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Monday, August 22, 2011

NZ Political Parties on facebook - who is winning?




The failed methodology of the mainstream political opinions polls are throwing up results that are more and more detached from reflecting political opinion and are increasingly about manipulating public opinion.

Only the brain dead msm and right wing fantasists believe this election will be a landslide, this is the same mainstream media flawed landline cheap brainfart telephone polls that proclaimed Len Brown and John Banks were neck and neck while predicting that Hone was only ahead by 1% when he in fact won by over 9%.

As Political Parties grapple with trying to bypass an increasingly right wing and biased media, perhaps the media could cast an eye over who is winning the facebook war to see which Party is managing to adapt to the new social networking explosion.

It is not surprising when the Herald places a hard right masquerading as lite right Government propagandist like David Farrar in an unchallenged position on their site that the left would want to bypass the msm and talk directly to their activists and supporters, so who is succeeding and adapting?

Not surprisingly, NZ First is the lowest I ranked with 367 supporters. Seeing as their average age of supporter is close to 89, Winstons hopes of appealing to a younger demographic seem more aspirational than real. One cold winter could half NZ First's voter base in a season, needs to try harder.

Maori Party comes in at 6 with 724 supporters, but I'm not sure if this is even their official page as there is no link from their website, although there is a bebo page. Which I think speaks volumes on it's own. Apparently swallowing dead rats for little gain is as unsupportable on line as it is in reality.

ACT have disappointingly small Facebook support. At a mere 921 supporters this is a disappointment because ACT have such a large and active online troll supporters league who live in the bowels of Kiwiblogh, Cactus Kate and Whaleoil blogsites. The problem with Facebook is that because it is so identifiable, it robs the right of their anonymous viciousness, I mean who wants to openly identify with a racist party who only last month were bickering internally about how racist they should go with their race baiting advert. Judging on its paltry 921 supporters, not many if any.

The shocker of the lot is the National Party with a tiny 1197 supporters. While Key's facebook site is liked by a staggering 63 045 Shire Volk, the National Party itself is a shadow of its vacantly optimistic leader and comes in well behind at number 4.

For a political party that has only existed for a couple of months, Mana Party leaps ahead with 2 429 supporters making their ranking in the msm polls of .9% of the population seem more hopeful of the msm than reality.

Labour's Clare Curran has seen the future and constantly projects about the digital electorate which would explain Labour's impressive 3525 supporters placing them at number 2, but for real arse kicking facebook power for a Political Party, the Greens are the champions.

Political Party Facebook Supporters
1: Greens - 11 633 supporters
2: Labour - 3 525 supporters
3: Mana - 2 429 supporters
4: National - 1197 supporters
5: ACT - 921 supporters
6: Maori Party - 724 supporters
7: NZ First - 110 supporters


At over 11 000 supporters, the Greens from their activism days have understood the importance of social networking and are the kings of using this new media as a way to engage with their supporters unlike any other political party. The real possibility of a Green Party that manages to gain 10% is not inconceivable when you see the real interaction they have managed to create on their site.

The minor parties are adapting to social networking and bypassing the mainstream media, who through their myopic and uncritical acceptance of their own bullshit cheap landline telephone polls, are missing the evidence that something very different is occurring on the left for this election.

FACEBOOK
TWITTER

11 Comments:

At 22/8/11 3:50 pm, Blogger Oliver Woods said...

Hi Bomber,

Your very negative remarks about New Zealand First omitted that while the party has 367 'Likes' on Facebook, Winston Peters has 1134 likes on Facebook - far ahead of many other Kiwi politicians.

If you're going to criticise NZF, at least be fair about it.

Cheers,
Oliver

 
At 22/8/11 5:32 pm, Blogger Judy said...

Actually this is probably one too many comments as your article is totally ridiculous. Get your facts right by stepping outside the Square & into the real world.
NZ First will be right up there & in the next Government and will make them sharpen their pencils.

Cheers,
Judy

 
At 22/8/11 7:30 pm, Blogger Inthel00p said...

One cold winter could half NZ First's voter base in a season?

LOL!

Brutal.. Bomber... Brutal...

Oh but don't forget the bug-eyed 19 year old bed-wetter Winnie recruited... He'll surely rally two or three more voters.

Meanwhile, can you please learn the difference between its and it's? The latter is a contraction of it is, so your use of it throughout the piece is totally wrong.

Love you anyway.

 
At 22/8/11 11:09 pm, Blogger Tar and Feather The Bastards said...

Bomber,

I don't think facebook can be viewed as the "be all and end all" (granted you don't make that exact claim) of alternate data sources to polls. It falls down in that there are plenty of VOTERS that don't "do" facebook, myself included. Old Don Key with 61,000 odd likes. he'll be thinking he's "right there", but he did go to the North Wellington Hair Piece Appreciation Societies AGM over the weekend so maybe he is just a tad worried . . . insert smiley thingy here . . .

 
At 23/8/11 8:01 am, Blogger Kingi said...

The problem with the mainstream media polling is that so many of the public take it as gospel. The risk I think is that some who would vote Labour might not bother to vote, thinking that "National will win anyway so whats the point?" Labour and the others on the left must mobilise their voters. If they don't unfortunately theses polls may well turn out to be self-fulfilling prophecies.

 
At 23/8/11 9:28 am, Blogger Bill Bennett said...

This shouldn't come as a surprise.

The Green Party demonstrated its relative mastery of all things digital during the ridiculous Copyright Amendment Bill debate.

Mind you dragging geeky green voters away from their iPads and Playstations into polling booths is another matter entirely.

 
At 23/8/11 12:53 pm, Blogger Tar and Feather The Bastards said...

Kingi - yes you r right on the nail with ur comment about it being seen as a fait accompli and left voters not bothering. Labour, Greens and Mana must ram this home - to get out and tick the boxes.

 
At 23/8/11 1:16 pm, Blogger Frank said...

ACT has 921 Facebook supporters?

Couldn't they afford to buy any more?

 
At 23/8/11 10:34 pm, Blogger Ian Guy said...

The 'John Key has let down NZ' page https://www.facebook.com/groups/252700100808/ has nearly three times as many fans as the National Party page!

 
At 26/8/11 6:41 pm, Blogger Jasper said...

Awesum! This "Poll" is great and demonstrates how differently people like to "voice" their support through different media.

Could be a real reflection of what the "Real NZ Public" are thinking without the results being over analysed & manipulated. - "It is what it is"!

 
At 2/9/11 6:21 pm, Blogger Handsome B. Wonderful said...

Please please please don't pull a msm and derive ANY significance from Facebook.

I vote Green yet 'like' ACT on Facebook -- because that's the only way I get to see the material they post (part of being engaged and not politically lop-sided like most people).

Those numbers are absolutely meaningless.

 

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