Social media use in the three federal by-elections

Looking at the last two weeks, how have all the candidates done in social media use?   I  have been tracking twitter and Facebook for 15 of the 18 candidates running in the three current federal by-elections.  I have also followed the stats for 1 Calgary Centre and my own twitter to see how the candidates compare.

You can find the links to their twitter and facebook pages on my pages for Durham, Calgary Centre and Victoria.

Overall I am not impressed.   Each of the ridings has around 100,000 voters.   At best it seems the candidates are reaching several hundred potential voters and most cases they only seem to be doing social media because it is expected of them.

Twitter Followers

1. 3038 - Chris Turner - Green Calgary Centre (was a big twitter user before the election)
2. 2722 - Joan Crockatt - Conservative Calgary Centre (was a big twitter user before the election)
3. 1329 - Bernard von Schulmann - blogger 
4. 892 - Dale Gann - Conservative Victoria
5. 872 - Murray Rankin - NDP Victoria (he followed a lot of people recently and many have followed back)
6. 816 - Paul Summerville - Liberal Victoria
7. 550 - Harvey Locke - Liberal Calgary Centre
8. 514 - Grant Humes - Liberal Durham
9. 450 - Larry O'Connor - NDP Durham
10. 421 - Erin O'Toole - Conservative Durham
11. 369 - 1 Calgary Centre
12. 347 - Michael Nicula - Online Party Durham
13. 338 - Dan Meades - NDP Calgary Centre
14. 313 - Donald Galloway - Green Victoria
15. 106 - Virginia Ervin - Green Durham
16. 30 - Tony Prashad - Libertarian Calgary Centre

Increase in Twitter Followers since Oct 30th

1. 326 - Murray Rankin - NDP Victoria (he followed a lot of people recently and many have followed back)
2. 154 - Chris Turner - Green Calgary Centre
3. 139 - Harvey Locke - Liberal Calgary Centre
4. 126 - Donald Galloway - Green Victoria
5. 86 - Larry O'Connor - NDP Durham
6. 85 - Dan Meades - NDP Calgary Centre
7. 84 - 1 Calgary Centre
8. 73 - Joan Crockatt - Conservative Calgary Centre
9. 47 - Erin O'Toole - Conservative Durham
10. 47 - Paul Summerville - Liberal Victoria
11. 45 - Dale Gann - Conservative Victoria
12. 31 - Tony Prashad - Libertarian Calgary Centre
13. 21 - Grant Humes - Liberal Durham
14. 14 - Bernard von Schulmann - blogger
15. 11 - Virginia Ervin - Green Durham
16. 3 - Michael Nicula - Online Party Durham

Tweets since October 30th

1. 420 - 1 Calgary Centre
2. 286 - Bernard von Schulmann - blogger
3. 184 - Donald Galloway - Green Victoria
4. 158 - Paul Summerville - Liberal Victoria
5. 91 - Erin O'Toole - Conservative Durham
6. 84 - Chris Turner - Green Calgary Centre
7. 73 - Larry O'Connor - NDP Durham
8. 69 - Dan Meades - NDP Calgary Centre
9. 66 - Harvey Locke - Liberal Calgary Centre
10. 45 - Murray Rankin - NDP Victoria
11. 18- Joan Crockatt - Conservative Calgary Centre
12. 11 - Grant Humes - Liberal Durham
13. 11 - Michael Nicula - Online Party Durham
14. 6 - Dale Gann - Conservative Victoria
15. 6 - Tony Prashad - Libertarian Calgary Centre
16. 5 - Virginia Ervin - Green Durham

Facebook Likes

1. 1349 - Joan Crockatt - Conservative Calgary Centre +801
2. 1291 - Chris Turner - Green Calgary Centre +565
3. 915 - Murray Rankin - NDP Victoria + 301
4. 609 - 1 Calgary Centre +141
5. 571 - Larry O'Connor - NDP Durham +262
6. 440 - Donald Galloway - Green Victoria +261
7. 402 - Harvey Locke - Liberal Calgary Centre +62
8. 393 - Erin O'Toole - Conservative Durham +44
9. 355 - Grant Humes - Liberal Durham +140
10. 273 - Dan Meades - NDP Calgary Centre +115
11. 220 - Vriginia Ervin - Green Durham +61
12. 172 - Paul Summerville - Liberal Victoria +15
13. 31 - Andrew Moriarty - CHP Durham +0

Quality of online discussion has not been great.   In most cases the candidates have done very little to engage with the public.

Liberal candidate in Victoria Paul Summerville was tweeting very strongly only as a way to get links out but has lately done some engagement with the public on twitter.

Even though he has fewer twitter followers than most, Victoria Green candidate Donald Galloway seems be using the media to communicate with people.

Conservative Erin O'Toole in Durham is tweeting a lot but almost all of it is just updates of where he is at the moment.

In Calgary Centre Conservative Joan Crockatt and Green Chris Turner were serious social media users before the election.   Since the election has started Jon Crockatt has gone dark.  Chris Turner is still on Twitter but I am not sure how well be can engage given the number of people tweeting at him.

Who is doing best?  I am not sure you can say anyone is doing best

--------------------------
Genny, mentioned in a comment below, is a facebook page for a dog.