April 24, 2015

Johnston Press in election partnership with Twitter to find out #WhatMattersToMe

A Johnston Press hashtag, #WhatMattersToMe, will feature as Twitter's top promoted trend all day on Monday in a joint venture.

The regional news publisher is teaming up with the website as part of its What Matters To Me general election campaign.

Johnston Press launched the video-based election website WhatMattersToMe.co.uk earlier this month.

The site features short videos of people answering the question “what matters to you in this general election?” filmed by journalists working on the company's various titles around the UK.

Users can share and “upvote” videos, with trending videos and issues decided by a combination of page views, shares, and upvotes.

A Johnston Press statement said of the new joint venture: "For the entire day, the hashtag will feature as Twitter’s top promoted trend. Searching and following the hashtag will offer an overview of sentiment across the UK, highlighting the local and national issues that really matter to people ahead of the election.

"To support the activity, Johnston Press titles will ask their readers to get involved with the discussion and post on Twitter using the campaign hashtag. Meanwhile, Twitter has reached out to a range of partners and network members to further bolster the national campaign, encouraging people to tweet their thoughts on what will matter this election."

Paul Napier, Johnston Press’ group editorial development director and head of the What Matters to Me initiative, said: “It is clear from the content on whatmatterstome.co.uk that there are many different issues at the top of voters’ priority lists, and that the opinions on any single issue are diverse.

"We’re very excited to be working with Twitter to help give people up and down the country, from Land’s End to John o’ Groats, a platform to voice their opinions. With this activity, we hope to take the focus away from party politics, and create a national conversation around the issues themselves, from the perspective of the people.”