It’s been the campaign of the selfie, the tweet, and the (leaked) email, and new data shows how politicians and political parties rate on their online interactions. Online mentions of both Prime Minister John Key and Labour leader David Cunliffe spiked last night with the TV3 leaders debate, as did comments on minimum wage, tax cuts and income tax. Mentions of Key were higher than comments about Cunliffe during the debate, with a significantly larger number of women than men mentioning Key – although the data does not analyse the sentiment of the comments. The topics discussed during the debate that attracted the most online attention were minimum wage which resonated equally between men and women aged 35-44 and income tax and tax cuts which were mentioned the most by women aged 35-44.
Facebook’s Head of Policy for Australia and New Zealand Mia Garlick said Kiwis were using online platforms to share ideas about the issues and people that mattered to them in the lead up to the election. “This provides insights into the people and topics that are capturing the attention and opinions of New Zealanders,” Garlick said.
Social media analytics company Social Bakers’ 2014 Election dashboard provided analysis on how the campaign is tracking on Facebook, which more than 2.4 million New Zealanders actively use each month.
In the three weeks since the election campaign kicked off, both the National Party and Key have attracted the most new fans to their Facebook pages, while the Labour Party’s page has seen the highest increase in interactions – people liking, commenting or sharing content.
Full Article: Social media the new campaign trail | Stuff.co.nz.