Over 60,000 votes separated Len Brown, our new Auckland Supercity mayor-elect and his opposition John Banks. Such a large sway in votes leads us to think – what exactly did he do better?Holmes said that the last 3 months of Banks’ campaign dwindled and suggested Banks lost his steam for a great fight. This particularly down to his comments of not over-promising and keeping a relatively similar view to the direction he was currently taking Auckland. Brown on the other hand promised some big plans for Auckland, and with that came some attractive looking policies, with equally high prices. Seems we were in favour.
After reading numerous articles and comments post election, it seemed Banks ran a very traditional campaign somewhat limited to the central city. He’s reported to have neglected to target the North Shore, West Auckland and most importantly South Auckland areas where voters may not have been as tuned into the campaign. This could have been one of the factors that contributed to the landslide victory, coupled with the way each candidate used social media.
@mayorlenbrown attracted twice as many followers as @mayorjohnbanks. The interaction on each Mayor’s Twitter accounts reveals extensive conversation and banter back and forth. Brown ran with a ‘banter’ approach and Banks sent ‘updates’.
My opinion is that Twitter works best as a water cooler turned beehive of information and chatter, and in only certain cases (e.g @NZcivildefence) requires one way communication by way of updates. It is imperative that for the success of high profile people (of any sort) on social media that interaction between the person and the fans is on the same level to ensure engagement.
Special Mention – Social Media Stand Outs During the Campaign:
1. Rob Thomas
Auckland council candidate Rob Thomas made the 6pm news after announcing he had put up a billboard on Ponsonby Rd that was kitted out with Bluetooth. Nearby locals had the option to enable their cellphones to receive a personalised campaign message.
Auckland council candidate Rob Thomas made the 6pm news after announcing he had put up a billboard on Ponsonby Rd that was kitted out with Bluetooth. Nearby locals had the option to enable their cellphones to receive a personalised campaign message.
Elected into Rodney District Council at just 22 years of age last election, and over the weekend racked up an outstanding 9,121 votes for the new Albany ward of the Auckland Council, thrashing North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams. He has almost 1700 friends on Facebook and over 400 followers on Twitter. Goudie tweeted after the result that he proved a point in his campaign by using social media.
I think it’s fair to say the crows spoke for themselves – and Bank’s agreed. In his speech of defeat, he congratulated Brown, and said Len had mobilized his voters like never before – and “good on him”.
Written by Jess Miller.
I think it’s fair to say the crows spoke for themselves – and Bank’s agreed. In his speech of defeat, he congratulated Brown, and said Len had mobilized his voters like never before – and “good on him”.
Written by Jess Miller.
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4 comments:
I think it's fair to say First Past the Post won the Auckland Council election and voters lost.
- 62.5% of votes returned across Auckland elected no one at all to the Council.
- 80.85% of votes in Michael Goudie's Albany Ward elected no one at all. Mr. Goudie got only 9.9% of the vote and Wayne Walker got 9.2%.
- 15 of 20 Councilors were elected with less than 40% vote support.
- 13 of 20 Councilors were elected with less than 30% voter support in their wards.
- Two thirds of the new Council were elected in wards where over 70% of voters did not vote for them.
If representative democracy is work, we have to do better than this. Any future elections should be under some other voting system that will do a better job than this.
STV can do it...all you need to know is how to count to 10. It helps to know who the candidates are, but that is true of any voting system.
We appreciate your statistics Linuxluver and thoughts. Out of interest, where did you get the numbers from? Yes, so true that in a Single Transferable Voting system, you need to know the candidates - social media was used to achieve this (along with other traditional methods). Michael Goudie was a case in point given the attention he attracted - whether voters acted on it or aupported his politics is another story [see his YouTube diary at the end of the story]:
Michael Goudie media coverage [via Stuff]
I compiled the figures from the preliminary election results released by the Council. Call it citizen journalism. I posted on my blog about it, including a link to a publicly available spreadsheet with all the details so anyone who wants to can check my work and / or offer feedback.
Look here: http://j.mp/czCsK3
People have to know the candidates under ANY system, but I agree STV makes it more important as your vote will actually count...so it matters more. :-)
Clicked on your blog, looking great! Now,how do I subscribe? Thank you for making the connection and do keep in touch. Will see you on Twitter too Steve!
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