Okay, I have been inspired by the American election where there has been much tallying of the candidates Myspace & Facebook friends, Youtube subscribers & views, Diggs - well tallying of everything online really. The internet has become a much larger medium for politicians worldwide with them appearing on Myspace, Facebook, Youtube just , well……everywhere.
So, please excuse me as I have look at our Australian politicians ever so important online friending ability. Prior to the 2007 election, both Rudd and Howard started Myspace pages, Youtube channels etc.
- Kevin Rudd is reported to have 5,000 [the maximum allowed]
- I have no clue about anyone else, so this comparison actually is awful, sorry.
Youtube
- Rudd’s channel has about 50,000 more views, and double the subscribers of John Howard.
Myspace
- Kevin Rudd, as of April 04, 2008 has exactly 23,991 Myspace friends
- John Howard, as of April 04, 2008 has exactly 9 Myspace friends.
And yes, I am quite serious. If you don’t believe me have a cyber walk over to myspace. And in the whole nine friends, that does include “Tom” - the defacto friend that everyone gets.
I am not a political pundit here, but I will go out on a limb and say that combined with these numbers, and the fact that John Howard did in fact lose the election - his attempts to mobilize votes through the online social networking avenues was not a resounding success.
