Power Of Social Media
"Twitter matters to people who are really politically engaged" －－Harold Jansen, University of Lethbridge.
During the campaign, there were vast numbers of Canadians used Twitter and other social platforms to talk politics. All those activities allow us to draw conclusions about what were Canadians thinking and what might happen on the election day. However, several studies have demonstrated that was simply not the case.
According to the data of Ipsos Reid survey taken during the 2011 campaign, only 6% of Canadians over the age of 18 were logging on to a social networking site everyday to discuss public policy and political issues.
A study published in 2014 in the Canadian Parliamentary Review came to similar conclusions. Only about 7% of Facebook users and 4% of Twitter users do anything political.
SOCIAL MEDIA plays an important role in endearing voters to party leaders, from Twitter engagement to Facebook video posts. Justin Trudeau's Liberals enjoyed a LEAD in polls, and also a substantial lead on Twitter. Even though Trudeau joined Twitter a year later than Harper, he has posted 9,255 tweets compared to Harper's 3,577 (at time of publication).
According to iPolitics.ca, Trudeau enjoyed a high engagement rate on Twitter, at number one with 36% of tweets mentioning him, followed by NDP's Mulcair at second with 28% and Harper with 25%.
iPolitics reports that in share of Facebook interactions, the Tories double the Liberals in percentage points, but Trudeau leads Harper in Facebook interactions via their leader Pages (compared to the party page).
Liberals have been very innovative in using new tools on Facebook:
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Trudeau did a Facebook 50-second challenge, which is basically a video where he answers in 50 seconds rapid-fire questions that are more personal, showing him more as an individual.
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Trudeau or the Liberal Party announced his whole platform live on Facebook. People could send questions in while he did this live and they were answered live.
Leader page
Party page
The analysis of the social media presence of each of the major parties with a focus on tone, messaging and social hits and misses.
Twitter and Facebook numbers indicated in thousands. Numbers accurate as of Sept 1. Twitter numbers are totals for both French and English accounts.
"Risk inflating its importance and distorting what is actually happening online. The people who are politically active on Twitter and other social media sites tend to be the small subset of people who are already very interested in politics."
