to change their mind becomes indefensible.
The party has frequent policy debates aimed at winning back a younger demographic of voters. As the Communications Director of Next Gen Tories, the announcement on student loans and cutting stamp duty are very welcome – but how on earth do we expect young people to even know this is what we are offering if we don’t talk to them where they are?
Our party’s account cannot do all the heavy lifting; we need our MPs to get online and increase the reach of our message. It is no good just posting on X to other politicians and journalists, we have to win people back where they’re listening, and that is Tiktok.
The blueprint is there, Luke Evans and Katie Lam have shown us how to do Tiktok well, but the truth is, there is no ‘right’ way to post. You just have to start. Tell us about your work, what you think, engage with comments, react to Labour’s failings, poke fun at Reform, there is no wrong answer.
We are the most successful political party in the world because of our ability to adapt – it is now time to do that again, and our elected officials must join the fight for the feed.
James Fisk works for Knox Digital and is Director of Communications for the Next Gen Tories.
Tiktok doesn’t feel like our natural territory.
As one MP who I advised to start posting on TikTok quoted “it feels a bit like campaigning on a university campus”.
But it doesn’t have to be this way, and in many ways, it isn’t.
TikTok’s rapid growth in the UK has been extraordinary, developing from a dancing app to a platform with millions of active users in just a few years. Tiktok has rewritten the social media rulebook, forcing all the major platforms to embrace short form vertical video, and completely democratising whose political message can reach you.
That’s why Knox Digital has recently launched the Knox Index, a one stop shop to know exactly what is happening on political Tiktok. It gives you real time data on what politicians are cutting through, what formats are performing well, and what topics are salient online. If you’re an elected official, an adviser, or just want to keep up to date with exactly what is trending in SW1, then signing up to the daily briefing is a must.
So what does it tell us about how the party is performing on Tiktok?
Let’s start with the good news. The Conservatives Tiktok page is improving quickly, and has seen increasingly favourable results in the past six months, the digi team at CCHQ deserve a lot of credit for this. The Conservatives are the fourth biggest party on Tiktok and have the third highest number of views.
Considering our account was made way after the other parties, and is continuing to grow, CCHQ have proven that we can succeed on Tiktok, and the more we post, the more are growing.
However, it is not all sunshine and rainbows. While the party’s account is performing well, our messaging is being squeezed by a lack of support from elected officials.
Only two of our MPs feature in the top twenty most followed MP pages (Katie Lam and Luke Evans). Only six of our MPs feature in the top 30 MPs with the most views and a grand total of one MP (Matt Vickers) sits in the top 20 most engaged with parliamentarians this year.
Compare this with the other parties, and the difference is stark. Four of Reform’s MPs sit in the top 20 most followed, with nine Labour MPs in the same category. Sixteen Labour MPs, four Reform MPs, Zarah Sultana and Rupert Lowe all sit in the most viewed accounts and fifteen Labour MPs are among the top 20 most engaged with political accounts. The message of Labour and Reform isn’t just coming from accounts run by the party, but is being reinforced by a patchwork of support online voices. Our elected officials simply aren’t in the fight.
And I mean this literally, 51 per cent of Labour MPs are on Tiktok, 75 per cent of Reform MPs and 80 per cent of Green MPs are using the platform, with the smaller parties being aggressively more active.
Just 38 per cent of our Parliamentarians are on the UK’s fastest growing social media tool. Kemi is the only party leader without a Tiktok account. Considering she is the most popular party leader in the country at the moment, why not expand people’s access to her?
Nonetheless, there is a reason for our low numbers on TikTok – China. Tiktok is owned by a company called ByteDance, which is based in Beijing. Theoretically, the Chinese Communist Party could legally request the data of UK users, and mandate that the site begins pushing pro-Beijing messaging directly onto the phones of Britains youth. This is a national security risk, and the reason that many prominent Conservative politicians refuse to use the app.
However, X is owned by someone who has endorsed Restore Britain, we know that Musk’s platform pushes extreme right wing rhetoric, we know he re-platformed Tommy Robinson, and yet we still use X to house our political discourse – because, for better or worse, that is where the audience for political commentary is.
Cambridge Analytica stole the private data of up to 87 million Facebook users without consent, Mark Zuckerberg refused to accept responsibility and only changed his data handling policy when forced by international Governments. We still use Facebook to talk to constituents because that is where they are.
Tiktok does pose a risk, but so does every single social media outfit we use. The reality is that the electoral reward offered by increased TikTok usage is too large. Should Beijing choose to use Tiktok to their advantage, would we rather they do it with an established Conservative presence ready to fight back, or do it where only the Labour Party, Reform and the Greens are actors?
The fact is, TikTok is where voters are. This is not going to change, and as Tiktok continues to grow year on year, the case against talking to voters where they are active, engaged and willing to change their mind becomes indefensible.
The party has frequent policy debates aimed at winning back a younger demographic of voters. As the Communications Director of Next Gen Tories, the announcement on student loans and cutting stamp duty are very welcome – but how on earth do we expect young people to even know this is what we are offering if we don’t talk to them where they are?
Our party’s account cannot do all the heavy lifting; we need our MPs to get online and increase the reach of our message. It is no good just posting on X to other politicians and journalists, we have to win people back where they’re listening, and that is Tiktok.
The blueprint is there, Luke Evans and Katie Lam have shown us how to do Tiktok well, but the truth is, there is no ‘right’ way to post. You just have to start. Tell us about your work, what you think, engage with comments, react to Labour’s failings, poke fun at Reform, there is no wrong answer.
We are the most successful political party in the world because of our ability to adapt – it is now time to do that again, and our elected officials must join the fight for the feed.