Candidate for San Francisco Mayor, Broke-Ass Stuart. Photo via Facebook.
August 31, 2015
Following up on research on the demographics of San Francisco’s social media voters, The Body Politic on Friday emailed more than 40,000 registered SF voters who have social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) accounts asking them to become “social voters.” More than half of the media savvy activist voters who responded to a survey said they have yet to find a candidate they will support in the San Francisco mayor’s race.
Why are social voters important? Word-of-mouth and peer recommendations continue to be the most trusted form of advertising, beating out owned media (such as social media posts by a campaign) as well as earned media (such as print and TV news stories). Activist voters who share their opinions on social media can have an outsized impact on perceptions of a political race. I’ve worked on this principle in corporate campaigns, and in one brand engagement found that just the 10 most active of 7,500 customers were responsible for 38 percent of all referral visits to campaign pages.
Activating the influential cohort of supporters who are also active sharers has an outsize impact on perceptions of a campaign.
Here are the results from 135 social voters who took the random-ordered survey in the first 22 hours following the email (each voter opted in after receiving our email, and before taking the survey). The data includes only voters who took the survey based on the email and does not reflect candidate lobbying, or the candidate’s own votes.
- Amy Farah Weiss – 4%
- Other or Not voting – 6%
- Ed Lee – 18%
- Francisco Herrera – 4%
- Not sure – 47%
- “Broke-ass” Stuart Schuffman – 21%
I’ll leave further analysis to our commenters, other than to say that results may tilt towards Schuffman because I put his nickname in, and left out the mayor’s title. In a low-attention race with a moneyed incumbent, the race is the mayor’s to lose. However, there’s room for organizing engaged voters who aren’t excited about that prospect.
Here’s the full text of my email that went to voters:
Hello! I’m Adriel Hampton, writer and political activist. Our most-trusted political information comes from peers, and social media is likely to be a bigger force than ever in San Francisco elections this year.
If you’re interested in getting involved as a San Francisco social voter, please take my survey (it’s got just one question! but if you opt-in, you’ll have additional opportunities in the future).
Take the survey:
>>> http://www.wiredtoshare.com/sf_social_voters
I may write about survey responses from time to time, no personal information included.
Adriel Hampton
Adriel Hampton is a writer, investigator, strategic consultant and mindfulness practitioner. He runs The Adriel Hampton Group Ltd. in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and was a founding member of NationBuilder. Adriel is founder emeritus of SF Tech Dems and a board member at Legination Inc. Before joining NationBuilder, Adriel worked for SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera, and for the SF Examiner, Hayward Daily Review and Lodi News-Sentinel. He also founded SF City Camp and Gov 2.0 Radio, and, in 2009, ran for Congress in the East Bay.
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October 12, 2015 at 3:31 pm
No offense but this seems like a completely meaningless survey in any kind of broader context.
August 30, 2015 at 9:59 am
135/40000 ? Really?
August 30, 2015 at 10:07 am
If I’d used a staff to call each of these voters, it would have been different. Which is why I identify these folks as “activist” voters. The initial call to action was not to respond to a survey, either, it was an action opt in as described in the email text.
Single email, 10,785 opens, 607 clicks (535 on the survey) link. So 1/4 who click the survey take it.
August 30, 2015 at 9:20 am
A lot that Schuffman writes and draws is very intelligent and true, the only drawback with his candidacy that I perceive is his nickname Broke-ass Stuart. I feel a percentage of the voters won’t take him seriously with him using that name.
September 8, 2015 at 8:53 am
I think his name is why he’s polling so high.
October 1, 2015 at 6:07 am
Yeah, whenever I have to vote on something like a school board or judge, where none of the names mean anything to me, I usually vote for the person with the funniest name.
I’d pick a doctor or lawyer the same way. It’s at least as good as any other method.