I stumbled over some interesting infographics today (taken from The Data Files and compiled by www.news.com.au) which show that our ex-PM, Kevin Rudd is far more internet savvy and social media engaged, than the incumbent PM, Juilia Gillard. Further, we can also see that the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott lags behind his 2IC, Malcolm Turnbull.
According to the prestigious US university, Virginia Tech, KRudd is not only the most “socially networked and most digitally interactive politician” in Australia, he’s the most up to date, social media adept politician on the entire planet. That’s actually pretty impressive… Political pundits have been conjecturing that his habitual heavy social media use is an attempt to gain a groundswell of popularity for another leadership challenge prior to the September 2013 election, and in response @KRudd has reduced his tweets and FB status updates by a whopping 30%… though he continues to post his usual amount of Youtube videos to the official KRudd Youtube Channel.
Interesting to see what their most popular “unofficial” pages are too… very telling about how the masses view these politicians.
I’m wondering why, in this day and age are the likes of Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull not attempting to harness the enormous power of social media that is largely available completely free at their staffer’s fingertips? Is it simply a matter of them being technophobic Luddites? Or are they worried about getting down and dirty with the masses and maybe having to answer some questions up close and personal?