Social Media in the by-elections

Here first is the list of the candidates and their social media links

Chilliwack Hope
Libertarians - Lewis Dahlby
Conservatives - John Martin - facebook - twitter
NDP - Gwen O'Mahony - facebook - twitter
Liberals - Laurie Throness - facebook - twitter - youtube

Port Moody Coquitlam
Conservatives - Christine Clark - facebook - twitter
Liberals - Dennis Marsden - facebook - twitter
NDP - Joe Trasolini - facebook - twitter

I only found a youtube channel for a one candidate, Laurie Throness in Chilliwack-Hope.   Even though social media is without cost and easy to do, Libertarian candidate Lewis Dahlby has done nothing.  He does not seem to put even the most token effort into the campaign.

I checked the candidates stats for Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers and Tweets on March 22nd, April 1st and April 18th.

Candidate       Facebook like  Twit. followers   Tweets   
                M 22 A 1 A 18  M 22 A 1 A 18  M 22 A 1 A 18
Christine Clark   44  49   59    43  66   82    30  54   73
Dennis Marsden    89  95  100   312 339  361   156 187  215
Joe Trasolini    269 307  338   144 168  195    55  68   96
John Martin       46  53   60    19  56   73     3  14   29
Gwen O'Mahoney   270 313  356   196 232  272   122 137  156
Laurie Throness  175 180  192   197 225  248    24  28   34    

I do not see a lot of strong social media usage by any of the candidates.   Gwen O'Mahoney seems to had the facebook page and twitter account since the 2009 election, so she started with higher numbers.


New Facebook Likes March 22nd to April 18th

1. Gwen O'Mahoney 86
2. Joe Trasolini 69
3. Laurie Throness 17
4. Christine Clark 15
5. John Martin 14
6. Dennis Marsden 11

Increase in Twitter followers March 22nd to April 18th

1. Gwen O'Mahoney 76
2. John Martin 54
3. Joe Trasolini 51
4. Dennis Marsden 49
5. Christine Clark 39
6. Laurie Throness 32

Tweets March 22nd to April 18th

1. Dennis Marsden 59
2. Christine Clark 43
3. Joe Trasolini 41
4. Gwen O'Mahoney 34
5. John Martin 24
6. Laurie Throness 10

Adding the three lists as a measure of their social media activity in the last month:

1. Gwen O'Mahoney 196
2. Joe Trasolini 161
3. Dennis Marsden 119
4. Christine Clark 97
5. John Martin 93
6. Laurie Throness 59

While the social media use by all of the candidates is weak, the two NDP candidates seem to be doing better than the others.  Two caveats to this ranking.   Laurie Throness has 788 views of his Youtube videos, almost 500 in the last 18 days.   Dennis Marsden actually seems to be using twitter to engage with some people