TikTok clips and other videos even affected the election outcome in some places, and allowed some younger, less established candidates to outperform household names.

"More than ever before, these elections showed that people tried very hard to make social media work for them," content creator Maria Rannaväli told "Aktuaalne kaamera."

"Some did better than others, but the Social Democrats, Isamaa, and the Center Party succeeded best in engaging their followers or people in general — looking at how much content was viewed, how many people joined discussions, and how active they were overall. Social media ads existed in previous elections too, but I had never seen the TikTok platform used at such a level before," Rannaväli continued.

Those politicians using social media to campaign were mainly trying to reach younger voters. This demographic spends more online, and also seeks a more direct connection with candidates.

Rannaväli noted the most successful campaigns were those that created contrasts with opponents — as intrigue appeals to social media algorithms and helps highlight differences between candidates for voters.

While social media is not new, the success of its use in election campaigning was demonstrated in Tartu, for instance, where votes gained through social media proved decisive in forming the coalition.

Two influencers, controversial social media streamer Kris Kärner, and Sandra Laur, both running for Isamaa, outperformed several long-established political names, proving the potential reach of these platforms.

"I felt I could reach the masses through social media. At a public meeting, you can reach maybe a couple of hundred people — realistically, maybe a few dozen — yet on social media you can reach hundreds of thousands. If it had been a TV show, it would be one of the most watched programs of the week. That already demonstrates how social media competes with traditional media," Laur said, adding she personally went outside campaigning on the streets just once.

Laur's most-watched videos reached 200,000 views on social media, and this translated into nearly a thousand votes in Estonia's second city.

Another factor is cost: Since social media campaigning incurred almost no extra financial cost, Laur said, time was really her main campaign "expense."

Visibility is important regardless of the means, University of Tartu associate professor of media studies Maria Murumaa-Mengel said.

"The option my brain has the most and easiest information on is the one I'm likely to lean toward — because that is the most accessible in my mind. This is likely also why Jüri Ratas has been so popular among young people, as he was one of the first, of course with his aides, to make himself visible on TikTok. This means when a young person goes to vote and doesn't know any names, they'll at least pick the guy who did a great 'bottle flip' and whose name they recognize," Murumaa-Mengel said.

Appealing, smiling faces that work in traditional campaigns tend not to work as well online, however, giving younger candidates an advantage — they simply come across as more genuine because they have always inhabited that environment.

Excessive presentation can, however, also be off-putting and is surely a problem for politicians, as people don't like listening to canned speech, Rannaväli noted.

"From my perspective, their talk often sounds rehearsed. But on social media, it is crucial that it feels like you made the video yourself — with direct interaction and even imperfect sentences. You might speak more colloquially, like a normal person, and that can work much better," said Rannaväli.

Another question is what happens when people who regularly livestream or vlog end up in city councils or in charge of local government — what will come of political debate and culture then? University of Tartu political science researcher Mihkel Solvak identified some negatives here.

"Elections are all about asking for a mandate — either for approval of past actions or for pledges about the future. But if the primary audience becomes this ongoing social media crowd, which constantly measures attitudes in real time, that is not necessarily a good thing. Because ultimately, in every municipality, you need a critical mass of council members behind decisions — they represent the people who voted, not some online audience that might have strong views on a few isolated issues," Solvak said.

The "social mediatization" of politics is bringing instability and potentially ever-faster shifts in positions — something voters will simply have to adapt to, Solvak added.

Rannaväli also noted the polarization social media can bring. Kärner, 28, took 1,597 votes in Sunday's local elections, even after having made calls for the execution by firing squad of members of the left-of-center Social Democratic Party (SDE). Laur took 993 votes in Tartu.

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