Last week’s blog on using Twitter to predict the BC Liberal leadership race got a lot of attention. First, there was the CBC TVand radio interviews, followed by a call with News 1130 and an interview with them. What started as a bit tongue in cheek ended with me being cited as first a “blogger” then a “social media expert” who was predicting the outcome of the race. Were it only so — although my prediction about Surrey Mayor Diane Watts not running (on the basis she had no Twitter account) has already turned out to be true, so who knows.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and that came a week later when the Vancouver Sun’s Saturday edition devoted a full page to the topic of using social media to predict the Liberal leadership.
I also received comments and Tweets from people representing other would-be candidates that they claimed had better representation in social media — and if i do an update on last week’s blog, and they decide to run, i would surely mention them.
It’s been a fun week and gratifying to know that someone reads my blog. What’s become a little lost in the discussion is that social media is tactic, not a strategy — and I’m not certain either the politicians or some of the reporters realize this.
When interviewed for the story, I talked about what I thought a politician’s re-election strategy might be. For example, get as many people to support you as possible. Make sure that the people that support you go out to vote. Attract supporters you currently don’t have and make sure they come out and vote as well. Or at least, that would be my strategy if I was running. And since my Twitter followers and engagement score well exceeds any of the candidates, if Twitter was the determining factor, I would be the next leader of the BC Liberals.
But I digress. Social media networking and the tools that facilitate it — like Twitter and Facebook — is one method of achieving the strategy. Depending on who you’re talking to and how they like to be talked to, it might be a good tactic or it might fall flat on its face(book). But my argument continues to be — why wouldn’t a candidate explore all of the tools available to them. And given that this last year alone, $297 billion dollars was spent on Facebook advertising — it seems you ignore it at your peril.