As a follow-up to my overview of the candidates in the Sept. 8 by-election in Westmount Ville-Marie, here’s a quick rundown of the campaigns’ Facebook strategies (sorted by number of supporters):
(UPDATE Aug. 19: Mr. Larivée has joined the club, so I’ve updated the list as of today)
Anne Lagacé-Dowson (NDP)
- Fan page: YES
- Supporters: 511
- Personal page: NO
Marc Garneau (Liberal)
- Fan page: YES
- Supporters: 370
- Personal page: YES
- Embarrassing personal information on personal page: NO
Claude William Genest (Green)
- Fan page: YES
- Supporters: 178
- Personal page: YES (Though his profile pic is of a chimp hugging a bird)
- Embarrassing personal information on personal page: Open wall, “flirt” box on his profile page, and photos of him dressed as a pimp. Does that count?
Charles Larivée (Bloc Québécois)
- Fan page: YES (though it’s actually a group, not a fan page)
- Supporters: 120
- Personal page: YES
- Embarrassing personal information on personal page: Nope, it’s wiped clean
Judith Vienneau (Rhino)
- Fan page: YES (but no photo)
- Supporters: 8 (ouch)
- Personal page: YES
- Embarrassing personal information on personal page: Plenty of TMI boxes on the profile page. Also, apparently wanted to be leader of the Libertarian Party. Maybe Rhino was her second choice?
Guy Dufort (Conservative)
- Fan page: NO
- Personal page: YES (private)
Many politicians have fake “personal” profiles setup, which I think is largely irrelevant since Facebook invented the fan page. So I won’t take any marks away from Lagacé Dowson for that. But Dufort and Larivée not having any Facebook exposure at all? That’s just not right.
4 Comments
Howdy!
But you missed one important fact: The number of friends in common!! I share one with Marc Garneau, three with Claude William four with Genest, four with Judith Vienneau, none with Guy Dufort and zero for Charles Larivée as well.
I’ve been keeping a count of Facebook supporters for all the by-election candidates plus the leaders in a regular bi-weekly “Facebook Watch”, over at the Pundits’ Guide, if you’re interested in following it. When I first started, tons of people wrote me to say it probably meant nothing. Tons of people. So, I decided it might mean at least something, and keep right on collecting the data.
Please see: Facebook Watch (or depending how this commenting platform handles URLs, http://www.punditsguide.ca/labels/Facebook%20Watch.php).
One other point: I’m not sure that any Rhino candidate actually got their papers in by the deadline (yesterday).
Hello,
I’m afraid the information you have on me is incomplete. I have both a Facebook group and a profile that is not private at all.
Here is the link to the group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21366620598
Here is the link to the profile:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Charles_P_Larivee/657380614
Both adresses are published on my web site:
http://www.blocquebecois.org/fr/dossiers/partielles2008/westmount-ville-marie.asp
Thank you for your active participation in this process.
Regards,
Charles Larivée
Merci pour les renseignements, Charles. Je vais ajouter ces modifications avant la prochaine mise-à-jour de “Facebook Watch” au punditsguide.ca.
Felicitations pour votre décision de participer dans la vie démocratique.
sincèrement,
alice
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