What happened during Schulz’s #AskMartin chat on social media

@marcoRecorder
On May 19 at 12:30AM candidate President for the European Commission Martin Schulz hosted a chat livestreamed via SPD.de  and collecting questions via the hashtag #AskMartin

Good morning! In just a few hours I will answer question asked via the hashtag #askMartin RT to tell your friends pic.twitter.com/80zgcF5NcQ

— Martin Schulz (@MartinSchulz) May 19, 2014

For such a short institutional/political chat, and the timing (lunch time around most Europe) the volume of conversations was significant with over 1.700 tweets using #AskMartin posted on 19/05 (until 5PM). Most questions were serious but there were obviously provocative questions, funny ones (like the one below) and open criticism. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Is it really fun to battle against Jean-Claude? #askmartin http://t.co/tEHAnKmiyo pic.twitter.com/2za2jnN7Ty — alf frommer (@siegstyle) May 19, 2014

Here is in a nutshell what happened on social media during the chat.

Here are the most shared sets of words during the Twitter chat. The most talked-about topics revolved around tacklng youth unemployment, Schulz’s position on TTIP, the developing digital market in Europe and issues related to immigration.

Here is a wordcloud with other most used hashtags used togetehr with #AskMartin

The chat was not only attended by people in the Euroubble. We can see how the most participative country was actually Germany, followed by France, Belgium and the UK. The usual social media-involved countries on European issues (Spain and Italy) follow right after in terms of volumes of conversations.

Also, let’s have a look at which responses from the EC Presidnet candidate triggered the most interactions

Thank you for all the ? via #askMartin. RT this video & tell me how you mobilize your friends to vote this week? http://t.co/YnjpT9YvAx

— Martin Schulz (@MartinSchulz) May 19, 2014

We cant agree about everything, but must find common solutions to common problems. United we are stronger. @GrmnRodrigo #askMartin

— Martin Schulz (@MartinSchulz) May 19, 2014

The last 5 years shows that we need strategic investments & fight tax evasion to gain growth in Europe. Not tax cuts @ElizaVas #askMartin

— Martin Schulz (@MartinSchulz) May 19, 2014

On Twitter we could see some criticism about Mr. Schulz not answering enough questions or taking only comfortable ones. However, working in the field of digital communication I am aware of the technical limitations that can give such impression to the participants and it’s certainlmy hard to both choose and reply to 1.700+ comments in the space of one hour. The elections are just a few days away. We will only see after May 25th who among the 6 candidates for the European Commission presidentcy made the most effective use of social media in their campaigns.

What are your thoughts on Mr. Schulz’s latest chat?