South African political parties have embraced the idea of using the Internet as a campaigning medium, but they could use it better and to more effect, says Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx.
Today, the research firm released the country`s first formal Web site benchmarking survey of how political parties use the Web.
World Wide Worx (WWW) used its "Webagility" method, which is also used to evaluate and benchmark Web site usability and the strategy of companies, organisations and institutions in SA and around the world.
A key finding is that the Democratic Alliance (DA) has a substantial lead in online performance over the African National Congress (ANC), with fledgling opposition party Congress of the People (Cope) coming in third.
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) and Independent Democrats (ID), in turn, are well behind Cope, while the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) trails so far behind that its Web presence is described as "damaging".
Beyond the surface
The Webagility system breaks the analysis down into several modules, including usability, social media, campaign effectiveness, and content strategy.
"The DA site achieves only an average score from a usability point of view, but their content strategy sets them apart," says Steven Ambrose, MD of WWW Strategy, which conducts the Webagility analyses on behalf of World Wide Worx.
The DA site achieves only an average score from a usability point of view, but their content strategy sets them apart.
Steven Ambrose, MD, WWW Strategy
Ambrose heads up the Webagility team of analysts. "Benchmarked against global best practice, they score 81% on content strategy, against 64% by the ANC and 60% by Cope."
In usability, the DA score drops to 69%, while the ANC is consistent at 63% and Cope drops to 57%. Campaign effectiveness sees similar ratings for the DA, at 65%, while the ANC scores only 48%, Cope 45% and the UDM 43%.
The much vaunted use of social media, like blogging - Facebook and YouTube - by the political parties is revealed by the analysis highlighting this lags behind global best practice. While the DA still leads substantially here, its benchmarked score drops to 69%. The ANC plummets to 47% and Cope 43%.
Poor content
"The difference lies not so much in what they are doing, but in how they are doing it," says Ambrose. "The ANC have clearly invested heavily in their online presence, and their YouTube site looks most impressive at first sight. But it is put to very poor use, with uninspiring content, and little opportunity for voter engagement."
Ambrose says the DA has spent less on its site, but scores far higher due to the direct engagement of its own representatives. "Their blogs are not only relevant, but interesting, so it comes across as real engagement rather than a public relations exercise."
The overall Webagility scores of the major parties, benchmarked against global best practice, are:
DA: 76%
ANC: 61%
Cope: 56%
UDM: 43%
ID: 32%
IFP: 23%
"The poor performance of the IFP Web site, which our system characterises as `potentially damaging`, is a reflection of the reality that the IFP does not expect its target voter audience to be found among Internet users," notes Goldstuck.
He says it is probably not vote-effective for the IFP to spend too much energy online. "The ID`s performance is more a reflection of poor understanding of online strategy, with its leader famous for her attacks on blogs."
Goldstuck adds that the DA has clearly done its homework on the Obama campaign, which set the standard globally for embracing the Internet in political campaigning.
"We have nothing like that kind of sophistication in SA, but lessons are being learned fast," he adds.
Commenting on the survey`s findings, Bronwen Kausch, vice-chairperson of the Internet Society of SA, says the fact that parties are embracing the Internet as a means to communicate with their supporters is testament to the growing importance of the Net in South African society.
"We hope, though, that each party now realises the full extent of how many South Africans are still disconnected and that rectifying this becomes a priority for whomever serves in the new national executive," she says.
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