With Olivia Chow officially joining the #TOmayor race today, the public affairs team in our Toronto office has taken a social media deep dive with five of the top registered candidates.
Not surprisingly, incumbent  Rob Ford and his four top challengers (Chow, David Soknacki, John Tory, Karen Stintz) are all active on social media to varying degrees. A breakdown of their depth on audience is below in the form of a #TOmayor Social Media Scorecard. Expect these channels to play a key role as the October 27, 2014 election date draws closer.
As it stands now (these figures were pulled on March 12, 2014), Ford has the largest audience on Twitter and the most YouTube views while Chow enjoys the largest number of Facebook Likes. Surprisingly, Tory trails significantly on both Facebook and Twitter yet has the most Instagram followers.
“The social media metrics are more-or-less a reflection of the overall profile each candidate has,” says Shabnum Durrani, an account director in our Ontario public affairs practice. “Rob Ford obviously has a new-found international presence and his metrics clearly bear that out. Olivia Chow and John Tory also have profiles that extend beyond just Toronto so that gives them a headstart in their numbers when compared to more Toronto-centric candidates like Karen Stintz or David Soknacki. What will be really interesting to watch is how these numbers change and how these channels are used as the campaign progresses.”
We will be updating the Scorecard over the coming months as new candidates register and the race heats up. Keep visiting www.hkstrategies.com, follow us on Twitter or sign up for our Pulse newsletter for the latest updates and news from our public affairs team.