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He has signs up all over town and has been getting out to talk to people. But he also has a website, along with a Facebook page for his campaign. And in the final few days of the campaign, he has bought ads on Facebook as well as more traditional radio ads.
“We’ve been trying to be somewhat viral in what we’re doing,” he said. In other words, he is hoping supporters will connect with their networks and encourage them to support him as well.
Kessler’s strategy belies his age. The middle-aged father has opted for a campaign that is almost exclusively online. He has started a blog, kelownacitycouncil.com and he is paying for a service that takes whatever he posts there and sends it out to 25 social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook.
“Really the strategy is to dominate the search market,” he said. If he gets enough links from other sites, his blog will be near the top whenever someone does a Internet search for anything to do with Kelowna city council.
His hope is that his site will become a hub for an online community interested in city council. Once the election is over, he will take his campaign material down and maintain the blog, regardless of whether he wins.
“I feel that this strategy shows my innovation and shows my creativity and it also results in a service that in Kelowna will use,” he said.
Kelowna is actually lagging behind other communities when it comes to the use of social networking during election campaigns, according to Davies.
“Canada’s a very big user of Facebook, so in Toronto’s campaigns, they are using it very effectively,” he said. “Those platforms these days can make a big difference, especially for those few votes they [a candidate] may need.”
On Saturday, we’ll get to see whether that is true here as well.
adrian@kelowna.com
250-575-3517
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7 Responses to “Tried and true or Twitter and techno; By-election candidates use different methods when trolling for votes”
Tags: by-election, Facebook, Kelowna, Twitter
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There is adequate representation for young people on city council with the presence of Councillor Angela Reid. We need someone with lots of community experience not just hope and hype. Kelowna voters have lots of experienced candidates to choose from. Don’t make a foolish mistake!
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That’s right John, young people are stupid and incapable, old people are smart and wise. There’s no such thing as a young person who could possibly contribute anywhere NEAR as much as an older person! Thank you for saving the voters of Kelowna from making a ‘foolish’ mistake with your ‘old person’ wisdom.
LOL!! Talk about the personification of everything that is holding Kelowna back.
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Well said William!… i have had it with all this ridiculous negativity from a couple certain people on here. It is NOT progressive or necessary whatsoever! How are ” young people ” ever going to to learn if you do not teach them and give them a chance?… in a few years all of our councillors with be in walkers and wheel chairs and no one else will have any interest in politics if you dont give them a chance and let them learn!…
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Holding Kelowna back from what, William — big-city status? No doubt Kelowna becoming another Vancouver is your notion of “progress”. Bigger is better, right William? Well, it’s all been done before and so often that when you get right in the middle of them, all big cities are pretty well alike, aren’t they, with their high-rises and hurried residents who are essentially strangers to one another?
Kevin wants us to “move forward together” and to make Kelowna a “world-class” city — another Vancouver. In that sense he is lacking the maturity and wisdom to realize that Kelowna’s uniqueness is something worth preserving rather than something to move away from. And if you, William, think that Kevin Craig is the best candidate in this by-election, you are lacking in wisdom too.
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In response to Cory, young people will learn like they have always learned — by acquiring sufficient knowledge and experience until they have can adequately perform a given task on their own. Would you let a 19 year old perform brain surgery just because he has watched a few operations? Well, it seems Kevin Craig’s major qualification for being a city councillor is that he has attended a few city council meetings. Well, so has the guy who tapes the meetings for Shaw TV! Does that make him qualified to be city councillor? In your opinion it probably does. Being a city councillor requires a breadth of knowledge, maturity, and wisdom which I’m afraid is beyond Kevin Craig or most 19 year olds. Kevin may make a fine city councillor one day after he acquires more knowledge and experience.
You state “In a few years all of our city councillors will be in walkers and wheelchairs.” Please don’t tell this to 30 year old Councillor Angela Reid. It will greatly upset her. And the remainder of the new council is fairly young as well with the oldest being Graeme James who is in his fifties. You obviously don’t know what you are talking about and I invite you to get your facts straight.
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Mr. Zeger, there is a reason why you’ve never become a city councillor. Other than having a negative view on just about every point, you tend to read things into whatever gets said. For example ‘world class’ does not necessarily need to be defined as ‘large’ such as Kelowna becoming a Vancouver. It could simply mean that it would be nice for Kelowna to be looked at as a leader among peer cities throughout the world. Compare us to any other city in the 100k – 250k size range, and I would like us to be a ‘world class’ city too. What is wrong with that? There is only one answer…NOTHING.
Here’s your problem Mr. Zeger, your head is stuck INSIDE the box. This is quite fortunately a trait that some people (such as Kevin Craig) do not have. He’s a creative thinking young man who hasn’t been tainted or hardened by circumstances in his life yet. You sound jealous Mr. Zeger. Mind you, if I had run against Kevin in a civic election and he beat me like a drum like he beat you, I might be bitter too.
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Mr. Boyle, you think that I am bitter and jealous because you really don’t know me — do you? All you have is an impression of me that suits your liking. But then, I really don’t care what you think of me.
Regarding Kevin Craig, one thing he definitely is not is an outside the box thinker. What truly original, out of the ordinary ideas does he have? Not a single one. He has attended city council meetings for the past two years and is simply regurgitating what he’s heard at those meetings. And he is politically astute enough to stike a middle of the road position that appeals to a wide range and suck many naive people, like yourself, in. For example, he only wants minor modifications to the downtown CD Zone appeals to both supporters and opponents of the plan.
Lastly, if you decide to post any more of your thoughts here, Mr. Boyle, I hope you can rise above your petty dislike of me and demonstrate that you can make some intelligent observations about the candidates, if you are capable of such.
Please continue discussion on the forum: link