Well they are all out of the traps as we go into March. If like me you follow a lot of politicians and activists your Facebook and Twitter news feeds have been swamped with pictures of lots of happy people taking selfies, delivering leaflets and telling us how the great people of this place love their candidates (my thanks to those of you who have stopping using the “great night on the doors” line).
However, a few things I have noted that could be improved on what I have seen thus far;
- Hashtags-Keep them as short as possible; The DUP had #NigelDoddsForNorthBelfast which at 25 letters is way too long for a hashtag. An improvement is #Dodds4NB or #Dodds4MP or to link all canvasses together #DUPDoorStop #SinnFeinSelfies #SDLPSelfies etc
- Catchy slogans-A play on words for your candidates can help you too. #DeliveryWithDodds #GoWithGavin #StrengthWithSeeley #LeadershipWithLong #GoWithGildernew #MoreWithMairtin #BetterWithBell etc
- Selfies- This is tricky but erm, some parties are really still finding their feet with selfies. In the middle of the photo bombardments there are quite frankly some terrible looking pictures with peoples fingers in the frame and half of the people in the picture looking scared or away altogether. Key thing with a selfie, be happy, be in shot and look half presentable.
I know tweeting etc is secondary to the main task on the day but if you’re going to do something then do it properly.
I do have an honourable mention this week to highlight and that is Sinn Fein’s Catherine Seeley who tweeted a funny canvass tweet during the week
Scarf damaged on the election trail … Will have to bill @sinnfeinireland #MakeHistory #VoteSeeley pic.twitter.com/U52Ir7h1SQ
— Catherine Seeley (@CatSeeley) February 19, 2015
David McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs
