Comments on: trial by error: political parties still learning how to use social media.

By: swann’s song to sherman. | daveberta.ca

swann’s song to sherman. | daveberta.ca — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:23:02 +0000

[...] supporters to join a Facebook Page urging the Good Doctor Sherman to join their ranks. This is the NDP’s second attempt at creating a Facebook movement to recruit the Independent MLA into their two MLA [...]

By: A Curmudgeonly FB User

A Curmudgeonly FB User — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:44:41 +0000

Badgering people into joining these groups by inviting all of your friends and encouraging all new group members to do the same is not the most effective social media strategy ever invented, Lou. While I might be a member of your groups, it has more to do with being tired of rejecting the invites than it does to do with be interested or supportive. Which, incidentally, is the same reason I’m a “fan” of everything Greenpeace does. I’m not saying that the NDP don’t have an impressive social media presence, but number of followers doesn’t tell the whole story.

Also, as far as I’m aware, Sarah Hoffman is not sitting on the School Board as an NDP representative. If she is, she might want to clarify that with her constituents.

By: Bjorn

Bjorn — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:56:50 +0000

Ah yes, the “check out the number of friends” flex-off. Awesome.

By: Lou Arab

Lou Arab — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:54:44 +0000

Poking a little fun at the NDP for a screw up is fair game, but a little more context is in order.

The NDP is, by far, the most effective users of Facebook among Alberta political parties.

Check out the size of the friend lists of Rachel Notley, Brian Mason, Lewis Cardinal, Linda Duncan and even Sarah Hoffman. They are far bigger than the contacts of other Alberta politicians, even the ones praised by this blog and others for their ‘effective use of social media.’

The NDP uses Facebook to promote events, to deliver political messages, to receive feedback and interact with the public, to humanize the faces of their politicians, and to fund raise.

And while their first attempt to use Facebook to draft Sherman wasn’t successful, they have another page going on it now, and no one else even came up with the idea.

That alternate page by the way, can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/4r454aa (since Dave didn’t see fit to post the link) and it has about 275 fans at the moment.

By: daveberta

daveberta — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:46:09 +0000

jerrymacgp: thanks for the comment, Jerry. The graphic is being used by the NDP Caucus staff for their Raj Sherman Facebook Group.

By: jerrymacgp

jerrymacgp — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:57:44 +0000

The “Raj Against the Machine” graphic dates back to former Alberta NDP leader Raj Pannu, and has nothing to do with Raj Sherman other than a shared first name.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 08:00:08 +0000

IMO, this is just another example of spook constantly changing its settings, with the results being that more information is ‘accidentally’ provided to third-party clients.

By: daveberta

daveberta — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 06:40:26 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Cody. There’s a lot of things thy I could blog about. These two examples of how politicians are using and leaning how to use social media is what I found interesting tonight.

Check out the blog tomorrow for two more posts.

By: Cody Morin

Cody Morin — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 06:10:26 +0000

Really Dave? This is all you could find to write about?