In the past few weeks, candidates in the federal election have been in our faces on newspapers, TV screens and computer screens as well as employing social networking tools in their campaigns.
But is the May 2 vote noting the end of a groundbreaking social media-powered election as it has been billed in the media?
Related Slideshow: Canada’s social media election
As far as the competing parties’ efforts are concerned, we believe the social media experiment has been a dud.
A recent survey by Ipsos Reid Canada shows that voters are actually tuning out as no more than six per cent of the entire Canadian adult population follows on a daily basis the election on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Web sites of the parties and news agencies. In a poll conducted by Delvinia for ITBusiness.ca, more than two-thirds of Canadians said they were paying no attention to the social media efforts made by political parties.
On the other hand, some non-partisan Canadians are getting quite creative in using social media tools to express their views about the elections and get some real interest going in the social media realm. The grassroots organization ShitHarperDid.com illustrated that point perfectly: