There have been few studies to date which examine candidate-level online campaigns in the UK. This paper seeks to explain the key drivers of candidate-level Web-campaigning, exploring factors that have been examined in other contexts (Gibson and McAllister, 2006; Sudulich and Wall, 2009), such as campaign expenditure, incumbency, party identification, gender, competitors’ use of Web-campaigning and age. The paper investigates adoption of personal websites and also more cutting-edge Web 2.0 technologies including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and Flickr. The analysis also focuses on identifying those factors that influence a more engaged Web campaign, defined as candidate responsiveness to voter questions on their Facebook pages or blogs. The data source for the study uses original data collected at the 2010 Election and is one of the most comprehensive to date on local-level Web-campaigning in the UK. It will be used to gain important insights into the extent, nature and causes of campaign change in the digital era. Key words: campaigns, on-line, engagement, local-level, Web 2.0
