Social media outreach for institutions that officially are not meant to have an opinion is not easy, but the European Parliament is one of the most active international institutions on social media.

With turnout for European elections relatively low – just like knowledge of the institution – the incentives for the Parliament are clear.

So while on the one hand the Parliament sees itself as fulfilling a duty to communicate to citizens about the activities of their elected representatives, on the other it seeks to improve its perceived legitimacy amongst EU citizens and respond to the intense scrutiny and criticism it receives.

Social media allows the European Parliament to do this without depending on others – including mainstream media that reports little on the activities of MEPs – to get its message across. It is on this basis that the Parliament’s activities should be judged, and the European elections provide a perfect test.

The Parliament took its first steps on social media in the run up to the last European elections and the management of the accounts has grown into a sophisticated operation involving dozens of people. Not only do those managing these accounts have to keep on top of the flow of information coming out of the Parliament, they also create content such as photos, videos and infographics.

In addition, using a tool called Engagor, the teams monitor and manage the engagement with the accounts. While those running the institution’s Twitter accounts are careful about retweeting or replying to messages, on Facebook there are fewer reservations. Part of the success of the Parliament’s Facebook group - which has more than one million followers – can be attributed to a willingness to allow critical comments and to respond where appropriate.

This is not a criticism of its Twitter engagement. The Parliament was one of the early adopters of Twitter and has been quite successful at bringing together different voices. These accounts are not merely broadcasting one single message in all languages, but each account has created its own editorial line and tone, targeted to their specific audience.

Despite the moderators rarely replying or retweeting messages, they do use ‘@’ mentions, do livetweeting of key events, and post videos and photos in the account timelines. The focus is keeping followers fully informed of the latest developments in the Parliament. While the accounts do not have millions of followers, its messages are valued by those following the EU policymaking process.

The European Parliament’s social media activities should not be understood simply by looking at its own channels. The Parliament has worked hard to encourage MEPs’ own social media activities and bring those activities to a wider audience – partly through @ mentions on Twitter, but also via the EP Newshub (which feeds into the country-specific pages on this website – see photo above).

The EP Newshub brings together all the social media activities of parliamentarians in a single place. For those wishing to follow the activities of legislators this is an invaluable aid.

Numerous other initiatives have given citizens the possibility to understand the Parliament as well as ask questions and ‘chat’ with MEPs. In line with its neutral tole, the Parliament shares the content of a wide range of MEPs and highlights different views (an example – at the time of writing, the face and voice greeting visitors to the Parliament’s YouTube channel is the leader of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group, Nigel Farage).

In terms of the elections, one of the Parliament’s biggest successes has been its Act React Impact campaign video, which has been watched more than seven million times. The European Parliament has also set-up an Instagram account and a Vine account, broadcasting interesting six-second videos such as the one below, which encourages citizens to vote in May.

All this matters. The European Parliament now has several channels giving it direct access to millions of Europeans and indirect access to millions more. As with any Parliament, voter turnout – not clicks and views – is the key indicator of its legitimacy.

We’ve discussed elsewhere how the Parliament has acted as a catalyst for Twitter discussions on the elections, which the political groups in particular have built upon. Momentum is building, and the Parliament’s online activities will have helped. How much, we will only know at the end of May.