Facebook and Social Media Watch: By-Election Edition
During the last set of by-elections (the ones that were pre-empted by the call of the general election), we started a feature called "Facebook Watch". Since then, Twitter has also become an important vehicle of communication for campaigns, and the last election proved the power of YouTube beyond any doubt.
So, with the official list of candidates set to be released at 2:00 PM Wednesday, here's a first round-up of the various candidates' activities on some of the major social media/Web 2.0 sites: Facebook (full-service social media site), Twitter (140-character status updates), YouTube (video sharing) and Flickr (photo-sharing), along with the counts of their Friends/Supporters (for Facebook) or Followers (for Twitter) as of about 12:30 AM on Wednesday morning Oct. 21.
The first thing to note is that many of the Twitter follower counts went up by 1 tonight, as I started following any of the candidates I had not found before (that's me @punditsguide).
Next thing to say is that New Westminster – Coquitlam, BC (NWC) is the leader in social media campaigning, with 10 candidate accounts, although that's also likely related to the fact that the seat became vacant first, and has had a full slate of candidates for most of the summer. The next most active riding is Cumberland – Colchester – Musquodoboit Valley, NS (CCMV), with 8 candidate accounts, while the Québec ridings follow with 3 each.
The most active party in the social media domain at the moment is the NDP, with 7 candidate accounts across the 4 ridings, followed by the Liberals with 5 candidate accounts (although Liberal Ken Beck Lee in NWC is the only candidate to have a profile on the professional social-networking site LinkedIn, which I decided not to include this go-around, mainly due to lack of time on my part), and the Greens with another 5. The Conservatives have 3 candidate accounts activated, while the Bloc and others (Christian Heritage Party leader Jim Hnatiuk, who is running in CCMV) have 2 each.
In terms of Facebook friends / supporters (it's a different term, depending on the type of Facebook page, but I'm just using the generic term 'friend', since it's stuck over the past few years), the NDP candidates are ahead of the pack in NWC and Hochelaga, while the Conservative candidates are ahead in MIKR and CCMV (where in particular their candidate was nominated quite some time ago).
And turning to Twitter followers, again the NDP candidates are ahead in NWC and Hochelaga, while the Christian Heritage leader is ahead in CCMV.
The NDP candidate in Hochelaga, Jean-Claude Rocheleau is tweeting quite a bit, and doing so exclusively in french. He does not appear to have many followers. But sometime around 10 days ago, a Twitter account entitled "JeanClaudeNDP" invited a lot of people to follow him/her/it, including yours truly and quite a few others. It invited its followers to complete a short survey, saying that the NDP needed their help. Needless to say, the link to this "survey" likely contained a virus, and the account has been tweeting spam ever since. Most of its followers have since vanished, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one to think I had a story that the NDP by-election candidate had been infected by a virus. Mr. Rocheleau's true Twitter account is "jcrocheleau" (linked to above).
Incidentally, I'm indebted to the legwork already undertaken by the Twitter aggregator sites, notably PoliTwitter.ca which maintains detailed profiles of Tweeting candidates and other politicos. TweetCommons.com focuses on the conversations between tweeting politicians (or candidates) and citizens. And of course David Akin maintains the Political Twits directory of Hill denizens who tweet for a living.
We'll check back again next week to see how much progress has been made in cyberspace by the candidates, so if you have information about a tweeting, facebooking, youtubing, flickring candidate, please do get in touch.
Meanwhile we'll be waiting for a news release from Elections Canada, expected some time Wednesday afternoon, announcing the final list of nominated candidates for the 4 by-election ridings. Election day is now less than 3 weeks away.
So, with the official list of candidates set to be released at 2:00 PM Wednesday, here's a first round-up of the various candidates' activities on some of the major social media/Web 2.0 sites: Facebook (full-service social media site), Twitter (140-character status updates), YouTube (video sharing) and Flickr (photo-sharing), along with the counts of their Friends/Supporters (for Facebook) or Followers (for Twitter) as of about 12:30 AM on Wednesday morning Oct. 21.
| Party | NWC | 'Chlag | MIKR | CCMV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lib |  (101) (104) | (4) | (122) | |
| NDP | (407) (139) | (226) (16) | (149) (17) | |
| Grn | (25) (43) | (133) (11) | ||
| BQ | (194) | (124) | ||
| Cons | (253) | (66) | (346) | |
| Oth | (39) (20) |
The first thing to note is that many of the Twitter follower counts went up by 1 tonight, as I started following any of the candidates I had not found before (that's me @punditsguide).
Next thing to say is that New Westminster – Coquitlam, BC (NWC) is the leader in social media campaigning, with 10 candidate accounts, although that's also likely related to the fact that the seat became vacant first, and has had a full slate of candidates for most of the summer. The next most active riding is Cumberland – Colchester – Musquodoboit Valley, NS (CCMV), with 8 candidate accounts, while the Québec ridings follow with 3 each.
The most active party in the social media domain at the moment is the NDP, with 7 candidate accounts across the 4 ridings, followed by the Liberals with 5 candidate accounts (although Liberal Ken Beck Lee in NWC is the only candidate to have a profile on the professional social-networking site LinkedIn, which I decided not to include this go-around, mainly due to lack of time on my part), and the Greens with another 5. The Conservatives have 3 candidate accounts activated, while the Bloc and others (Christian Heritage Party leader Jim Hnatiuk, who is running in CCMV) have 2 each.
In terms of Facebook friends / supporters (it's a different term, depending on the type of Facebook page, but I'm just using the generic term 'friend', since it's stuck over the past few years), the NDP candidates are ahead of the pack in NWC and Hochelaga, while the Conservative candidates are ahead in MIKR and CCMV (where in particular their candidate was nominated quite some time ago).
And turning to Twitter followers, again the NDP candidates are ahead in NWC and Hochelaga, while the Christian Heritage leader is ahead in CCMV.
The NDP candidate in Hochelaga, Jean-Claude Rocheleau is tweeting quite a bit, and doing so exclusively in french. He does not appear to have many followers. But sometime around 10 days ago, a Twitter account entitled "JeanClaudeNDP" invited a lot of people to follow him/her/it, including yours truly and quite a few others. It invited its followers to complete a short survey, saying that the NDP needed their help. Needless to say, the link to this "survey" likely contained a virus, and the account has been tweeting spam ever since. Most of its followers have since vanished, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one to think I had a story that the NDP by-election candidate had been infected by a virus. Mr. Rocheleau's true Twitter account is "jcrocheleau" (linked to above).
Incidentally, I'm indebted to the legwork already undertaken by the Twitter aggregator sites, notably PoliTwitter.ca which maintains detailed profiles of Tweeting candidates and other politicos. TweetCommons.com focuses on the conversations between tweeting politicians (or candidates) and citizens. And of course David Akin maintains the Political Twits directory of Hill denizens who tweet for a living.
We'll check back again next week to see how much progress has been made in cyberspace by the candidates, so if you have information about a tweeting, facebooking, youtubing, flickring candidate, please do get in touch.
Meanwhile we'll be waiting for a news release from Elections Canada, expected some time Wednesday afternoon, announcing the final list of nominated candidates for the 4 by-election ridings. Election day is now less than 3 weeks away.
Labels: Facebook Watch, Nov 9 2009 By-elections
posted by The Pundits' Guide at
10:31 PM
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