Turning likes into votes Incumbent Brian Bowman's campaign started long before the official kickoff — just look at his social media accounts By: Ryan Thorpe Posted:

Much like Justin Trudeau, the selfie prime minister who deployed a savvy online presence to secure the nation's highest office in 2015, Mayor Brian Bowman knows his way around a social media account.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/09/2018 (2290 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Much like Justin Trudeau, the selfie prime minister who deployed a savvy online presence to secure the nation’s highest office in 2015, Mayor Brian Bowman knows his way around a social media account.

Officially, Bowman — who is looking to land a second term in office when Winnipeggers head to the polls Oct. 24 — just got his re-election bid underway, kicking things off with a gathering of 150 supporters inside the ballroom of the RBC Convention Centre on Sept. 13.

In reality, however, the incumbent mayor has been hustling for votes for months — and he has the Twitter and Instagram accounts to prove it.

Against the backdrop of a large field of challengers, Bowman has been conducting what amounts to an under-the-radar election campaign, playing to his natural strengths as a polished politician and taking advantage of the benefits that come with being the incumbent.

All one needs to do is to look at his social media feeds to see he’s been out shaking hands and kissing babies for months on end, employing a brick-by-brick approach to securing his re-election.

If you ask Kelly McCrae, Bowman’s campaign manager and a veteran of his successful 2014 run, those public appearances were the work of the mayor, not the mayoral candidate.

"The mayor was incredibly busy over the course of the summer. He did a lot of tours around the city," McCrae, 35, told the Free Press.

"He spent the summer connecting with Winnipeggers, meeting with people. We weren’t going heavy on the policy announcements."

But Oai Truong, a social media strategist and owner of the marketing company Bounce Design, isn’t so sure the work of the mayor and that of the candidate can be separated so easily.

"It doesn’t matter if it’s business or politics, you’re selling a product. In politics, you’re selling yourself and your platform. The social media presence he maintains, which is fairly extensive, is essentially advertising," Truong said.

"I’ve been following him for several years and it’s sort of mind boggling the number of events he attends. He makes Ace Burpee look like a lazy guy."

A search of Bowman’s tweets since July 31, when Winnipeg’s Folklorama festival was getting underway, shows he’s been a consistent presence at community events, while also making frequent stops at local businesses.

This year, Bowman managed to once again hit every Folklorama pavilion — 43 in total.

Those appearances were all documented with multiple photos that quickly went up online, blasting them out to his more than 66,000 Twitter and 17,000 Instagram followers, respectively.

Those accounts are maintained by the mayor’s "new media officer," a position created within the mayor’s office in 2014.

"(The new media officer) is responsible for managing and supporting the mayor’s various social media platforms, including the creation and management of all digital material," Jeremy Davis, Bowman’s press secretary, said in a written statement.

The new media officer’s duties include taking photographs of Bowman at press conferences and events, which are then uploaded to his various accounts. At the pavilions, for example, professional quality photos show him effectively rubbing elbows with hundreds of voters at a time.

Since his re-election bid became official, however, Bowman has been careful not to cross-contaminate between his mayoral social media accounts and the website dedicated to his campaign. In addition, his new miedia officer is not involved in re-election efforts. 

That’s a smart approach, according to Truong, who said the posts don’t come across as Bowman pumping his own tires, but rather give off the impression of him as a man of the people.

"With your social media presence you don’t want to make things about me, me, me all the time. Instead, you want to associate yourself with other brands, to the point you almost become something of a leech, for lack of a better term," Truong said.

"You associate yourself with positive things. It makes you look good. If the public has a positive view of Folklorama, or the human rights museum, or a particular brand or restaurant, then you want to be at those places."

In addition to the Folklorama hits, which accounted for 45 posts on his Twitter account since July 31, Bowman has also been routinely advertising his drop-ins at local businesses. Some days, he appears to make multiple stops in short succession.

In total, he’s posted 35 photos from local shops during that time. In each picture, Bowman can be seen hanging with the owners and staff members, always with a photogenic smile spread across his face.

That brick-by-brick strategy — with Bowman meeting voters in smaller batches at a time — can be contrasted with Jenny Motkaluk’s approach.

ANDREW RYAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Mayoral candidate Jenny Motkaluk
ANDREW RYAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Mayoral candidate Jenny Motkaluk

Motkaluk, who is considered Bowman’s main competitor, has employed a more traditional approach of press conferences and policy announcements — a strategy similar to the one Bowman used in 2014 as a political rookie.

Having said that, Bowman hasn’t been completely mute on the policy front, including a recent announcement where he was seen to take a stab at the Winnipeg Police Association.

During the announcement, Bowman said he wanted to stop the practice of police overtime being pensionable, thereby freeing up more than $1 million to hire more frontline officers.

That came on the heels of the WPA — the union representing city police — levying an attack ad against the mayor, effectively blaming him for alleged long queue times when calling 911.

But McCrae said the policy wasn’t just an effort by Bowman to tell the union that if it really wants to see an increase in WPS funding, it should put its money where its mouth is.

"The thing is the police service has received increases annually to its budget. If they’re going to get increases beyond that, it would be mean property taxes (go up)," McCrae said.

"So if there are ways internally that money can be reallocated to be spent on issues important to the police association and board, then let’s work at those internal ways."

McCrae added that while Bowman hasn’t made a ton of policy announcements so far, that aspect of his campaign — which is being run by a core group of about 10 volunteer staffers and one employee — is likely to pick up steam in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, Bowman has been banking on the fact that his record over the last four years speaks for itself. And he isn’t wrong to do so, as it’s well known that unseating an incumbent mayor in Winnipeg is exceedingly difficult — the last time it happened was 1956.

Bowman envisions city as human rights leader

Brian Bowman said he wants to build on the strength of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and other community assets to make Winnipeg an international human rights leader.

Brian Bowman said he wants to build on the strength of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and other community assets to make Winnipeg an international human rights leader.

“Fixing pipes and potholes are issues that are important for building a city growing towards a population of one million people… but so too is the need to have a vision for a city that reflects its potential and pride,” Bowman said at a campaign event Friday at The Forks parkade, which overlooks the museum.

Bowman, the incumbent and one of eight candidates running for mayor in the Oct. 24 civic election, said he wants to make Winnipeg an international leader “in the promotion, protection, education as well as policy creation for human rights.”

Citing the community’s response to the January 2015 Maclean’s magazine article that identified Winnipeg as the country’s most racist city, Bowman said Winnipeggers demonstrated they aren’t afraid to face problems, and overcome them.

In addition to the museum, Bowman said the city’s strength in the field of human rights includes the University of Manitoba Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice and Winnipeg’s Indigenous Accord, a document which individuals, organizations and businesses have signed committing themselves to reconciliation with the Indigenous community.

City hall’s efforts to achieve this international status would be led by a new council committee, a human rights committee of council, which he said would focus and prioritize the city’s work on human rights.

This new committee would consolidate the work and resources of three groups — citizen equity committee, the access advisory committee, and the mayor’s age-friendly seniors advisory committee. The new committee would use the resources those three groups have.

Bowman promised city hall would create a newcomer welcome and inclusion policy, which would identify ways to enhance the lives of immigrants by identifying ways to meet “their distinct needs” for access to city services.

Bowman said the city has no formal policies to help 176,000 people, who have settled in Winnipeg under the provincial nominee program, integrate into the community.

— Aldo Santin

The heavy social media presence Bowman has employed so far speaks to the way technology has disrupted rules governing election advertising, according to Truong.

"Social media has been a game changer for political campaigns. Traditional politics have very set rules and budget restrictions. You can only spend so much on TV, billboards, ads. But now with social media there’s a grey line because the exposure is free," Truong said.

"He’s not violating any restrictions. But the reality is he’s been campaigning since the day he took office. He’s been building his brand."

According to Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba, the best way to win elections is still with face-to-face contact with voters, not social media posts.

Nonetheless, Thomas said what’s been so savvy about Bowman’s use of social media is that it links up with the face-to-face interactions he’s been seeking out. That’s a strategy Thomas said will serve the mayor well when voters head to the polls.

"You go to these events and then here’s this fresh-faced mayor with a photogenic smile who loves to do selfies. He’s meeting with citizens, opinion leaders, and guess what, people love meeting the mayor," Thomas said.

"He’s a warm and engaging guy, so it’s a pleasant experience for people. At these events, you multiply that and it has a sort of ripple effect. People say, ‘You know that Brian Bowman, he’s a really nice guy. He’s not your typical mayor.’"

There’s currently a very strong anti-politician sentiment in North America, according to Thomas, who said Bowman’s positioned himself well to avoid that blowback.

Back in 2014, when he was a lesser known challenger and considered a long shot to win the election, Bowman positioned himself as an "anti-politician, politician," capable of cleaning up city hall following the Sam Katz era, Thomas said.

"People dislike politicians as a class, as an occupation. In matters of trust, politicians are right at the bottom of the barrel. But when you ask people about individual politicians, that can change," Thomas said.

"He meets 200 people at a pavilion, he smiles at them, they feel good about it. That’s going to pay dividends."

While such meet-and-greet appearances, and the corresponding social media posts that document them, have been serving Bowman well, Truong points out that when it comes to social media, appearance isn’t reality.

When Bowman posts photos from local businesses, for example, the impression given to his thousands of followers is that he’s forged a genuine connection with, and spent time getting to know, the owners and staff. But Truong said he isn’t so sure that’s always the case.

"There’s a level of quantity over quality with his posts. You get the impression he whips in, does the photo op, ten minutes, then he’s off to the next place. That’s the impression I get, anyways," Truong said.

"For example, you’ll see photos of him in local restaurants, smiling with the owners. But the reality is he didn’t go in there for the burger. He went in there for the photo op."

While some people might be critical of that approach, saying it prioritizes style over substance, Thomas said Bowman’s been smart to ride on his coattails a bit and not rock the boat with too many policy announcements.

"Policy positions are potential lightning rods right now. He’s ahead and it’s a standard operating practice to play it safe going into the election. It’s really a remote possibility that he could be defeated at this point," Thomas said.

"I’m sure there are some people disappointed and frustrated with him, saying he’s become just another politician. But I think he’s retained his original image much more than you’d expect after a four-year term."

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe

Ryan Thorpe

Ryan Thorpe
Reporter

Ryan Thorpe likes the pace of daily news, the feeling of a broadsheet in his hands and the stress of never-ending deadlines hanging over his head.

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