Online presence doesn’t translate into political success
Politicians are using social media more than ever before to let us see inside almost every aspect of their lives. You cannot go online without a tweet or post from a politician.
I believe this online omnipresence is having the opposite impact from what politicians desire. I’m also getting fed up with too much useless information and not enough of substance from our Canadian politicians.
Politicians would be better off spending more time with the people they represent rather than using their cellphones to take pictures of what they are doing.
As we have all learned, social media does not reflect reality when it comes to our own lives or those of our friends. It is important to remember it doesn’t reflect reality in politics, either. Having the most followers online does not mean you will have the most ballots cast in your favour come election time.
Almost all adult Canadians active online — nine in 10 — make use of social media, according to a 2017 SOCIALscape Canadian Social Media & Messaging Monitor report by the research firm Pollara. So it makes sense for politicians to be online and to have a profile.
Being online may be the only way politicians will be able to reach the next generation of voters. But does having the most followers translate into success at the ballot box?
When it comes to Twitter and provincial politicians, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is the leader in Canada with 230,000 followers, but she is the least popular when it comes to public opinion polling. Ontario opposition Leader Patrick Brown has just more than 42,000.
Twitter success and popularity would say that Wynne would crush Brown in the June election — but we know that may not be the case.
It is interesting to look at the online presence of sports teams and compare it to tickets sales and popularity in the real world, as I believe sports is similar to politics. The Edmonton Oilers have 792,000 followers to beat the Calgary Flames who have 593,000 — but the Flames sit ninth in the NHL for ticket sales while the Oilers are 12th.
The Toronto Raptors, with 2.2 million likes on Facebook, crush the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have 1.3 million likes, but there is no comparison when it comes to tickets sales or popularity. The Blue Jays beat them both on Twitter.
Among politicians, the king of Twitter and social media is the president of the United States, Donald Trump. But again, while he has a huge influence and impact online, his online actions are actually translating into the lowest popularity in public opinion polling for a president after his first year in office.
Technology and social media have allowed our politicians to be able to make themselves accessible. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should be online all the time.