Balearic politicians try to make ‘friends’ with potential voters

THERE is not a political candidate in the Balearic Islands that does not have a profile page on one of the two major social networks: Facebook and Twitter. These pages have been particularly active with the May 22 elections round the corner. Some parties even have media advisers who coach on how to be effective on these sites and avoid potential embarrassment.

The National Socialist Party (PSOE) has distributed a set of rules that recommends how to handle trolls. In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory messages to provoke, including jokes.

Although Facebook may have more users, Twitter has emerged as a much more powerful way to create opinions, but can also be more dangerous for politicians who do not know how to use it properly.

While many politicians’ comments on their social networks are politically geared, others also include personal updates and interactions with ‘friends’ and ‘followers’.

One such politician is the Balearic’s Popular Party leader Jose Ramon Bauza, who personally updates both his Facebook and Twitter pages with both political messages and personal messages and interactions.

On Facebook he has 4,382 ‘friends’ and on Twitter 465 ‘followers’.

His Socialist rival Francesc Antich only has 1,364 ‘friends’ on his facebook page (Xisco Antich).

However, recently Antich has been putting more personal posts on the site too; during Easter and just this week a photo of his own garden.

By Nicole Hallett