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Penny Marie's avatar

It's great to collab with you @matuakahurangi! Here is something important to take note of (I have only done this for Instagram, and only the party's main accounts, so not each MP's followings such as Doyle's own accounts...

I counted up Instagram followers of each of the political parties, this is very concerning:

OPPOSITION:

Te Pati Maori = 165,000

Greens = 93,900

Labour = 79,300

TOTAL: 338,200

COALITION:

National = 80,100

ACT = 13,400

NZ First = 3,500

TOTAL: 97,000

How is it that Te Pati Maori has more followers than any other political party?

My query is:

- the young (usually left-leaning) voters,

- the maori activist voters

- the people on benefits and

- the people in public sector/with govt salaries, who are typically left-leaning voters.

There are more 'politically activated' people on the left. That's not the same as the majority of the population. Just the majority of activists. We know that many Labour/left people are within our govt agencies, universities, education, medical system. In government advisory positions.

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splendidmarvellous's avatar

They may possibly have purchased followers.

It is very cheap and easy to do, but also fairly easy to spot.

For an account with 165,000 followers there is an expected engagement of around 1,500-5,000 'likes' per post.

Some of their posts achieve this, but most not. Overall they have low-average engagement. There are lots of tools online that will (for a small fee) do a swoop to check for fake followers.

NZ First has fewer followers but, relatively speaking, a higher engagement rate, so unlikely to have purchased followers.

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