There is even a theory that the candidate with the most Facebook followers or Likes will win.

In November 2011 three mayoral Candidates who I supported and assisted all won and all had the greatest number of Facebook followers versus their opponents.

During April 2012 in British Columbia there were two Provincial byelections  to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs).  My study on Facebook Likes from those BC byelections not only told who would win, but who would place second, third and even fourth!

Later that same month, I again used social media follower counts to predict the first, second and third place Parties in the Alberta election.

It worked again in September 2012 for the Quebec elections.

Curious, ain’t it?

So as we have seen from my extensive examples above, social media can elect a President, a couple of MLAs, an English AND French speaking Premier and a bunch of Mayors…but how about the results from the 2013 BC general election? Can the social media prowess of Party Leaders determine the who will be the Leader of the best Province in Canada?

While there were twenty different Parties running in the election, I focused on the Leaders of just four main Parties. I did this in order to ensure the data would be carefully collected, analyzed and displayed for you – my loyal readers – to digest in a timely manner. Totally has nothing to do with my not being interested in spending time researching fringe Parties that really have no hope in Hell of getting elected. Nope, this was all about helping YOU out. You’re welcome.

With that in mind, the four Leaders in this piece are: Christy Clark – BC Liberals; Adrian Dix – BC NDP; John Cummins – BC Conservatives; and Jane Sterk – BC Greens.

So here is my methodology (which is Latin for “stuff I did to collect the data you are about to read”): At 5pm Monday (the day before the election) I wrote down most of the numbers you will see in the chart at the bottom of the post from the candidate’s Facebook, Twitter, Klout and Status People Fake Followers sites. The election results were recorded AFTER the election. The goal here is to see if Facebook Likes, the number of Twitter followers or Klout score by the Leaders determine the overall BC election results. Hope you were able to follow my awesome research techniques.

FINDINGS

It appears the outcome of this election confirms that yes indeed, the number of Twitter followers and Facebook Likes “predicted” the winner. Ironically ALL of the pollsters got it wrong.

Interesting to note that Klout score – which had Christy Clark in third place – did not seem to matter. This speaks to a flaw in Klout being unable to truly measure real world clout as Klout focuses too much on the noise made on social media.

CONCLUSIONS

Social media is a valuable tool in recruiting, engaging and activating volunteers, supporters and voters. It seems the more Twitter followers and Facebook Likes a Leader receives in BC is indicative of the final voting results for the Party. Therefore campaigns must have a thoughtful, Team based social media strategy in place which is used well before the election is announced and of course during the election period. Campaigns still fail to engage on social media and while more difficult to quantify, anecdotal evidence indicates that even though engagement was poor, the rankings in that area would be the same for the above candidates as the final voting results.

Since the parties placed in the roughly the same order (1st BC Liberals; 2nd BC NDP; and tied for 3rd BC Greens and one Independent) as Twitter followers and exactly in the order of Facebook likes, this may highlight the differences between the Parties on the importance of social media in their election / communications / engagement planning.

Social media so totally and obviously leads the way in electing our Leaders. This continued failure to integrate social media into the success of a campaign will limit a Party’s growth. #DaveLogic

So what do you think? Is the “Facebook Likes / Twitter followers equals final results” just a coincidence? Or is it an obvious measure of a candidate’s popularity which translates into votes? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

2013 BC Election - the Leaders

NOTE: Clicking on the orange links in the chart above will take you to the Leaders’ Facebook or Twitter pages.  Also, info will be updated over the next 24 hours.

This post will be updated over the next 24 hours.

]]> http://www.dave.ca/2013/04/14/premier-christy-clarks-30-minute-tv-address/feed/ 2 http://www.dave.ca/2013/04/13/cknw-daves-totally-awesome-social-media-show-april-13-2013/ http://www.dave.ca/2013/04/13/cknw-daves-totally-awesome-social-media-show-april-13-2013/#comments Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:11:10 +0000 Dave http://www.dave.ca/?p=7997 We discuss how the WWE and Hootsuite joined forces for a WrestleMania Social Media Command Center; my baby brother is taking part in the Boston Marathon on Monday and I will be suing the BM App to track his progress; Google’s new Inactive Account Manager gives you control over your digital afterlife; Facebook Home released yesterday and panned by some early users; Premier Christy Clark using “second screen technology” during tomorrow’s TV address; have a WordPress site – you REALLY need to read this to slow down or stop hackers; who uses social media? – a demographic breakdown & more.

Let’s say I post a status on a Page and five people write comments and I want to reply to the first and third comment, I will have to leave a reply in the sixth position in the comments.

This is a bit clumsy in appearance and can get more confusing if someone replies to my comment a few days later as say, the tenth comment. The conversation becomes cumbersome and annoying. Like chatting to a Tween about Twilight.

Last week Facebook rolled out threaded comments (see graphic at left) which allows a complete conversation on a topic to take place in an easy to follow fashion. A reply to a comment is sort of “bumped” to the right a little, making for an easy viewing / reading experience.

BUT – Facebook also added in an additional “feature”. Facebook allows the most-commented-on or liked replies and those closest to your network gravitate to the top of the “reading list” while those with fewer comments or likes sink to the bottom. This means you no longer are reading the conversations in order, rather something posted 5 minutes ago with 10 Likes and off topic could be at the top while releveant comments are lost in the mix of conversation.

As a moderater this is a NIGHTMARE. Before threaded comments, you could easily view the latest comments, delete or reply quickly and scroll up to the place where you last completed your moderating. Now, you have to review every single comment every single time you want to moderate a page. This is not only a problem for the moderator but fans of my pages started complaining too as they could not easily or completely follow the comments.

Instead of having a Facebook forumla decide what is relevent or imporant, that should be left up to the Page admins. I hope they make this change soon.

Until then, I have decided to remove the threaded comments in order to bring back the ease of moderating and reading to the Pages.

To do this you need to be signed into Facebook, an Admin on the Page and be on the Page you wish to change.

Click EDIT PAGE near the centre top of the Page.
From the drop down menu select MANAGE PERMISSIONS.
A new page will appear. Near the bottom of the greyed out area you will see REPLIES, a checkbox and “Allow replies to comment on my page”. Ensure that checkbox does NOT have a check.
Click SAVE CHANGES and now your comments will not be threaded but the comments will also not be out of order.

Do you like the way Facebook has implemented the threaded comments? What would you do differently? Share you thoughts it the comments below.

Although the creation of such a video game is likely ill-conceived in the current climate, it does not constitute an offence. Investigators from the Port Moody Police Department have interviewed the developer of this game and have concluded that he does not pose a danger to the staff or students of Port Moody Secondary.

The Port Moody Police Department continues to work closely with all of the schools in our city to ensure that staff and students have a safe environment in which to work and learn.

SOURCE: http://portmoodypolice.ca/index.php

My comment – I never for a moment thought the game / map / texture developer and his team would be of any harm to members of the school, but good on the Port Moody Police for looking into this matter and ensuring the safety of the teachers, students and staff at Port Moody Secondary School.

But video games where realistic depictions of human suffering takes place? Nope. Not for me…although I will admit to killing a whack of Space Invaders in my youth…and in my defense, they WERE invading Earth.

Often these “first person shooter” games are based in make believe worlds and quite frankly, I have not paid much attention to this genre. While I do like “combat sports” (eg: Mixed Martial Arts) – those sports have consenting combatants and rarely are guns and murder allowed.

That’s why I was surprised when I saw on Facebook the video below outlining a “Developers Sequence” of an upcoming video game where you can choose your weapons and go on a killing spree at Port Moody Secondary School – a local high school where I live.

The game is being developed by the former President of the Port Moody Secondary School Chapter of Amnesty International, Aarman Rahim. Yes, the former president of a group whose goal is to ease human suffering has decided to glamorize and profit from it.

While the video above does not appear to depict students being killed, posts on online forums (which have now been removed) had Aarman promise that students and teachers would be featured and could be “hero, enemy or collateral damage”. I suppose this is a nice accompaniment to the gun fire, blood splattered walls and broken glass of his former high school as shown in his game.

You would think such a game would be slammed by local media as “violent”, “disturbing”, “insensitive” etc.  Well, one reporter has taken a slightly different tone.

This morning Diane Strandberg, a reporter and Assistant Editor with The Tri-City News praised the game as “cool” and pointed out it had “great grfx” [sic.] on her post in the Youtube comments section of the video. The video and her comment were removed by Aarman at approximately 6pm this evening but as with the video above, I have a copy of her post:

To be fair, I will point out that Ms. Strandberg made the observation that the game is “possibly controversial”. Let’s review - not “controversial” but “POSSIBLY controversial”. Just making sure I am getting it right – murders at the local high school with “cool…great grfx” is “possibly controversial”. Wow.

While young Mr. Rahim may not fully appreciate the stupidity of his game I would think a seasoned reporter like Ms. Strandberg would which is why I am puzzled by her praise.

A line I have been DYING to use for years will now be written: “Requests to Ms. Strandberg and The Tri-City News for comment were not returned”.

So what do you think? Is this a fun harmless game or something worse? Do you agree with Ms. Strandberg’s comments or do you expect a more critical reply? Looking forward to your comments below.

UPDATES

From Port Moody Police Website:

On March 21, 2013 administration from Port Moody Secondary School contacted the Port Moody Police Department regarding a disturbing video that they had become aware of. Specifically, the video depicted a multiplayer first person shooter game that was set inside Port Moody Secondary.

Although the creation of such a video game is likely ill-conceived in the current climate, it does not constitute an offence. Investigators from the Port Moody Police Department have interviewed the developer of this game and have concluded that he does not pose a danger to the staff or students of Port Moody Secondary.

The Port Moody Police Department continues to work closely with all of the schools in our city to ensure that staff and students have a safe environment in which to work and learn.

http://portmoodypolice.ca/index.php

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Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay speaks out on this game / map on Global TV

Dear Aarman, I will keep this short. I am glad to here that you were not the developer but I need you to understand that as your former teacher, I am disturbed by the content in the game. I ask that you should reflect upon what has happened. Stop focusing on how the media has wronged you and try to see why this may have been a bad or poor decision. I hope that you understand that by using our school, work place it has made me very sad, upset, perplexed as to why you would have had anything at all to do with this. We all make mistakes and hopefully we can all learn from this.

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Ms. Strandberg and I spoke on the phone during the afternoon of March 21st.

Great chat w/ @dstrandberg on PoMo high school killer game. Glad we talked as she is an outstanding reporter. @tricitynews @TriCitiesCoC

March 21, 2013 4:04 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@davedotca

Dave Teixeira

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Interview from CBC Radio:

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Report from Global TV:

Although Rahim stated that he’s not the developer of the game, he said he did provide resources.

http://www.tricitynews.com/news/199428911.html
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Opinion piece from The Tri-City News:

First-person shooter games are particularly repellant and I am concerned about the long-term impacts of them on the psyche of young people.

http://www.tricitynews.com/opinion/199431361.html
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From the Vancouver Province:

On his Facebook page, former Port Moody Secondary student Aarman Rahim said he supplied “resources” for the digital architecture in the game to the developer.

He took issue with the negative publicity surrounding the game and his involvement, and many of his friends replied to say some adults simply don’t understand video-game culture.

A person identifying himself as Rahim’s former teacher at the school said he was “disturbed” by the game.

“I hope that you understand that by using our school, workplace it has made me very sad, upset, perplexed as to why you would have had anything at all to do with this.”

http://www.theprovince.com/news/vancouver/School+shooter+video+game+targets+Port+Moody+Secondary/8138524/story.html
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Another Tri-City News article:

SD43 is also taking the video seriously and is seeking advice regarding follow-up but it is not known whether the video’s creators will be asked to take it down.

“We are well aware of this, and we recognize that it is a sensitive situation. The district is working with the school on this matter, and is seeking further advice regarding follow-up,” Cheryl Quinton stated in an email following up a News request for comment to principal Karen Jensen.

Meanwhile, Aarman Rahim, who originally posted the video on Youtube but later removed it from his channel, has issued a statement acknowledging that he provided photographs for the game but didn’t develop it.

http://www.tricitynews.com/news/199572571.html
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CBC Report

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Another from CBC:

Alex Devlin, a physical education teacher at Port Moody Secondary, said he was shocked when he saw the map of the school online.

“I love that school,” Devlin told CBC News. “We have amazing students, we have a wonderful caring staff.

“The distinguishing thing about our school is the rainbow-coloured lockers … it makes you feel good. And to see that violence that same senseless violence in our hallway, our rainbow-coloured hallway, it was devastating.”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/03/21/bc-vancouver-school-video-game.html
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