Follow me: social media-ocracy and the election

Now let's look at some of the other political parties listed by name in the VoteCompass Senate line up, in order of their social media reach:

• The Australia Sex Party: 19,638 likes on Facebook and 12,867 Twitter Followers. They do say "sex sells".
• Katter's Australian Party: Twitter - 1378 Followers and 2656 likes on Facebook.
• Palmer's United Party: Twitter - 2373 Followers and 1699 likes on Facebook
• National Party of Australia: Twitter - 1959 Followers and 1734 Likes on Facebook
• Democratic Labor Party: Twitter - 665 Followers and 234 Likes on Facebook.
• Family First Party: Twitter – 33 Followers, 3662 Likes on facebook. (Corrected from original 09/08/13)
• Australian Christians: no discernible social media presence
• Liberal Democratic Party: Twitter – 636 Followers, 1139 Likes on Facebook
• Shooters and Fishers Party: Twitter - 494 Followers and 9050 Likes on Facebook.
• Christian Democratic Party: Twitter -: 549 Followers and 1695 Likes On Facebook.

Let's compare this with the WikiLeaks Party: 7330 Facebook fans and around 7600 Twitter followers; Julian Assange has 148,000 Twitter followers, only slightly less than the leader of the Opposition.

Perhaps the boffins putting the Vote Compass site together would say this crude and daily changing analysis of social media reach via Twitter and Facebook doesn't count in the election. However, Fr Bob Maguire, who works with the disadvantaged, has 97,000 followers on Twitter and a big presence on Facebook.

When asked "What would Jesus think" he replied "Social media is a public forum and he spent most of his time in public forums." (The Weekend Australian Magazine August 3)

Perhaps the Vote Compass questionnaire regarding the Senate should reflect this public forum during the election campaign.