The presidential candidates are courting young people on Tiktok as the elections approach, but are the videos effective for their target audience?
The presidential election the approach can be seen, for example, in the fact that the candidates rush to Tiktok to make “relaxed” videos for the youth.
In Tiktok, young people are courted by all the other candidates except Jussi Halla-aho (ps) and Sari Essayah (kd).
Because Tiktok users are in Finland mainly under the age of 24, it can be assumed that the presidential candidates try to appeal to younger voters with their videos than the audience of the TV exams.
We wanted to find out how the candidates' content resonates with their target audience, so we asked two groups of young students to evaluate the candidates' videos.
There were 41 students in total. Most of them are still minors. 32 students said they use Tiktok.
Before the videos viewing, we mapped the starting situation of young people with a survey.
The majority of respondents who use Tiktok had seen some candidate's videos on Tiktok before. The most people had come to the young people's for you page, i.e. Tiktok's front page Pekka Haaviston (green) and by Alexander Stubb (cook) videos.
20 percent of the respondents did not remember seeing any candidate's videos.
More than half of the respondents were of the opinion that it is important for a presidential candidate to be active on social media.
Who made the biggest impression on young people and who caused the most confusion? Below you can read the verdicts the candidates received from young people and watch one Tiktok video from each candidate.
The candidates are in alphabetical order.
Mika Aaltola's videos are “stunning”
■ Active on both Instagram and Tiktok. Started his Tiktok account after the presidential election campaign started.
Instagram: @maaltola, 56,800 followers, over 650 posts
Tiktok: @mika.aaltola, about 2,500 followers, 44,900 likes
Mika Aaltola (sit) has published a lot of content on Tiktok during its campaign. In the videos, Aaltola usually answers questions or talks about a certain social topic. In more relaxed videos, he for example, playing with his son.
Aaltola, who entered the race from outside politics, was a completely unknown figure to some of the students. Only four students remembered seeing Aaltola's content on Tiktok before. Those who knew Aaltola seemed to have a somewhat amused attitude towards her.
The students watched from Aaltola campaign opening, video about the situation in the Eastern border and a video in which Aaltola talks about human rights. In addition, high school students wanted to see “Mika's values”-titled clip.
Mika Aaltola clearly received the rudest reception from the young people.
The campaign opening aroused amusement and disbelief. In general, the videos were considered too long, rambling and of poor quality. The sound and image quality of Aaltola's videos is variable, which received strong criticism from young people.
The jury thinks that Aaltola's discharge is numbing, and Aaltola seemed bored and gave up in the videos.
Radiant comments:
Doesn't tell about himself. Absolutely shit. Now that was a joke.
Can't concentrate. Can it just end the campaign. No insurance. Too long.
Li Andersson “more convincing on Insta”
■ Popular and very active on Instagram. Started his Tiktok account in October.
Instagram: @liarssn, 106,000 followers, 2,000+ posts
Tiktok: @anderssonli, about 9,500 followers, 64,500 likes
Lee
Andersson (left) has been on Tiktok for four months. So far, he has published a few videos and, for example, a Christmas calendar, where Andersson told something about himself every day.
The chairman of the Left Alliance was known to the majority of young people, at least by name. Nine young people remembered seeing Andersson's Tiktoks before.
Andersson's videos were shown to the students campaign openingby Andersson Advent calendar doorin which he tells a surprising fact about himself and clip from the parliamentary speech.
The jury had a rather neutral attitude towards Andersson. The videos did not arouse much opinion. The transition to the opening video of the campaign amused young people.
According to the jury, the clip cut from the parliamentary speech was quite good, and some thought Andersson's Christmas calendar was a nice idea.
The young people were of the opinion that Andersson's content is more suitable for Instagram and Facebook, and it does not feel natural on Tiktok. Some thought the videos were fake.
Radiant comments:
NPC. Not a professional. Appropriate. I'm not warm.
More impressive on insta. Low effort. Parliament clip good, others not successful.
Pekka Haaviston's Tiktok “really cool”
■ Active on both Instagram and Tiktok. Tiktok account created when the campaign started in September.
Instagram: @pekka.haavisto, 58,200 followers, about 1,500 publications
Tiktok: @haavistok, 14,600 followers, 346,400 likes
Pekka Haavisto has been active on Tiktok since early autumn. He answers followers' questions with videos, publishes clips from podcasts and TV shows he has visited, and uses celebrities involved in his campaign.
Haavisto was already familiar to the majority of the council members. 16 young people remembered that they had seen Haavisto's videos before.
It was seen from Haavisto campaign opening videoHaaviston's partner by Antonio Flores hair salon video of the opening mixed videowhere Haavisto is Investment hand-podcast as a guest. In addition, young people watched with Molybros somepersons the filmed video.
Haavisto received the most positive reception from the young people. According to the jury, there were enough videos and they are versatile. Young people think Haavisto's performance is convincing.
One student estimated that the videos might not attract young people who are otherwise inactive in social matters.
Radiant comments:
Matter of fact/5. Pretty cool. Quite OK.
A lot of good stuff. It's going just fine. Not exactly humor.
Harry Harkimo “authentic self”
■ Active on both Instagram and Tiktok. Been active on Tiktok for a long time before running for president. By far the most popular candidate on Tiktok.
Instagram: @hjallisharkimo, 42,300 followers, about 1,000 posts
Tiktok: @hjallisharkimo00, 43,700 followers, 827,400 likes
Liike Nytin Hjallis Harkimo is the only one of the presidential candidates who has been on Tiktok before the current campaign.
Harkimo knows Tiktok and its laws well. Harkimo produces versatile content for the application: for example, he shares his opinions, describes his life and sells his fan products.
Most of the young people knew Harkimo, but his background or current role in politics was unclear to the young people. 14 young people say they have seen Harkimo's videos.
The young people looked at Harkimo's account the opening of the presidential election campaigna video where you can survive can Harkimo's son driver's license as well A video about the castle's celebrations.
Young people reacted positively to Harkimo's videos, but many added that they do not necessarily consider him a suitable president.
In Raadi's opinion, Harkimo is genuine in the videos, and the videos are suitable for Tiktok. It was funny for the young people that a person of Harkimo's age knows how to use the application and produce content there.
One high school student thinks that Harkimo is trying to appeal to young people who are otherwise not interested in politics with the videos.
Radiant comments:
Humor works. Ok boomer. A clear own brand. Herself.
Interesting. If it were up to me, it would be a headache.
Olli Rehn has a “good company, but it's old”
■ Established accounts on Instagram and Tiktok only after the campaign started. Instagram account first release in June, Tiktok in November.
Instagram: @ollirehn2024, 4,200 followers, about 150 posts
Tiktok: @ollirehn2024, 1,173 followers, 8,078 likes
Olli Rehn (kesk) has rarely published content on Tiktok. In December, the account had ten videos. There are clearly two types of videos on Rehn's Tiktok: serious talks and funny videos that use popular music on Tiktok.
Rehn, who is the CEO of the Bank of Finland, was not very familiar to young people. Three young people remembered seeing his videos on Tiktok.
His videos were watched by young people the first videothe popular Tiktok user a duet made from a video mixed Independence Day speech.
Young people liked the fact that Rehn uses humor in his videos and music familiar to young people on Tiktok. They thought Rehn's prank videos were cute and a really good try. The more relevant videos were too long and rambling for young people.
Rehn's age also sparked discussion among young people. From their perspective, Rehn is old.
Radiant comments:
Who is it anyway? Quite OK. Honest. He's talking. Wonderful.
Facebook is the beginning of that. Good company, but it's old. Pretty good.
With Alexander Stubb, “the taste of entrepreneurship”
■ Been active on Instagram for a long time. Founded Tiktok at the beginning of November and has been active there since then.
Instagram: @alexstubb, 83,000 followers, about 3,000 posts
Tiktok: @alexstubb, 19,700 followers, 475,000 likes
After opening his Tiktok account, Alexander Stubb has been very active in publishing videos. Stubb answers the questions put by his followers, posts clips of his appearances and describes his campaigning. Many celebrities also appear on Stubb's account.
Along with Haavisto, Stubb was the most familiar candidate to young people. 19 young people remembered having seen Stubb's videos before.
Young people watched on Stubb's Tiktok campaign openingthe answer to the question about the army as well as then the account's latest video. In addition, young people watched Presidential candidate day video.
Stubb was mainly well received by young people. Stubb was praised for his relaxed approach and hard work answering the commentators' questions.
Some of the videos were a bit embarrassing for the young people, but overall they were considered good. In the minds of young people, Stubb takes on a fatherly role in his Tiktoks.
Radiant comments:
A sane father figure. Average. It's not presidential.
Relaxed grip. Trying to taste. Relatable. Youth slang is really fun.
The group consisting of students from Otaniemi High School found the videos of some of the candidates amusing.
Council Halla-aho, Essayah and Jutta Urpilainen (sd).
Jussi Halla-aho does not have a Tiktok account, and he is not active on Instagram. Halla-aho's main social media channel is X (formerly Twitter).
We didn't get an answer from Halla-aho's team as to why he didn't campaign on Tiktok. Halla-aho's assistant replied to HS Nyti by e-mail that “the campaign can be seen in its entirety on social media, so we will not comment further on the subject”.
Also, Sari Essayah doesn't have her own Tiktok account. Her campaign team tells HS Nyti that the parliament's security department has not considered Tiktok to be secure, and although some Christian Democrats have their own account, Essayah has not planned to set one up herself.
Jutta Urpilainen published his first video To Tiktok at the end of December, and his content did not have time to be evaluated.
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