Social Media Tale of the Tape – November 25th By-elections

Residents of the district of Humber East and Trinity-Bay de Verde will head to the polls today to elect a new MHA for their respective areas.  In Humber East, the candidates are looking to replace former Premier Tom Marshall who retired this fall and in Trinity-Bay de Verde the candidates are looking to fill the seat vacated by former finance minister Charlene Johnson who stepped away from politics in September.

While I’ll leave it to others to break down their political views, I thought we’d take a look at each campaign’s social media activity to see which candidates are using these platforms to their fullest.

(It should be noted that I’m not from either district voting today nor do I have a particular political party affiliation.  I congratulate all candidates on well run campaigns and wish them the best of luck today.)

Humber East

Stelman Flynn

The liberal candidate’s social media profile has by far the most reach of the three candidates in this district.  He’s built up solid followings on both Twitter and Facebook and has remained actively engaged by posting a great mixture of behind the scenes action and interactions with the public.  However, although he has built a solid following, I think he misses a big opportunity by not clearly communicating the issues he’s running on.

Martin Ware

Although Ware does have a Facebook fan page and has made a push in the past few weeks to build some content, his page still seems hastily put together. As far as conveying his message, while there isn’t a great deal concerning that aspect of his campaign, he appears to be the only candidate out of the 6 running today that actually conveys a position on a major issue directly on social media. Ware also doesn’t appear to have a Twitter account set up.  While many may view Twitter as a frivolous waste of time, why would a campaign pass up the opportunity to spread its message across every available media?

Lary Wells

The Lary Wells campaign should be commended on running a solid Twitter campaign.  There was plenty of information available on his campaign activities, life on the campaign trail as well as information on his campaign platform.  The area in which the campaign loses marks is on the Facebook side.  While Lary Wells himself does have a Facebook profile and has posted quite a bit of content, the fact that he hasn’t created a “Facebook Page” means I can’t choose to “Like” his page and have information he posts arrive directly in my Facebook news feed.  Don’t make it harder than it has to be for people to receive your message!

Trinity-Bay de Verde

Steve Crocker

Like the liberal candidate in Humber East, the Steve Crocker campaign has the biggest social media following of the three candidates in his race.  Both his Facebook page and Twitter profile was filled with info about where he was campaigning and photos of Crocker going door-to-door and mingling with supporters.  It was also a nice touch to see the campaign take time to thank individuals directly for their support on Facebook and Twitter.

Tolson Rendell

While the Tolson Rendell campaign did run a Facebook page with some info posted, it was by far the fewest posts of any of the candidates.  Combined with just a bare bones Twitter profile there wasn’t much info to be gathered at all.

Ron Johnson

Ron Johnson and his team did an admiral job at building their social media presence.  While they didn’t gather the same number of followers and fans as the liberal candidate, he utilized the available platforms to maintain a strong social presence.  Like many of the other candidates there were lots of photos of Johnson campaigning and plenty of voting information.  Similar to Crocker, Johnson also took time to personally thank people of both social platforms for their support.

Analysis

A major point I had in the back of my mind while reviewing the stats of the candidates was whether the effort of investing time, energy and money in social media platforms was worth it considering that the voting demographic of these two districts may be a little older and a bit less up to speed with social media.

But in a month where we’ve already seen a by-election decided by less than 100 votes I think the better question is “can you afford NOT to run a solid social media campaign?”

Interactions on social media should be viewed as an extension of campaigning door to door.  Candidates go door to door so they can shake hands, make themselves more personable to voters and allow voters to tell them what their issues are as well as give themselves the opportunity to tell voters their stance on crucial issues.

The same can be done to an extent on social media.  When a candidate takes a minute to reply to a question or just to thank a person for their support it can have a great impact.

Missed Opportunities

Campaign Message

After spending a significant amount of time going through the candidates profiles it became pretty obvious that all the candidates missed some big opportunities.  The biggest issue I see with most of the candidates’ social profiles is that if I was an undecided voter was looking for information about these candidates and what they stand for, I would be no more informed after leaving their profiles than prior to visiting them.  Yes there are lots of pictures of them working hard while campaigning, but that’s not going to be reason enough for me to vote for you.

The NDP candidates were pretty open about their opposition to fracking, but other than that the message from all six candidates seem to centre around the generic message of “I will work hard for you” and “I’ll always be available.”  This should be expected of any and all MHAs entering. What undecided voters want to know are your views on the issues facing the people in your district.

While I’m sure the candidates speak openly about the issues in public and do a fine job when campaigning door to door, the message should be consistent across social media as well.

Video

At no point on any of the social profiles that I visited did I see anyone using video – aside from some links to interviews done with CBC or VOCM.  A simple video shot on something as simple as an iPhone could have provided a great opportunity for a new visitor to be introduced to the candidate and relay a short, to the point message about why they would be the best choice to represent their district.

This type of media is easily consumed and makes for the perfect type of information for the candidates’ supporters to share on their own timeline and feeds.  This type of sharing would allow for more people to see the message of the candidates.

Ask Supporters to Share

When on the campaign trail you can’t be sheepish about asking your followers to share.  In most districts in the province the candidates’ followers on social media will have family and friends who live in the same districts that the candidates are running in, so when you ask your supporters to share some important information and they oblige, that will be seen by people who would have otherwise missed it.

After examining the social profiles of these candidates I can’t recall seeing even one campaign explicitly asking their supporters to share a piece of information.  It’s important to note that you wouldn’t want to bombard your supporters with messages asking them to share your info, but if they feel a particular piece of content is vital to spread they shouldn’t hesitate asking their supporters to share the message.

Conclusion

Although I can’t say for sure, one would have to imagine that the political parties have some type of social media advisor within their ranks who are advising or directly assisting candidates with the social media side of their campaign.  It’s evident that the Liberals have a solid grasp on this aspect and how to spread their message online.  Their candidates profiles’ were well populated with relevant information and pieces to show the human side of their candidates.

While the PCs seemed to try to embrace social media, they weren’t close to matching the Liberals in the reach they achieved.  Whereas the Liberals’ profiles seemed well constructed and properly planned, looking at the PCs’ profiles it feels like they were put together more as an after thought than anything.

As for the NDP, well, the statement above about assuming each party has a social media advisor is probably not true in their case.  Either that or they simply didn’t aid these two candidates.  They would have almost have been better off not creating any social profiles at all rather than the poorly put together pages they created.

In any case, it will be interesting to tune in tonight to find out who will be elected in these two districts.

(And if you liked this post, feel free to share or re-tweet!  I do have to take my own advice after all.)