The College View and DCUfm News are running a joint Opinion Poll to gauge how students will vote in the upcoming SU Elections. With Good Friday and a Bank Holiday falling in the midst of campaigning this year, Social Media is the battleground for candidates. Here’s a look at how things are progressing so far.
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Click here to visit DCUfm’s Media Hub for audio and video profiles of the candidates.
VP for Education
Despite paid advertising for Robbie Reid’s campaign appearing on students’ Facebook feeds last night, he is still behind Ciaran O’Connor with one-third of Likes on his campaign page. O’Connor is more active in this medium, posting pictures of Karl Pilkington and Mario Balotelli (shared 11 times on Facebook) apparently supporting his campaign, but if Reid is willing to utilise paid forms of promotion, he may catch up yet. Both candidates have opted to use their personal Twitter profile for campaigning.
The difference in Likes is reflected in our poll, with O’Connor racing ahead of Reid
VP for Welfare
Both candidates had an active campaign on campus from the beginning, with their social media pages also remaining just as active. Lorna Finnegan is beginning to post elements of her manifesto, and boasts a Twitter follow from an apparently fake Twitter profile of One Direction’s Niall Horan. Only a few dozen Likes separate Finnegan and her opponent Laura Rice, who is taking advantage of her surname in a series of rice-related memes, and is also uploading albums-worth of images of supporters wearing her t-shirt. Finnegan’s campaign Twitter has complete advantage as Rice isn’t using her own profile or a campaign profile. UPDATE: Lorna Finnegan has uploaded her latest campaign video, where she dances with a CD player in front of cattle (off campus, sadly).
Despite Finnegan having the edge on Facebook, Rice is well ahead of her in our poll.
Presidential
Colin Brennan‘s online presence has lost a serious amount of momentum since Thursday, when he posted a video of himself singing an impromptu rendition of Twist and Shout on a table in the canteen. The video currently has over 600 views on YouTube, and this matched with a slight lead on Aaron Clogher on the Likes front may be the reason for this wane. Clogher has just under the 300 mark on his campaign page, also not showing a huge amount of activity, but has uploaded images of his campaign so far. Brennan is more active on the Twitter front than Facebook, retweeting messages of support, with Clogher posting campaign updates from his personal profile with little use of branding. UPDATE: Brennan’s page was updated just before publishing this article, where he has posted a campaign poster.
The Likes mimic our poll, with the running currently too close to call, but with Colin on a slight advantage.
Nicky Ryan
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