Budget day has once again come and gone. We will get to see more and more detail over the next few days as the media drill down into the fine detail. But It is worth having a quick look back at some of the social media aspects.
What surprised me was the overall lack of social media graphics from the various parties. National have had a number going out before the election, with pre-budget announcements. But there wasn’t a lot during the budget. National had one during the budget statement, with a couple that cam after it. The graphic below now has 16 retweets, which will help to spread the message.
Labour managed to get two graphics out, both which stick to their key campaign messages. But still, two graphics is not a huge number.
I was expecting to see a lot more, particularly from National with their inherent advantage. However there wasn’t a lot that came out. I think there is still lack of understanding, in New Zealand, of the potential returns that social media offers. The approach of both the National and Labour parties were very similar. They both seemed to rely on tweeting quotes from speeches. I had hoped the Budget would be the turning point, that we would see a shift in the style of social media usage that would give us an indication of what we might see in the election campaign, but overall it was a case of steady as she goes.
The one interesting difference I did see was related to the engagement with questions about the budget. Yesterday Bill English did a Q&A session with Stuff, where as David Cunliffe did his budget day Q&A session on his Facebook page.
The Stuff tweet is the only reference I can find to let people know the Q&A was happening, there is no mention of it on Bill’s Twitter account, John Key’s or the National Party account. Where as David Cunliffe did his on Facebook, as well as a Stuff Q&A this morning, it was promoted with at least 3 tweets on his Twitter account, one of which looks to have been deleted since. There are advantages to both places, Stuff has the potential for a wider audience, but still needs promotion. Where as Facebook has the advantage of keeping the content there for people to see in the future. It would have been good to see more engagement like this across other platforms.
Since the Budget only happens once a year, it is going to be a while till I can compare this years efforts with something else. But I look forward to seeing what changes in the next year.
