Partnering with social media influencers has become an increasingly common tactic among organizations who are attempting to reach new, typically younger, audiences and encourage voting behavior. Civic Nation’s Vote Lab, in partnership with When We All Vote, set out to add to the existing literature by conducting a field experiment among Instagram influencers in the lead-up to the 2022 midterm elections. We recruited influencers using the Lionize platform and conducted A/B message testing in which influencers were randomly assigned one of two voter engagement messages to incorporate into an Instagram story.

We set out to investigate two primary questions: 1) Does one of our messages elicit higher levels of engagement and voter registration, and 2) Does the effect on voter engagement differ between low-follower (micro) and high-follower (macro) influencers?

This study reveals insights regarding the effectiveness of influencer encouragement on voter behavior that can help inform voter registration outreach, particularly among younger Americans.