The following analysis compares Erin O’Toole and Jagmeet Singh’s Instagram accounts. The choice of these two users allows a comparison of communication strategies and effectiveness to utilize the platform by two different leaders in Federal Politics in Canada.
Quick Overview
Conservative
@erinotoolemp
1,535 Posts 35.9k Followers
Erin O'Toole
Federal Party Leader from September 7, 2020
Bio: Husband, father, Leader of the Official Opposition @CPC_HQ, MP for Durham / Mari, père, chef de l’Opposition officielle @PCC_HQ, député de Durham 🇨🇦
Saved Stories
Link in Bio
NDP
@jagmeetsingh
1,376 Posts 626k Followers
Jagmeet Singh
Federal Party Leader from October 1, 2017
Bio: Pronounced Jug(rhymes with hug)-MEET!
Leader of Canada's NDP // Le chef du NPD du Canada
TEXT ME 613-801-8210 Twitter: theJagmeetSingh
Saved Stories
Link in Bio
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2 Leaders. 1 Platform.
Evolution of Posts
The following timeline provides a glimpse of the type of content posted by the two leader's accounts. The content was retrieved from April 1 - 18, 2021, and may not account for any removed content prior to April 1, 2021 or new content posted after April 19, 2021.
December 23, 2012
Erin O'Toole posts for the first time on Instagram.
March 6, 2013
Jagmeet Singh posts for the first time on Instagram.
March 31, 2017
Prior to Erin O'Toole becoming the Conservative party leader, much of his content was was very casual, with the quality of the images and attending events to stay involved in the community.
October 1, 2017
Jagmeet Singh elected as the Leader of Canada's NDP.
March 4, 2020
Erin O'Toole content takes a new approach focused on the O'Toole brand to win the conservative leadership race.
March 5, 2020
The style of Singh's Instagram is very community-facing, with his feed including attendees from events, speakers, and special guests.
May 14, 2020
In addition to his campaign, O'Toole on several occasions posts pictures of Trudeau with captions on the need to replace him as a result of his poor work, scandals, and a better future with a Conservative Government.
June 22, 2020
Many of the videos posted by Jagmeet are clips from the House of Commons proceedings where he presents concerns from the NDP.
August 24, 2020
Erin O'Toole elected as the Leader of Canada's Conservatives. When given the opportunity, much of his content includes him being surrounded by his family.
November 5, 2020
When calling out the Liberal party or Justin Trudeau, the posts are not explicit in including images of Trudeau but are tucked into the messaging.
Evaluation Criteria
For the purpose of this analysis, a sample of 400 posts, specifically the last 200 posts per account were reviewed manually. The reason for this time period was to account for the timeline that Erin O'Toole and Jagmeet Singh were both party Leaders at the same time. As Erin became the party leader on September 7, 2020, newer posts would be more representative of his platform after having a month to plan content and improve strategies.
The Instagram posts were coded using the following criteria:
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Content: The user posted a variety of different kinds of content on their feed including different photos, illustrations, videos, reels, and IGTV. The diversity of content allows for more engaging interactions and increased following.
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Leadership: The user represents a balanced ratio of posts between political party values, daily responsibilities, personal content, and mentions of the Liberal Party. As politicians may be involved in other projects or use social media to stay connected with family, it would be interesting to see how this is reflected on their Instagram presence.
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Bilingualism: The leader successfully balanced posting content in both official languages, as they should have equal status in federal institutions as stated by the Official Languages Act.
Results
The results of the sample demonstrated that Jagmeet Singh had significantly more variety in the content he was posting. As demonstrated in the table (left) Singh used more videos (45% of the sample) which included, live streams with guest speakers, clips from the House of Commons, and interviews regarding the work he was doing as the leader of the NDP. He also added screenshots of his Twitter posts (24%) and pasted different images including illustrations, party posters, and group photos. Erin O’Toole used fewer videos and also used a generic setup for the majority of his videos, making them seem more rehearsed and less authentic. O’Toole seems to use strategies from traditional marketing to add content to his platform which may disinterest younger users from following him.
Both party leaders seemed to post content relating to keeping the Liberal Party accountable for their actions and policies that affect Canadians. On average, around 40% of the content for both leaders included content relating to their regular duties as MPs, speaking with stakeholders, and snippets of them working in action. With Erin O'Toole being a new face to the public, the majority of his non-political posts are of his family and the importance it has on his daily life. Where they differ is that Jagmeet has more content relating to objectives from the NDP.
(This may also be that Erin O'Toole just finished campaigning to become the leader and wanted to adjust the content to better understand who he is.)
Both Political Party Leaders took different approaches in order to meet the official language standards as set by the Government of Canada. Erin O'Toole was successful in having 65% of his posts bilingual. For his published posts that were only in French, 10/26 posts were part of a campaign directed to Quebecor's. Despite the strategic use of French overall from O'Toole, only 9% of the content was not translated. Meanwhile, in French, 29.5 % of Jagmeet's posts were not translated from the individual post in English after determining the remaining ratio of English posts left.
