This is my first evaluation of online outreach activity for candidates running for Howard County Council in District 4. We have a primary on the Dem side of this race (Jung vs Siddiqui vs Moller-Knudsen) and that will be the focus of this evaluation…but I have listed Kim just to show the comparison and to provide the links to all candidates online outreach.

The Candidates:

Deb Jung (D): www.votedebjung.com

Ian Bradley Moller-Knudsen (D): No Website Found

Janet Siddiqui (D): http://www.janetsiddiqui.com/

Lisa Kim (R): https://votelisakim.com/

The Scorecard: (Click the follower numbers below to view the social media page)

Comments:

• I am going to start my comments with Moller-Knudsen – why is this person in the race? He filed back on October 20th and I have yet to see this person actually run for this office. No website, no social media outreach and did not attend a recent forum. If it stays this way I will remove him from all future evaluations for this office.
• Jung holds a very slight edge in the total number of Facebook followers over Siddiqui as of this evaluation. Jung is the only Democrat in this race utilizing Twitter for outreach.
• Kim has a nice advantage in total Facebook followers over the other candidates running in District 4.
• No new follower totals in this evaluation…but that will be coming in future evaluations.

Engagement numbers: for this evaluation I am looking at Facebook engagement over the past week:

Comments:

• Let me say as a general summary…these are pretty bad numbers for everyone.
• Jung has not posted in the past week on Facebook (last post was February 24th).
• Siddiqui has one post in the past week (but it was not a real post, just a share of the new cover logo for the page)
• Kim has posted twice in the past week…with an engagement (likes, share and comment) of 1. Kim lost more followers than she added over the past week (never a number you want to see). One bit of advice I can give (and this is for everyone)…less text and more images on social media posts.

Hopefully the candidates will pick it up before the next evaluation. Social media is a great tool to engage potential voters and build a following that can help get you elected…but only if you use it and use it correctly.

Scorecards for other Howard County Council races will happen this month…so stay tuned.

Scott E