My name is Tristan Hotham, I am a researcher, consultant and PhD candidate at the University of Bath.
I am an expert in Facebook, Twitter, social media, elections, engagement, content, party politics and campaigning. My specialisms are UK political parties and the use of Facebook. I utilise a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies to examine the black box of social media campaigning.
I hold two Master’s degrees from the Universities of Bath and Durham, alongside a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Exeter. I currently work on a ESRC funded PhD at the University of Bath – my thesis is titled; “Examining the impact and effectiveness of Facebook on party campaigns”. My work examines the Facebook phenomenon and its role as a campaign tool. I question the impact Facebook is having as a campaign tool online, alongside its wider offline implications for parties campaigning in an era of party change.
Here is a video I have made to introduce myself:
As well as this I have worked as a research consultant for Whotargets.me, which gave me new skills in dissemination and media outreach. Further, I have founded the Social Media Research Centre a research house and consultancy focused on making social media research better. I also create videos for the public so also see my YouTube channel, also check out the Social Media Research Centre’s YouTube channel. Please subscribe to my Substack ‘Social Media? Meet Politics’ for all of my writing and research, as well as content designed exclusively for paid subscribers.
I or my work has been featured in media such as the BBC, New York Times, Reuters, Guardian, Evening Standard and The Economist:
My latest blog posts
Innovation via desperation – Twitter Fleets
Twitter Fleets are not necessary, nobody on the network was calling for them, and their implementation shows that Twitter has more interest in following the crowd than genuinely innovating. Instead, what we now have is social networks innovating from a position of desperation, focused on ‘keeping up with the Joneses’.
I have created a Substack page
I have created a Substack page – it will examine social media and politics. There will be free content as well as bespoke insights published only for paid subscribers. It is all about social media and digital politics.
A few early thoughts on the 2020 US election vs the 2019 UK general election
It’s over, and now we can begin to make sense of what occurred, with Biden now awaiting his position, IContinue Reading
Two trains slowing to a crawl? Biden and Trump’s Facebook pages – a roundup
Summary Trump has won in the head to head battle between his personal Facebook page and Biden‘s across all engagementContinue Reading
Where are Trump and Biden’s Facebook followers located?
Where are Trump and Biden’s Facebook followers located? 2020 data shows Trump (67%) has far fewer US based followers than Biden (88%). This is a reversal of 2016 data that showed Trump having many more US based followers (75% US) than Clinton (56%).
Biden’s organic Facebook campaign is behind Clinton’s, while Trump is surpassing his 2016 performance
Analysing 4450 posts from equal campaign periods before the 2016 and 2020 Presidential Elections, the data shows that Biden is trailing Clinton’s performance, while in contrast, Trump is exceeding his 2016 performance.
100 days to the election – Trump v. Biden: The last 30 days on Facebook
It is 100 days to the US 2020 Elections. Although targeted advertising is key to a modern campaign, it is inherently not as powerful as viral socially located organic communications. From the 27th June to the 26th July I examine Trump and Biden’s Facebook profile page engagement. In short Trump is easily winning on Facebook and the Biden campaign need to act fast.
© Tristan Hotham, 2020
