Sunday, October 31, 2010

How did social Media affect the election

 Following the municipal election candidates on twitter gave me a couple of surprises. 
1. The number of followers, tweets, re-tweets, had no reflections on the number of votes and those in the bottom 35 accounted for <5% of the vote and those that dropped out account for <1% of the vote.
2. The tone or the negative tweets didn't negatively reflect on the support at the polls.

Three things that didn't surprise me
1. only 50-70% of candidates used twitter and/or facebook, and some of them didn't use it at all
@torontovote/ran4mayor2010
Candidates in the 2010 October Toronto Mayor Race (official primary or active twitter account)
2. There was a lot more sharing of ideas, by the otherwise 35 unknown candidates to the 5 in the media spotlight (ignoring those that dropped out the race before the deadline)
3. Some candidates just used it to follow or put another down instead of sharing their own platform.
4. The number of non official mayor accounts (I found 38) almost out numbered the number of candidates 40
@torontovote/notmayor
unofficial, unreal, or funny, copycat or mocking, but isn't imitation the best form of flattery

People this list follows


AcidGuy4Mayor acidguyformayor
danformayor Dan Phillips
subwaymayor subway mayor
fakemambamayor Fake Mamba Mayor
MovieMayor Bert Xanadu
mayorzanta Zanta
sarahskey Not Sarah Thomson
RoccoForMayor Rocco
danformayortv Dan For Mayor
mayorofmars Mayor of Mars
SecondCityTO Second City Toronto
NoNameMayor Toronto Mayor
mambamayor Mamba Mayor
rebelmayor WilliamLyonMacKenzie
Giorgio_News Giorgio News
giorgio_4_mayor giorgio mammoliti
MayorGiambrone Adam


About Me

My photo
Tweeter and now Blogger, interested in Toronto Transit improvements, Bicycling and following the Mayor Race in Toronto so I can make an informed vote instead of just picking the last name I heard in the mainstream Media I've decided to locate all the mayor platforms be it on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, or personal websites. I no longer satisfied with someones editorial slant based on a brief interview or second hand information. During the up coming months I will attempt with twitter follow and Re-Tweet their ideas/platforms and leave all their 4square updates, personal adventures, comments and bashing of other candidate out of my twitter stream