Leanne Wood most ‘liked’ leader

PLAID CYMRU leader Leanne Wood has almost four times as many ‘likes’ on her official facebook page as First Minister Carwyn Jones.

Ms Wood’s page has been liked by 20,849 people, compared to 5,578 likes for the First Minister. Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams is in third, with 3,719 likes, while leader of the Welsh Conservatives Andrew RT Davies has mustered a mere 1,689 likes.

Even this is more than twice as many as UKIP leader Nathan Gill, who is liked by 707 people. New Green Party leader Alice Hooker-Stroud has 340 likes.

What is interesting is the different ways in which the leaders use social media. Ms Wood mostly posts coverage of herself and Plaid Cymru from other news outlets, along with Plaid promotional material. However, she does tend to respond to a number of comments, often clarifying the party’s stance on issues.

Mr Jones’ page is managed by his Bridgend constituency staff, and as such concentrates on his work as Assembly Member for Bridgend. The comments section appears to be wellmonitored judging by the number of hidden comments.

Ms Williams predominantly posts a mixture of Assembly updates, especially legislation proposed or approved by the Lib Dems, with constituency news. She also regularly responds to comments on the page.

Mr Davies’ page appears to focus on his work as leader of the Welsh Conservatives – with a number of posts about his visits to other constituencies in support of candidates. In addition, he frequently posts Conservative promotional material, which criticises all the other major parties to reinforce the message that the Welsh Conservatives are the only alternative to Labour.

Whether it is symptomatic of a less strict managing policy regarding comments or not, Mr Davies appears to attract more criticism than the other leaders. A recent post featuring a Conservative video for the Welsh, Scottish, and London Mayoral elections, despite only featuring around five seconds of Mr Davies, attracted 28 comments, of which two could be described as positive, while the remainder dismissed the idea of a Conservative Welsh Government with varying degrees of politeness.

Meanwhile, Nathan Gill appears to mostly share UKIP press releases and media coverage of the campaign, although he has shared a crowdfunding request for the scintillating-sounding ‘Brexit: The Movie’.

Plaid Cymru’s online popularity – the party’s page also has more than 20,000 likes may not be in any way representative in the wider scheme of things. However, it does show that they are making better use of the medium than their rivals.