Turnbull tops table of Tweeters

In the battle for social media supremacy it appears that this year’s federal election is all about last year’s political leaders.

According to a Twitter table compiled by Edelman PR, Malcolm Turnbull tops the list of political ‘tweeters’ for the 2010 campaign so far, with Kevin Rudd a close second.  At the time of publication, Julia Gillard was in fifth place, while Tony Abbott was languishing down in 21st place on the table.

The table uses a complex series of algorithms to calculate scores for each candidate based on their influence, popularity, trust and engagement with their followers on social networking website Twitter.

Social media and the Internet have become important political tools for getting fast messages out to the media, while simultaneously engaging with tech-savvy voters says social media expert Dr Peter Chen from the University of Sydney’s Government and International Relations department.

“Turnbull is a big adopter of new media,” said Dr Chen. But the domination of new media channels by Turnbull and Rudd is a strong indication that this election is not being fought through social media.

“You have to look where the action is. The major campaign is happening through the more traditional methods.”

Although social media may form an important part of a political campaign, it is not necessarily indicative of a candidate’s general popularity. “It isn’t for the mass market; it is for a specialised market,” said Dr Chen.

Matthew Robertson, Greens candidate for Wentworth, sees social media services such as Twitter and Facebook as a good way to connect with people, but does not think it is the most important campaign tool.

“Just because you have more followers on Twitter doesn’t mean you get more votes,” he said. “I just don’t think you can go past personal interactions.”

Labor candidate Steven Lewis believes that it comes down to the quality of the message, not the quantity. “Most of what Malcolm Turnbull twitters is useless trot,” he said.

“The most important campaigning method is the oldest – talking to people, face-to-face contact.”

While Turnbull’s ‘tweeting’ does appear to be quite prolific, with nearly 25,000 followers and more than 1000 ‘tweets’ to his name, Dr Chen thinks the use of social media is more about maintaining a dynamic image.

“A lot of it is about branding and association,” he said. “We look at Malcolm Turnbull and think ‘wow, isn’t he engaged and fresh?’. It keeps his name recognition high and makes him seem very active.”

This highly regarded status as a new media guru does have its political uses. Late last week, Mr Turnbull used his Facebook following to convene a public panel on the Liberal Party’s new policy against Labor’s compulsory Internet filter.

When approached via Twitter for comment, Mr Turnbull summed up his online campaign very succinctly: “s[ocial] media useful and fun if you really engage in the conversation.”

– BY HAMISH BOLAND RUDDER

Ways to stay in touch this election:

Twitter accounts: @TurnbullMalcolm; @LewisWentworth; @Matt4Wentworth

You can also use Twitter’s search function to look up any election related tweets by searching for the hashtag ‘#ausvotes’

Facebook user names: ‘Malcolm Turnbull’; ‘Steven Lewis for Wentworth’; ‘Matthew Robertson, Greens candidate for Wentworth’

Google: Australian Federal Election 2010 (www.google.com.au/election2010)