How big an influence will the internet be?

For the first time ever in Ireland the influence of new social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter are being analysed in relation to a General Election campaign and while having a presence online will be no substitute for knocking on doors, it is interesting to see how – and if – Donegal candidates are paying attention to their online presence.

Thanks to the brilliant work on the site – candidate.ie – there are some statistics available already in relation to the Donegal candidates and their presence or otherwise on Twitter and Facebook  - but these are likely to change.

For instance in Donegal North East, independent candidate Betty Holmes is on both Facebook and Twitter, but her presence in the field has gone under the radar for the candidate.ie site as yet and, as such does not appear although I've no doubt it will soon.

Fianna Fail’s Charlie McConalogue and Fine Gael’s John Ryan are not listed either, but like Betty Holmes they too have a presence on Facebook.

Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty is among the most popular candidates in the country in terms of his Facebook friends numbers and is certainly way ahead of the rest of the Donegal candidates.

What it all means though is open to all kinds of debate. For instance Facebook friends is no indication of the number of votes a candidate might secure – after all the friends could be anywhere and not necessarily inside the boundaries of the constituency.

And what about Twitter? Certainly less popular in Ireland at present than Facebook, it is growing rapidly in popularity.

Not many of the local candidates are on Twitter for instance, although it was interesting to see a number of Tweets from Labour’s Jimmy Harte today on his campaign updates.

I’m hoping over the next few days to have a more in-depth look at the online presence of our various candidates and doing a more in-depth piece.

In the meantime have a look at this link for brilliant video post from the cutbacks2010 videos which would seem to indicate that not all prospective TDs think the internet is the way to go!