Scottish Referendum and a baby: A Cision Social Media analysis

The announcement of the new Royal baby may have bumped Scotland off Twitter’s trending list this morning, but the topic of Scottish independence is still top of mind. According to Cision Social Media, there has been a spike in conversations around the referendum since the weekend, following YouGov’s survey for the Sunday Times newspaper. The survey put the “Yes” to independence campaign on behalf of Supporters of Scottish independence from Britain with a 51% vote, indicating a possibility that they might win.

Cision’s analysis that took into account all social media and online platforms, found over 301,000 posts with the keywords Scotland and Scottish Referendum published over the past 30 days, of which nearly 50,000 posts and over over 550,362 online mentions were generated since Friday. The mentions peaked on 7 September after the survey results were released. 

Meanwhile, the announcement of the Royal baby has undoubtedly added more excitement to social media sphere, and a new dimension to the Scottish Referendum debate. The Telegraph’s James Kirkup argues if this announcement will boost the unionist cause, while The Guardian is running a poll asking readers if this news is what the “no” campaign desperately needs.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond has triggered another debate after tweeting a congratulatory message to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge using their official Scottish titles as if ‘to ram home the point that the monarchy would still be in place after independence,’ the Daily Mail quoted a Labour MP saying.

Congratulations & best wishes to the Earl & Countess of Strathearn. Wonderful to hear they’re expecting their second baby – very happy news!

— Alex Salmond (@AlexSalmond) September 8, 2014