I'm a TikToker and this is who is winning the social media election (2024)

Who would have thought that a 30-second video could win you the keys to Number 10?

This year's General Election is like no other. While traditional hustings and televised debates are still going ahead, the real battle for power is happening online.

In the words of advertising guru David Jones, who led David Cameron's 2010 electoral campaign: 'The party that wins social media, wins the election, especially TikTok.'

According to an Ofcom study from May last year, 3.8 million 18-24 year-old Brits spend an average of 55 minutes each day on the app, which has 1.5 billion users worldwide.

No wonder this has been widely dubbed 'the first TikTok election'.

I started making TikTok videos as a teenager in 2020. It quickly became my full-time job. Within a year, I had over half a million followers and was making £10,000 a month.

My most successful video racked up 10 million views and I had a total of 34 million 'likes' across all of my posts.

The moral of the story is pretty simple. If you want to reach millions of young people at no cost in as short a time as possible, TikTok is the place to do it.

So I wasn't at all surprised when the Conservative and Labour parties both opened accounts last month, ahead of the General Election.

Everyone from Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer to Ed Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn, Nigel Farage and Tory-to-Reform defector Lee Anderson is now on the platform.

But it isn't easy to create a viral video. TikTok doesn't allow paid-for advertising from politicians or political parties. So, instead, marketing teams are having to concoct genuinely funny videos to attract eyeballs.

In my experience, the recipe for a successful TikTok video is humour, self-awareness and authenticity. Not exactly the characteristics we would associate with our current crop of politicians.

On numbers alone, it looks like Labour is winning the online battle for now. The party's videos have amassed twice as many views as the Tories'.

One of Labour's most successful videos features a clip of Cilla Black singing 'Surprise Surprise' along with the caption: 'Rishi Sunak turning up on your 18th birthday to send you to war' - a clever mockery of the PM's plans for National Service.

But winning the individual TikTok challenge is Nigel Farage, with around 776,600 followers - more than the Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem, Green and Reform parties' accounts combined.

There's also a great irony to all this. Because only in March last year, government officials were ordered to delete TikTok from their work phones over security fears.

TikTok is officially owned by ByteDance, a Chinese tech company incorporated in the Cayman Islands with its operational headquarters in Beijing. Many democracies - including the US - fear the app is being used as a weapon of espionage by the Chinese Communist Party.

Whatever the risk, it's clear politicians feel it is one worth taking.

So which politician wins TikTok - and who should close their account immediately?

Conservatives

Humour: 10/10

Effectiveness: 4/10

Coolness: 9/10

TikTok Knowledge: 10/10

Total: 33/40

Here, in a spoof of a well-known scene from The Apprentice, Ed Miliband's face is Photoshopped on to a former contestant being ridiculed by the fearsome interrogator, Claude Littner, about his plans for a new, publicly-owned clean energy company. Whoever is running the Tories' account has a sharp eye for Gen Z trends.

Labour

Humour: 7/10

Effectiveness: 8/10

Coolness: 7/10

TikTok Knowledge: 10/10

Total: 32/40

Labour hijacks the Tories' 'empty whiteboard' TikTok, filling the blank space Rishi had unveiled to 'list' all of Starmer's policies. They are head to head with the Conservatives when it comes to trends - this video includes some useful facts and figures about policy, so Labour gets some points for authenticity.

Liberal Democrats

Humour: 7/10

Effectiveness: 4/10

Coolness: 9/10

TikTok knowledge: 8/10

Total: 28/40

The Lib Dems have been dropping deadly TikToks that savage the PM. This is a snappy clip of last week's stunt, in which Sunak was chatting to people in Henley when the party's deputy leader Daisy Cooper sailed past on a boat, edited to the sound of Enya singing 'Sail away, sail away, sail away…' The content is brilliantly ironic, using viral clips from the party's antics on the campaign. With good platform knowledge, the Lib Dems are making a splash.

Greens

Humour: 0/10

Effectiveness: 7/10

Coolness: 3/10

Tiktok Knowledge: 3/10

Total: 13/40

In this deeply boring TikTok, various Greens walk towards the camera, earnestly explaining their policies on housing, taxes and the environment. Most of the party's videos look more like TV campaigns than TikToks: they don't seem to understand the app at all.

Nigel Farage, Reform

Humour: 8/10

Effectiveness: 4/10

Coolness: 8/10

TikTok Knowledge: 6/10

Total: 26/40

In this video, Farage reclines on a sofa, mocking the Prime Minister's decision to wear Adidas Sambas... as the angle pans down, revealing that the Reform leader is wearing Adidas Gazelles. He's mocking the infamous photo of Rishi Sunak wearing Sambas in April. Hilarious - and the understanding of the platform is there - but he's a bit late to the joke.

Jeremy Corbyn, Independent

Humour: 1/10

Effectiveness: 9/10

Coolness: 5/10

TikTok Knowledge: 6/10

Total: 21/40

'I believe in democracy,' says a pious looking Jeremy Corbyn. A hero in the eyes of Left-wing Gen-Zers, the disgraced Labour leader-turned independent candidate for Islington has proven popular on TikTok talking about health services, the environment and, inevitably, the war in Gaza. His content may not be humorous or engaging, but his audience laps it up - proven by the hundreds that clamour in the comments: 'Corbyn for Prime Minister'.

Ed Miliband, Labour

Humour: 4/10

Effectiveness: 2/10

Coolness: 2/10

TikTok Knowledge 3/10

Total: 11/40

Cringe. The former Labour leader poses against a backdrop of stormy clouds, dramatically turning to camera and staring into the distance. 'I'm saying Hi, and I'm saying...' Miliband croaks as he wags his finger repeatedly.

Lee Anderson, Reform

Humour: 1/10

Effectiveness: 4/10

Coolness: 2/10

TikTok Knowledge: 1/10

Total: 8/40

Is it raining? Lee Anderson hasn't noticed. In this TikTok he braves the inclement weather to leaflet his constituents, insisting it's another 'good day on the doorstep'. However, the Reform MP has clearly not grasped what TikTokers want to see, as he's only got about 9,500 followers. Most of his content is pasted from TV interviews - where straight-talking Lee performs better than on this platform.

Grant Shapps, Conservative

Humour: 2/10

Effectiveness: 7/10

Coolness: 8/10

TikTok Knowledge: 5/10

Total: 22/40

Swaggering like James Bond, Grant Shapps walks towards the camera boasting of his achievements in his constituency - followed by various scenes of the Defence Secretary wearing the same navy quarterzip, cutting red ribbons and greeting adoring fans. Shapps has tried to 'own' memes on TikTok, but here he's gone weirdly old school. His content is humorous and slick - but a tad smug.

Zarah Sultana, Labour

Humour: 0/10

Effectiveness: 9/10

Coolness: 3/10

TikTok Knowledge: 5/10

Total: 17/40

Corbynista Zarah Sultana begs voters to support her in her 'hyper-marginal' constituency of Coventry South. With no dance trends, memes or comedy in sight, the 30-year-old has still attracted almost half a million Gen Z followers, drawn to her earnest clips of speeches in the Commons and at rallies. And yet her 'millennial pause' - the agonising split-second pause before speaking in each video - proves that she is older than most people on the platform.

Nadia Whittome, Labour

Humour: 3/10

Effectiveness: 9/10

Coolness: 5/10

TikTok Knowledge: 7/10

Total: 24/40

Nadia Whittome knows her audience on TikTok, here asking 'Why do young generations keep getting screwed over?'. Informative, personal and raw - Nadia is taking TikTok by storm. The 27-year-old Labour MP for Nottingham East is not trying to be 'down with the kids', but is targeting Gen Z viewers by discussing rent, tuition fees and zero-hour contracts. Whittome's vim and personal touch lands her as one of my favourites.

Lucy White is a Video Journalist and Correspondent.