Candidates murmur Tweet nothings

By NOEL MURPHY

THE twitterverse is slowly moving into the consciousness of Geelong’s state politicians and candidates.
Mayor Darryn Lyons romped into office on the back of almost one million followers on social media site Twitter but other Geleong political players have only just begun embracing the lessons of campaigning to a social media-savvy electorate.
In the state seat of Geelong, Labor candidate Christine Couzens has followed 150 others, drawn 50 followers and posted three tweets.
Liberal counterpart Paula Kontelj has tweeted more than 1600 posts and has 460-plus followers.
Outgoing incumbent Ian Trezise doesn’t have a Twitter account.
In Bellarine, Liberal candidate Ron Nelson has 45 followers, follows 75 others and has posted one tweet since September. Labor incumbent Lisa Neville follows 400, has 300 followers and has posted 85 tweets.
In South Barwon, Labor candidate Andy Richards follows 400, has 140 followers and posted his first tweet last Friday,although his usual account has almost 900 followers.
Liberal incumbent Andrew Katos has posted seven tweets since February last year, is following 50 and has 20 followers.
In Lara, Labor MP John Eren is a Twitter veteran with 1200 followers, is following 1100 and has about 1100 tweets under his belt.
Labor’s federal Member for Corio Richard Marles has 12,000 Twitter followers and Liberal Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson has 1300. Both are regular tweeters.