Analysing Twitter during the election

Posted by Peter Black:

My QUT colleague Axel Bruns, one of the country's leading social media analysts, has an excellent piece up on the National Times about the election and Twitter:

Since the federal election was called, the hashtag ''#ausvotes'' has emerged as the preferred way for Twitter users to mark election-related messages. An analysis of these tweets for the first full week of the campaign points to some interesting patterns.

Take, for example, messages directed at Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Both leaders have their own Twitter accounts – even if, in reality, it's most likely their staff who do the actual posting. Many other users have directed support or criticism to them by including "@juliagillard" or "@tonyabbottmhr" in their messages.

Interestingly, the Prime Minister has established a commanding lead over the Opposition Leader – in terms of #ausvotes tweets received (not counting retweeted messages), Gillard leads Abbott by 74 per cent to 26 per cent to date.

Of course, this is not exactly Twitter's equivalent of the ''preferred PM'' beauty contest that we know from the opinion polls. Those tweets are as likely to be positive as negative. But it's intriguing to think that they may reflect the Twitterati's assessment of who is more likely to win the election: after all, who'd want to be seen talking to the eventual loser?

A useful insight into the Twittersphere's attitude to the campaign also comes from what messages users retweet – that is, pass along to their own networks. Unsurprisingly, news of the election itself ranked highly: indeed, @juliagillard has already won one contest with nearly 200 retweets of her tweet: "The election will be on 21 August. With your support I will move Australia forward. JG"

Read the rest of Axel's piece here.