Social Media and the General Election

CJAMcMahon

Now that it has been declared, there will presumably be a lot of talk about this being a 'social media election'.

If you, like me, are curious to know what that is all about, then you might like to have a look at my pet project www.candidate.ie (not a commerical venture! research/public information purposes solely).

I've basically made a blog with a page for every constituency and added links to each declared candidate's Facebook and Twitter profiles, where they exist.

I've also added their total number of followers and friends/fans, so you can get an estimate of popularity (for the gamblers like me!).

Anyway, I hope you find it useful - I don't think there is anything like it elsewhere. You can also follow on www.twitter.com/twallyman and www.facebook.com/candidate.ie

And if I have left any declared candidates out, please let me know in the comments! Thanks,

Ciarán

The Waltzing Consumer

Why have you only looked at two sites, which probably have the least impact on Irish politics? Did you not think of using boards.ie or politics.ie, the political parties websites or even youtube, which would have a far bigger impact then facebook or twitter?

I would argue that some types of social media can have great influence and impact on the general election (just look at the threads and number of videos created after Joan Burton was on Vincent Browne, which was echoed by a number of newspaper articles on the subject). These are usually events that can repeated and reviewed by people who saw it or people who want to see it through social media. As for the actual impact they have on voting, who knows? It is probably easier to measure youtube videos then simply looking at facebook friends and trying to interpret that figure for political importance (sure most people add whoever as friends or fans just to boost their numbers, it is hardly registering to join a political party is it?) I have yet to see the thread or video being posted about how many friends or pokes so-and-so has on Facebook or Twitter.

I am sorry if it sounds critical but I do think a lot of social media is just trying to toot its own horn and present itself as some new fourth estate figure along with the press. Personally, I think it is like another bubble except, in the case of property, you had a physical thing, for social media, you really have nothing except, and eventually it will burst like with myspace and bebo.

StupidLikeAFox

Also a person may be a fan of someone on facebook or twitter and not support them, or not even be in their constituency. But it may be interesting to see what comes out of it as a pet project. Good luck with the site!

henryporter

Well done on the site - I appreciate the work that goes into something like that and know that not everyone is going to be happy with the level of detail - I'll be keeping an eye on it anyway.

CJAMcMahon

The Waltzing Consumer wrote: »

Why have you only looked at two sites, which probably have the least impact on Irish politics? Did you not think of using boards.ie or politics.ie, the political parties websites or even youtube, which would have a far bigger impact then facebook or twitter?

Let me make one thing very clear - I haven't said anywhere that I think that these sites will have an 'impact' on Irish politics, those are not my words.

You will hear that phrase ('twitter election' etc.) bandied about quite a lot, but I don't think it makes much sense.

To my mind, that would mean that social media is going to change the way people are going vote. I don't know about you, but I haven't seen anything on any site is going to really change the way people are going to vote.

In other words, while the parties and candidates are using these sites, I don't see any instances of where they are using them well enough to change people's opinion.

In that respect, social media are currently just another media. It's probably enhancing a few candidates' standings, but it remains to be seen how much.

However, what I am interested in is how popularity on social media corresponds to popularity in real life. This is social media reflecting not impacting Irish politics.

I did some very simple calculations before Christmas, on votes candidates got and the number of Facebook friends they had before an election.

Analysis of the Donegal South West and Oldham and Saddleworth by-elections showed very good correlations between a candidate's popularity on Facebook and the number of votes they got.

Hence, I simply want to see if the same relationship can be observed in the much bigger general election (and am simply including the Twitter numbers for the craic).


There are a number of other reasons why I chose Facebook and Twitter:

1. They have more easily accessible public profiles - i.e. I can't see any candidates or politicians who have accounts on boards.ie or politics.ie

2. They have obvious numbers of popularity - I don't know how I could easily record the popularity nearly 400 candidates through boards.ie or politics.ie.

3. Facebook and Twitter are what I understand as social networking sites and what I am interested in.

4. I'm more interested in Facebook to be honest (which has upwards of 1.5 million Irish users over 18),


Anyway, if that doesn't answer your questions, please have a look at my FAQ http://candidate.ie/?page_id=769

And if the answer isn't there, ask away!


Hope this makes sense,


Ciarán

CJAMcMahon

Just in case you're interested, you can see the top twitterers over here:

http://candidate.ie/?p=1073

CJAMcMahon

And now the most popular candidates on Facebook too:

http://candidate.ie/?p=1077

Suaimhneach

Have you seen Boards version?

http://www.boards.ie/vote/

I looked through my options (just changed from Dublin South West to Dublin Central) and went to all their profiles. Mary Lou had the most up to date site which impressed me though I dont think I can vote SF, and some of the others are just laughable. One guy from Labour's last site update was about Halloween. You'd think at this time of year they'd get their act together.

*lesigh*

CJAMcMahon

Suaimhneach wrote: »

Have you seen Boards version?

http://www.boards.ie/vote/

I looked through my options (just changed from Dublin South West to Dublin Central) and went to all their profiles. Mary Lou had the most up to date site which impressed me though I dont think I can vote SF, and some of the others are just laughable. One guy from Labour's last site update was about Halloween. You'd think at this time of year they'd get their act together.

*lesigh*

I can't access that, as I don't think I have done enough posts yet.

The thing is, that while I am collecting data with this (hope to analyse all the tweets and status updates after the election, as well as the correlations between followers/friends and votes) I could have done all of that privately, without publicising it on the web. The reason I did build the site and post the links, was that I thought it might leverage some more visitors to the candidates' accounts and encourage them to put more effort in. Wishful thinking!

Suaimhneach

Nah, its a good effort. Its just not many candiates even have a web-prescence.
And a LOT of them are mis-using facebook and have profiles instead of pages. Pet hate.

Sponge Bob

Galway forum on boards full of gob****e FFers asking for threads about FF to be locked.

CJAMcMahon

Just in case anyone is interested, I am also tracking the social media presence of the candidates for the Presidential Election this time out - see candidate.ie for more details.

Currently Gallagher is leading on Facebook support, with Norris ahead on Twitter.