Last week Canadians witnessed a great change in Federal politics when the NDP and Jack Layton managed to become the leader of the opposition to Stephen Harper's majority, gaining 102 seats in the House of Commons. That's an amazing feat considering that five weeks earlier they had a mere 30-something seats. This sudden rise in NDP popularity was clearly reflected all across the country, especially in Quebec. Aside from partisan affiliations and individual vote based on research and conviction, it's interesting to see what other forces affect elections. Since we do specialize in Social Media and Digital Strategies at Infinity, I was quick to gravitate towards researching the role each of these played in the NDP's successful campaign. 

I'm sure most of us have already read about the important role Facebook played in Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential Campaign. Using Facebook, Obama and his campaign team were able to notify. mobilize, network and connect with a myriad of young voters from across the US. Many political commentators say that it was Obama's smart use of Social Media that helped him gain these votes and spread his message. Early on Obama was smart enough to hire Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes to act as his Director of Online Operations (or Facebook Expert for short). While his campaign victory cannot be credited solely to Facebook and other Social Media outlets, it is important to acknowledge the important role each played in the success of his campaign. 

In our recent election I witnessed the NDP hustle on YouTube like no other political party. You couldn't view your recent subscription update or search for that viral video of the little monkey riding on the back of a big without seeing Jack Layton's face on the giant masthead ads the NDP purchased during the election. Not only were viewers constantly exposed to these ads, targeted at Canadian IP addresses, but they were often forced to view a 10-30 second commercial clip before viewing the video they had selected. On top of that most of the ads were interactive, linking the viewers back to the NDP's YouTube channel where they would be able to consume more videos. While gaining views on their personal channel wasn't amazingly successful, their constant advertising and pre-video commercials exposed millions of users to their message and platform. Considering all of this came with a high price it's safe to assume that the NDP realized the value of YouTube in reaching and engaging with voters in a new way. 
A great example of how much benefit can come about as a result of proper use and optimization of Social Media and Digital Strategies.