With their support falling to low levels, Europe’s mainstream parties are pulling out all the stops to freshen their image and reach voters.

The European People’s Party (EPP) Election Congress in Dublin clearly recognised digital campaigning as being at the heart of this year’s European elections, and contributed to a significant increase in interest in and debate about the polls. Over three days (5-7 March), more than 16,000 tweets (includes retweets) were posted about the EPP Congress. At the event itself, social media workshops were given by Twitter, Facebook and Google.

So it was perhaps surprising that Twitter-less Jean-Claude Juncker was chosen as the figurehead of the campaign. Juncker’s previous digital campaigning experience seemed to centre on fighting a losing battle to suppress spoof accounts but by the end of the Congress he had – as if by magic – a verified Twitter account with more than 5,000 followers, scooping up the followers of the @EPPDublin Congress account.

It was a smart move by the EPP to switch these thousands of followers to the winning candidate, and one that highlights the professionalism of the EPP’s digital efforts. The centre-right party has more followers on Twitter than the Party of European Socialists (PES), and far more likes on Facebook (although levels of engagement on Twitter are similar and the Socialists have far higher levels of engagement on Facebook).

The EPP also created an online platform for Europe’s young voters to have their say on the topics on the conference agenda and use social media advertising and infographics. In short, they have been doing many things right. But you also need a face of the campaign.

This is where the Socialists have the upper hand. Their candidate, the current President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, has more than 75,000 followers on Twitter.

With this level of interest in their candidate, the PES carried out a neat, if more controversial, switch too. It made @MartinSchulz – an account Schulz has had since 2008, but which has grown in popularity since he became Parliament President in 2012 – a politically-oriented campaign account. Schulz’s parliamentary staff now maintain @EP_President, which will be passed on to future Parliament presidents. (The switch – which we discussed in a blogpost back in November – has become part on a general attack by German parties (other than the Social Democrats, naturally) on Schulz’s twin roles as Parliament President and Socialist lead candidate).

What the Socialists have cannily recognised is that individuals get more traction on Twitter than organisations. In the UK, for instance, despite numerous criticisms about his Twitter outreach, David Cameron has six times more followers than his party, the Conservatives. Opposition leader Ed Miliband has double the number of Twitter followers the Labour Party has. The same principle holds true on Facebook. Small wonder the Socialists were keen to get hold of Schulz’s followers.

Thanks to the designation of lead candidates this will be the most personality-driven European Parliament elections ever. The greater popularity of individuals than organisations on Twitter simply helps to reinforce this dynamic.

In this respect, Twitter novice Juncker has some catching up to do, with Schulz seemingly way ahead of the other candidates in the online debate:

Visibilité médiatique et en ligne des candidats à la présidence de la Commission européenne #EP2014 : pic.twitter.com/5upSShbn4x — Pauline Armandet (@PaulineArmandet) March 16, 2014

However, in the wider scheme of things the followings of and attention given to the lead candidates are relatively small compared to many national political leaders. If this latter group of political personalities, better known by the public, engage with the candidates and start to promote their campaign, then we could really see the conversation about the elections and Juncker, Schulz et al move into the mainstream online political discourse.

Marek Zaremba-Pike with David O’Leary