(the now defunct) NDP Hashtag Fail were some of the more widely shared/viewed websites. The high- minded Apathy Is Boring campaign got just over 9,000 views on their YouTube channel while someone (^not) playing Ryan Goseling got over 200,000 views alone. Some of the more popular videos put out by Par- ties used humour and wit – rather than a frontal at- tack – to skewer opponents. As an example, the most popular election video put out by the Liberals was about Stephen Harper being a Facebook stalker. These results reflect significant data from the mar-
keting world that people primarily use social media such as Facebook and YouTube to be entertained. Those who understood that reality tended to do much better in attracting attention than those who wanted to engage in (dry) policy debates online.
Twitter Is An Echo Chamber If you want concrete proof that the main audi-
ence of political debates on Twitter were the partici- pants themselves, look no further than the analysis one observer conducted on the top subjects being discussed on Twitter. Two items in the top five, “Ste- phen Harper’s question limit” and the “Conservative Party screening of event attendees using Facebook” couldn’t creditably be seen as issues that preoccupy Canadians in any way. In fact, they are only of inter- est to the media, the various parties themselves and political hacks. As the Star’s Chantal Hebert noted, the media and the campaigns are largely “talking amongst them- selves” on Twitter. Further, there aren’t really that many Canadians engaged in the election conversa- tion. In reviewing the volume of tweets created by Canadians in general (and by using some assumptions from other jurisdictions), I did the quick math and computed that only 0.12% of those tweets were elec- tion-related. Not exactly a national discussion. In Canada, Likes Do Not Equal Victory I have written about this a few times, so I won’t go
into further detail except to say that in the U.S., he/ she who has the most likes/mentions/followers for the most part has the most votes. Not here. Michael Ignatieff pulled ahead on Facebook and stayed there right to the end, although Jack Layton certainly gave him a run for his money. While the Conservatives and Prime Minister Harper certainly grew over the election period, nowhere near as much as their op- ponents. In fact, one of the most interesting data points that I see coming out of the election is how overrepre-
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June 2011 | Campaigns & Elections 13
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