Analysis: Social media on the provincial campaign trail: how the leaders compare
Tim Hudak has the most engaged Facebook fans. Kathleen Wynne has about 20,000 more Twitter followers than her nearest political rival. Andrea Horwath updates her Facebook page the most often.
But despite these successes, Ontarios political leaders appear to be missing social media marketing opportunities while on the campaign trail.
The Star compiled data on the three main leaders leading up to and including the first days of the campaign to determine how they stack up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and elsewhere.
While there are clear differences as far as how many potential voters are hearing and interacting with party messages, none of the three leaders appear to be taking full advantage of their social media footprints leading up to the June 12 Ontario election .
It kills me that theres so much opportunity for them to do a better job (on social media) and theyre not, says Bhupesh Shah, co-ordinator of Seneca Colleges Social Media graduate certificate.
Compared to social media savvy politicians like Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi or U.S. President Barack Obama, the major Ontario party leaders arent as sophisticated, Shah says.
These three guys dont have a clue, relatively speaking.
None of the candidates are particularly active on YouTube, which Shah says is a perfect platform for air-time-hungry candidates. YouTube has been embraced by many politicians who see the advantages of an interruption-free way to speak directly to would-be voters.
And while the leaders are focused on spreading the word about their policies and campaign promises, they are missing the chance to share their human side, Shah says. The leaders could be harnessing memes and expressing a sense of humour with playful, off-the-cuff videos to show their human side and endear them to supporters, he suggests.
Interactivity is also an issue for all three candidates. The data shows there is a lot of one-way broadcasting of messages and photos without replying to the public.
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Analysis: Social media on the provincial campaign trail: how the leaders compare