Debates Spark Large Rise in Daily Twitter Follower Gains.

Ignatieff leads daily gain in twitter followers throughout most of April

April 13th debates create large spike in daily twitter follower gains, especially for Layton

Ignatieff and Layton tied for daily gains coming out of debates with Harper behind

Strong rise in daily Twitter Follower gains for Ignatieff as Layton and Harper Fall http://bit.ly/cdnintblog

Not sure how to explain this. In the last 24 hours Igantieff's daily gain in twitter followers have nearly doubled while Harper's were cut in half.

Breaking it down, this is significant because :

• It is the biggest daily jump in twitter followers of the three national party leaders tracked since the election started
• Ignatieff is rising while Harper and Layton are falling

Is this a long term trend? Could this be a result of Harper rejecting Ignatieff's twitter challenge to a debate? Does this mean more than a few new twitter followers? Tweet me your thoughts! @cdnint

Retweet please! "@m_ignatietff 's daily Twitter follower gains shoot up as Layton's and Harper's fall http://bit.ly/cdnintblog"

Leader's #elxn41 twitter follower stats - March 28

Analysis

• The gains in twitter followers have risen for all three leaders. This probably is more of a come back after a weekend decline than anything.
  
• For the fourth day in a row, Ignatieff has gained the most followers. Harper is closing the lead in daily gains however.
  
• Daily gains for all three leaders are nearly 3 times what they were before #elxn41 began.
  
• It would be very surprising if either Ignatieff or Layton could catch up to Harper in total followers. The NDP's recent launch of social media tools however could help Layton take over Ignatieff.
  
• All three continue to tweet only 2 or 3 times per day. 

Decreasing frequency of word "coalition" in #elxn41 Tweets

Word "coalition" in #elxn41 tweets appears to be trending down. Weekend could be to blame. stay tuned! http://bit.ly/cdnintblog #cdnpoli 

Leader's #elxn41 twitter follower stats - March 27th

Analysis: 

Totals: For #elxn41 both Layton and Ignatieff have a long, long way to go before catching up to Harper in total twitter followers. Harper's lead can likely be attributed to the "twitter bully pulpit" advantage of being Prime Minister. 

Gains: The leader's twitter follower gains have been rising for the last few days but fell today (perhaps because people are out enjoying their Sunday). Ignatieff  had the highest daily followers gains for the third consecutive day. Unlike yesterday, today Harper picked up more followers than Layton. 

Please pass this along. " Leader's twitter follower stats from @cdnint Click http://bit.ly/cdnintblog #elxn41! #cdnpoli "

#elxn41 Stats on Leader's Twitter Followers

*Numbers are approximate. 

Green Party and Bloq will be added in future post