Politics at the time of social media. A few days before the administrative elections in some of the most important Italian cities, and in the aftermath of the “Morisi case”, the analysis of the social flows of politicians, at least of the most prominent ones, could be a useful thermometer to understand the user orientation and satisfaction. Therefore, of the voters. The study carried out through Human, the web and social listening platform created entirely by Italian developers with an Italian algorithm, owned by Spin Factor, captures a situation in which Giuseppe Conte has social performances clearly superior to those of Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni. Moreover, the former prime minister reaches these heights of popularity without paying a cent. Against a considerable investment by the two competitors, in particular the leader of the Carroccio. But let’s go in order.
Conte leads the ranking on sentiment analysis with 40.88% positive comments (in September 2020 it was 31.08%), followed by Meloni, with 32.61% (September 2020 it was 25.77%) and finally Salvini with 29.11% (September 2020, 29.33%). Even on average engagement (which measures the set of likes, comments and shares to posts) on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter there is no match: Conte at 65.100, Meloni at 29.800 and Salvini at 27.135. This data is even more significant if we consider that, for example, in the last week Matteo Salvini invested about 24 thousand euros in advertising on Facebook and Instagram, Giorgia Meloni about 700 euros and Giuseppe Conte zero. On this last given a clarification and a must. During the months of the lockdown, the president of the 5 Star Movement benefited from a crazy media coverage.
The “beast” this time with Rocco Casalino , has frighteningly increased Conte’s social visibility. So much so that – those with a good memory will remember – some press conferences during the months of the pandemic were broadcast exclusively through Facebook and Instagram direct. It goes without saying that the firepower even compared to respectable opponents such as Salvini and Meloni has grown disproportionately. Even the founder of “Spin doctor” Tiberio Brunetti, clearly explains that the former premier is reaping the benefits of a wise positioning strategy that starts in March 2020, when he was the only institutional point of reference to provide explanations on what it was happening during the first pandemic.
He entered the homes of all Italians, live on TV and social media at the same time, to explain measures, ask for a sense of responsibility. It continues to be perceived as a point of reference beyond the political spectrum, not surprisingly from the relative semantic analysis the word most associated with Conte is ‘president’, but he has not been president for months ”. The situation is different for Matteo Salvini, “who is experiencing a vertical collapse: on Facebook between September 2021 and September 2020 he lost about 57% of interactions”. The leader of the Brothers of Italy, Brunetti closes, “holds – and in this is helped by being the only one to catalyze even the dissent of those who are in the opposition, while Salvini begins to yield strongly. And it could be the beginning of a path similar to that of Matteo Renzi ”.
