Elections Playbook Facebook tools to help news publishers report before, during, and after an election - Facebook Journalism Project
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Elections Playbook
Facebook tools to help news publishers report
before, during, and after an election
Campaign
The Basics 4
Monitoring the Conversation 5
Using CrowdTangle 6
Every day around the globe, people turn to Facebook to learn about, Involving Your Audience 7
Building a Community 8
discuss, and get involved with issues and elections that matter to
Creating Content Along the Trail 12
them and their communities. Our aim is to make it easier for people
Encouraging Participation 15
to both have a voice in government and get information about local
Debates
affairs, and we recognize that a strong news industry is critical to Broadcasting Live 16
building an informed community. Election Day
Exploring Innovative Forms of Storytelling 22
You can use Facebook and Instagram to make election news
Post Election
accessible to more people and help you produce immersive local
Diving Into the Issues 26
news content. From the campaign trail to after an election, we’ve
Exploring New Storytelling Formats 27
outlined our top suggestions to enhance your elections coverage. Drive Discussion to Increase Engagement 28
Using Your Data to Inform Reporting 31
Review: Campaign Lifecycle Quick Guide 32
About the Facebook Journalism Project 33
Campaigns Follow Conversations
Whether it’s opinions and posts by constituents or announcements from candidates,
The excitement begins on the campaign trail. Give your audience an Facebook can help you surface what’s trending and find stories about the elections.
opportunity to dive into the action right away by taking them with you TIPS
on the road to election day. • Find Pages and accounts for the candidates, community influencers, and local
constituents.
• Use keyword search around particular events or topics. Apart from identifying
emerging trends or participants of a story, you can also use search to determine
when a piece of content was created and verify its source.
Getting Started
No matter what type of content you post — whether long-form or short — we recommend
adding a description to provide context. Leverage Facebook’s Ads Archive for Story Gathering
• Post regularly to increase your reach and grow your audience. Facebook and Instagram
Facebook now requires additional authorization and disclosure to run ads with political or
aim to only surface the most relevant content to people, so your audience shouldn’t
issue content. All of these ads are now catalogued in a publicly available and searchable archive.
feel spammed.
What does this mean for you? You can search by any keyword to find information about the
• Experiment with different types of content to increase your chances of satisfying a ads being run by a political campaign, issue advocacy organization, or any entity promoting
wider audience. content with political terms or that references a current issue of national important.
• Cross-post your reporting to different Pages and accounts. For example, post to a TIPS
journalist’s Facebook Page, their publisher’s Page, and their publisher’s • Start your search at facebook.com/ads/archive.
Instagram account.
• It’s available to everyone and publicly searchable on desktop and mobile.
• Embed public posts from Facebook and Instagram directly into the content of • Ads in the archive are available for up to seven years.
your website to enhance your story.
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Use CrowdTangle to Maximize Coverage • Use saved posts to easily send story ideas you find to collaborators.
CrowdTangle provides analytics to help the news industry measure their performance on • Set up saved searches to track press conferences and other election-related events
social media and identify great stories. that happen locally.
• Content Discovery: You can set up different dashboards to track certain Pages, • Use custom date ranges to follow up on previous stories of high interest.
accounts, or keywords. Whether it’s breaking campaign-related news, or a heartwarming
hyperlocal story, you’ll know about it.
• Competitive Analysis: Compare yourself to the rest of the industry, rank your own Involve Your Audience
affiliated properties and discover other influential accounts across Facebook and
Facebook allows you to have a dialogue and develop a feedback loop with your followers.
Instagram.
Engaging with your audience is a great way to show you’re listening, build your voice, and
• Social Referrals: You can see who has publicly posted links to your stories and identify surface new leads for stories.
the most influential referrers over time.
• Reply to comments, whether it’s to say hello or thank people for reading, or to jump in
to clarify questions from the readers. Even just engaging with a “Like” shows that you’re
TIPS
paying attention and gives followers a reason to return to your Page.
• Stay on top of trending stories by setting up notifications that alert you whenever a
post with a certain keyword takes off. • Use Facebook to find sources and get proper permission. Always attempt to reach out
to people when you want to use their photos, videos, or other social media content in
• Create custom overnight digests of sources (Pages owned by local candidates, your reporting. This practice contributes to good relationships between journalists and
community groups, and other news outlets) to get the top trending content in time audiences, creates opportunities to build context, and most importantly, gives you a
for your morning meeting. chance to verify the information you’ll use in your reporting.
• Set up searches of local areas to find breaking news where your newsroom may not
have readily available resources. You can also create a viral alert to be notified as soon
as the story breaks.
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Build Community
Facebook Groups are a great way to foster special communities that
engage in conversation around a shared interest.
You can create a Group for anything and customize the Group’s privacy
settings depending on who you want to be able to join, see, and post in
the Group. Our Groups for Pages feature also allows you to start a Group
comprised of the followers of your Page.
Use Facebook Groups to:
• Build local, topic-focused communities.
• Encourage civil discourse as a form of local storytelling.
• Find new sources, gather ideas, discover different points of view,
uncover story ideas, fact-check.
• Go live with Facebook Live.
8 FACEBOOK ELECT I O N S PL AYBO O K | 9
CASE STUDY PBS & FACEBOOK GROUPS
BY TRAVIS DAUB, DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL, PBS NEWSHOUR “In the weeks leading up to the debate,
we wanted to keep the Group active
PBS’ goal during the PBS NewsHour Democratic Primary Debate was to expand
and engaged while also determining
the reach of the event while also producing diverse, high-quality, audience-
areas of interest which might provide
generated questions for candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. By
good questions on debate night. To
creating a private Facebook Group, we established an online environment where
see how the Group was reacting to
undecided voters in states with upcoming Democratic primaries could engage in
the election news cycle, our political
conversation related to the candidates, the issues, and the election. After nearly
reporting staff took turns posting
a month of dialogue in the Group between its 85-95 members and NewsHour’s
engaging questions, links to emerging
Politics staff, four questions were asked of the candidates during the debate by
news stories, and callouts to NewsHour
the moderators.
content. Two weeks before the debate,
we asked participants to begin proposing
questions, several of which we kept on
hand as backups in case live questions
were less forthcoming.”
TAKEAWAY
Involve your audience. Ask them questions. Respond.
10 FACEBOOK ELECT I ON S PL AYBO O K | 11
Create content all along the trail
CASE STUDY CATRACA LIVRE Connect With Your Audience Through Facebook Live
Use Facebook’s Live scheduling feature to let your viewers know when you will be
going live. They can opt-in to get a reminder notification several minutes before the
Live begins.
In partnership with Facebook, Catraca
TO SCHEDULE A LIVE AS A PAGE ADMIN USING THE FACEBOOK LIVE API:
Livre took a bus out on to the streets
of São Paulo, where voters were 1. Navigate to Publishing Tools
able to record questions for their Once you’re in Publishing Tools, select “Video Library” and then “Live.”
candidates. They had nearly 200
people participate and recorded 2. Copy your stream credentials (e.g. steam key, Server URL)
Once you’re in Publishing Tools, select “Video Library” and then “Live.”
45 hours worth of questions. The
questions were then asked to the 3. Craft your announcement post
candidates during subsequent Be sure to write an engaging and informative description so your followers
Facebook Lives, and the footage was know what to expect from your broadcast. You will be able to update the
also used to produce videos for their description later if you want to.
Facebook Page.
4. Finalize your scheduled live broadcast
Put any finishing touches on your post (such as adding a custom image)
before you schedule your broadcast.
12 FACEBOOK ELECT I ON S PL AYBO O K | 13
Create a digital video series Encourage Participation
News organizations can play a role in helping their readers participate in the election process.
CASE STUDY VOX.COM & LIZ PLANK CASE STUDY ATTN:
Attn:, an issues-driven social-first media company,
During the 2016 U.S. presidential created a video campaign in partnership with
elections, Vox.com, a digital-first OurTime.org, a U.S. non-profit organization, to
publisher, created a digital video series drive non-partisan voter registration. Using digital
where Liz Plank, senior producer and video and celebrities, they encouraged their
correspondent, provided updates audience to register to vote on their website and
on recent political actions and to stay informed on upcoming election dates.
controversial social issues while on the People learned:
campaign trail. Through short video
• Where the candidates and elected
formats, Liz interviewed American
officials stand on the issues.
citizens and even political figures
• How to register to vote.
like Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau to tackle some of the biggest • When and where to vote.
topics of the election with humor and • What’s on their ballot.
creativity.
TAKEAWAY
News organizations can play a role in helping their readers participate in the election process.
14 FACEBOOK ELECT I ON S PL AYBO O K | 15
Debates something new and provide them with a
chance to interact with the moderators.
It’s the grand spectacle of the election season. For many Our first step was to set up a powerful,
voters, the debates are the only opportunity they have to hear dedicated Wi-Fi router on the stage. We
directly from the candidates. Make sure they have full coverage shot the video on an iPhone 6 Plus in a
about the debates so that they sift through all of the spin. handheld motorized gimbal, which helped
our cameraman steady the shot on the
walk across the stage. A sound engineer
operating a boom microphone and mixer
and a lighting tech with a portable LED
followed the cameraman and reporter.
Sound from the boom and reporter’s
stick mic were mixed and then fed into
CASE STUDY FOX NEWS & FACEBOOK LIVE the iPhone via an iRig preamp interface.
BY JASON EHRICH, SVP SOCIAL MEDIA, FOX NEWS & FOX BUSINESS
Fox News and Fox Business integrated Facebook Live into the presentation of the GOP TIPS
debates on January 14 and March 3, 2016. In both cases, a correspondent took viewers onto • It can take a few minutes for viewers to discover your Facebook Live.
the stage during commercial breaks to discuss the debate with the moderators. This allowed
• To ensure the television audience know about the Live, tease it before going to break.
us to catch some impromptu moments with the candidates as well.
• Viewers often jump at the chance to interact in real time.
We wanted to add something more than just a behind-the-scenes view without disrupting
the main program. Going live during the commercial breaks allowed us to show the audience
16 FACEBOOK ELECT I ON S PL AYBO O K | 17
Take the Show on the Road
CASE STUDY EUROPE 1
Europe 1 created a show, Battles des Militants, just for their Facebook audience. They had
surrogates join mini debates where they discussed the various positions of their respective
candidates. This show may not have played well as a broadcast show but was able to engage
a younger audience who received an interactive, rich experience. After you learn more
about your Facebook followers through Page Insights, you have an opportunity to create
content specifically tailored to engage them.
18 FACEBOOK ELECT I ON S PL AYBO O K | 19Election Day started at 6am on Friday to target
people waking up and wanting to
catch up with the election news fast,
It’s finally here. The next 24 hours are what we’ve been waiting straight from their mobile device.
impatiently for. If we’ve learned anything from recent elections around
the world, it’s that no matter how much we analyze and speculate,
sometimes we just can’t predict the outcome.
TAKEAWAY
Expand your traditional broadcast
audience reach by simulcasting with
Facebook Live.
CASE STUDY BUZZFEED UK
During the U.K. General Election, Buzzfeed broadcast two shows on
Facebook Live. BuzzFeed’s first show, Election Live... What Happens Now?
ran for an hour at 10pm on Thursday when the polls closed in front of a live
studio audience. The second show, Election Live TL;DR… About Last Night
20 FACEBOOK ELECT I ON S PL AYBO O K | 21Explore Innovative Forms of Reporting
As technology develops, consumer behavior changes, and media adapts to the heightened
audience expectation of innovative content. Develop a content strategy that includes new
information local audiences wanted
formats such as Facebook Live, 360 Video, and Instagram Stories.
and needed on Election Night. They
didn’t have to wait for the results
ticker along the bottom of the
television screen to reveal the local
CASE STUDY REACH PLC
results in which they were most
invested. Instead, they were able
to hear the results as they came
Reach plc’s regional publications, including the Coventry Telegraph, Stoke Live, Get West in. Facebook Live 360 transported
London, Birmingham Live, and more went live on Facebook using 360 degree video as audiences into the town halls with
the June 2017 election results trickled in from across the U.K. Karyn Fleeting, the head of our reporters, revealed the results in
audience engagement for Reach plc Regionals in the UK, shared how and why they used real time — and even allowed them
Live 360. to wheel around within the crowd
“In terms of storytelling, Facebook Live 360 represents a shift in control, from the camera to clock any shocked or surprised
operator to the viewer. It’s about agency. For the viewer, Facebook Live 360 brings time faces.”
and place together for a truly immersive experience. For these reasons, Facebook Live
360 was key to our audience engagement strategy for the 2017 General Election. Our aim:
to connect two million people with their candidates, through live media. We drew upon
TAKEAWAY
Facebook Live 360, Facebook Live and other formats, such as live blogs, to meet our target.
Consider Facebook Live 360 a tool for creating a deeper connection with audience.
Facebook Live 360 was a gift because of the ways in which it enabled us to deliver the
22 FACEBOOK ELECT I ON S PL AYBO O K | 23CASE STUDY JORGE RAMOS
Veteran journalist and author Jorge Ramos
currently anchors Univision’s flagship newscast
“Noticiero Univision.” Ramos also anchors the Promote Your Live Broadcasts and Videos With Premieres
networks public affairs program “Al Punto” and
Looking to schedule audience reminder notifications for videos? Now you can with
Real America on Facebook Watch.
Premieres. Premieres lets you schedule and debut videos as Live moments. After the
Jorge was an early adopter of Facebook Live using broadcast, the video will be saved on your Page.
it to reach his audience and expand his digital
viewership in 2015. During the U.S. elections a year • From your Show Page, upload the video you’d like to schedule. Publish and
later, his coverage was often simulcast on both select Premieres. Fill out the scheduling fields.
broadcast and Facebook Live with positive results.
• There are some requirements. For instance, previously live videos cannot be
Jorge’s Super Tuesday coverage on Live expanded premiered. However, edited and repackaged versions of live videos, such as
his viewership by 1.9 million. highlights or recaps, may be premiered.
Jorge’s Live coverage of the Iowa Caucuses saw • Viewers can click a button to subscribe to notifications on your Premiere.
1.1 million views within the first 24 hours. Subscribers receive their first notification 20 minutes before your Premiere
Jorge saw gains as high as 3.2x more daily new begins. And then again three minutes before.
fans during the three days in which he promoted
his Live activity.
From interviews with candidates like Ben Carson exclusively on Live to conducting person-on-
the-street interviews outside the New Hampshire polls, Jorge was able to reach more people
globally and grow his fan base.
24 FACEBOOK ELECT I ON S PL AYBO O K | 25Post Election Keep Exploring New Storytelling Formats
Place your audience in situations they may not be able to experience in real life through
The results are in and the local officials have been elected. But innovative storytelling.
the work doesn’t stop there! More than ever before, people
are looking to continue engaging in the electoral process and
continue the conversation. CASE STUDY RYOT
RYOT broadcast from the Women’s March
during the 2017 U.S. inauguration weekend
when millions of people came together
to rally across the country. For those
Diving Into the Issues who couldn’t join, or just wanted to see
Elections are about much more than just the candidates but it can be difficult to explain the what was happening at the main event in
nuances of a particular policy or issue to your audience. Short form, visually compelling video Washington, D.C., they could pan around
optimized for News Feed is a great way to deliver that content to those who are increasingly
this Live 360 and place themselves right in
interested in getting involved and making their voice heard.
the middle of the action.
Facebook Video Tips:
• Make the first few seconds count to draw eyes in.
TAKEAWAY
• Write clear and compelling headlines and descriptions. Many tools available for general
• Reply to comments. Facebook users can also be used for
media coverage.
• Use video insights to understand what’s resonating.
26 FACEBOOK ELECT I ON S PL AYBO O K | 27Drive Discussion to Increase Engagement
After looking across the news video ecosystem to see what types of videos were driving back to strike. The Tribune soon after published a story about this little-known law in Texas. It
and forth discussion, we noticed successful publisher strategies range from actively going became one of their biggest stories of the year.
into the comments themselves to building a community where discussion is encouraged. We
also identified certain types of videos that tend to drive people to comment and respond to
others. TIP
TIPS Engage with your audience through Groups by focusing on election issues that resonate
with them. Connect by encouraging conversation on policy over politics. Consider how the
• Engage with your audience in the comments.
Texas Tribune’s focus on an important local issue — pay for teachers — gained a national
• Build a culture that encourages and rewards discussion. audience. And how it used Groups to uncover a much deeper issue.
• Help people discover new information about their own community.
• Find a unique angle on a national story.
CASE STUDY TEXAS TRIBUNE
Across the U.S., teachers were leading strikes about their compensation. It started in
West Virginia and gained momentum in a few other states. In the Facebook Group “This
is Your Texas,” (facebook.com/groups/thisisyourtexas) run by The Texas Tribune for
Texans to discuss hot-button post-election issues, one teacher lamented that she and
her fellow teachers couldn’t join this movement. Editors at the Tribune reached out for
more information and learned that Texas State Law barred public workers from being able
28 FACEBOOK ELECT I ON S PL AYBO O K | 29CASE STUDY AL.COM
Use Data to Inform Reporting
AL.com and Spaceship Media partnered Your Page Insights can help you learn more about your audience. It’s a great way
up and created a Facebook Group to start to see the success of your posts so you can make informed decisions about your
conversations between Trump voters strategy, and what to post on the biggest days.
from Alabama and Clinton voters from
California to speak to each other about Use the insights to:
politics following the 2016 election. This • See peak times when your followers are online to help inform when you should
project resulted in several videos and post.
digital pieces for AL.com.
• Check out follower demographics to see who you reach by gender, location and
TIP even language and which groups engage the most with your posts.
Before creating a Group, make sure • Find out what your most engaging post types are to help inform you on what to
you’re prepared to moderate and nurture include in your regular posting schedule.
conversations. AL.com enlisted the
help of an outside agency, but you can • Dig into your video analytics to understand what drives views, engagement and
also recruit trusted partners in your retention.
communities to moderate or rely on a • Know where to invest your time by understanding what people visit on your
social media manager. Page and the health of your Page over time.
READ THE FULL CASE STUDY AT MEDIA.FB.COM 4
30 FACEBOOK ELECT I ON S PL AYBO O K | 31R E V I E W : C A M PA I G N L I F E C Y C L E Q U I C K G U I D E A B O U T T H E FA C E B O O K J O U R N A L I S M P R OJ E C T
Dive Into the Issues Our mission is to collaborate with the news industry in support of a more informed community.
Elections are about much more than just the candidates but it can be difficult to explain the We care about supporting high-quality journalism. Together, we work with news organizations
nuances of a particular policy or issue to your audience. Short form, visually compelling video to develop products, tools, and training for journalists and newsrooms around the world. We
optimized for News Feed is a great way to deliver that content to those who are increasingly launched with three pillars.
interested in getting involved and making their voice heard.
Cover Debates
It’s the grand spectacle of the election season. For many voters, the debates are the only
1 Collaborative Development of News Products
We collaborate with news organizations, connecting our product and engineering
teams so that we can build together from the early stages of product development
opportunity they have to hear directly from the candidates. Make sure they have full coverage of
to better serve the needs of people on Facebook.
debates so they can sift through all of the spin.
Broadcast Live
Facebook Live can be a primary way for viewers to watch debates and see real-time election 2 Training and Tools for Newsrooms
We work with newsrooms and industry partners around the globe to train
results. More and more publishers are using Facebook Live to simulcast major events to extend journalists and help build better resources for newsgathering and reporting.
the reach of their coverage. Access our online training programs and resources.
Win Election Day
It’s finally here. The next 24 hours are what we’ve been waiting impatiently for. Publisher strategies
range from using Facebook Live to report results in real time, to using 360 to give viewers an
3 Training and Tools for Everyone
As we seek to support journalism, we’re also working on ways to give people
information so they can make smart choices about the news they read — and
immersive experience of what it’s like on election day.
have meaningful conversations about what they care about.
Continue Coverage Post Election
The results are in and the local officials have been elected. But the work doesn’t stop there. More
than ever before, people are looking to continue engaging in the electoral process and continue
the conversation.
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