New Zealand is in the run up to an election, November 26th, and given the high interest in 'Social Media' (SM) right now, I decided I would test the response of the major parties and their leaders.
I sent a tweet to all of the major political parties at 7pm on 18th May. The Tweet was "How do you view the importance of Social Media in the upcoming election?"
I then looked into what channels each party was using to engage their audience. Although numbers aren't an indicator as to the level of engagement, they are interesting in the terms of commitment to using these channels. I would expect a significant increase in activity across all platforms in the lead up to the general election.
Labour Party
YouTube
Lacking Branding, and also a small number of subscribers, 53. This channel is not being used effectively and needs to be included as part of their overall strategy. 2,594 Channel views, and 25,695 video views.
Labours Facebook page didn't include a wall for posting articles, nor did they engage through this channel.
I always find it fascinating that political parties follow far less than are followed. Any political party should be canvassing through this medium and follow as many potential voters as is possible. The labour Party's follow to following ratio is 1:4, not good at all. The main level of engagement from the Labour Party through Twitter is individual accounts. The main party account is just a feed account.
The Green Party
YouTube
A very user friendly channel. 416 subscribers. Branded very well and really working for the Green party. Obviously they have placed an emphasis on using this platform. 17,000 channel views, and 134,000 video views.
The most active party on Facebook. High level of engagement.
The Green Party's follow:followers ratio is 1:10. This number is obsured, it should be the other way round. The Greens are very active on their main account, but do still treat it as a broadcast medium.
National Party
YouTube
National are the most effective at using YouTube, with over 800 subscribers, but the viewer stats are impressive, with over 500,000 views and 70,000 channel views. The earliest of the main parties to join YouTube.
National follow:followers ratio is 1:5, still a poor result, but better than the Greens. National have Tweeted the most from their main party account, but still the PM continues to use this channel as a broadcast medium rather than engage directly.
ACT Party
YouTube
Minimum use of this platform. 10,063 Channel Views, and 8,401 video views. This means that more people visited the channel page than watched any of the videos. Did not display any subscriber numbers
A very rudimentary Facebook page offering little engagement.
ACT individual MPs are very active, but the main party follow:followers ratio is terrible, with a 1:20 being the worst of all main parties. They do use the main party account, but Heather Roy is the MP using Twitter most effectively.
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