The December 1 post by which Maia Sandu celebrated Romania’s National Day garnered 25,000 likes, while two similar posts by President Klaus Iohannis reached 4,700 likes and 2,300 respectively. The President of Moldova posted 3,200 comments – most of them in a positive light, while the President of Romania had over 4,300 comments gathered at the two posts, many of them extremely critical.
“The public data provided by Facebook show that no post on Maia Sandu’s page was sponsored by Romania’s National Day. The impact was 100% organic, unpaid, “Dan Arsenie, an expert in Social Media and Search Engine Optimization, founder of conversii.ro, told G4Media.
It should be noted that President Iohannis is in the top of Facebook pages in terms of followers, with 1.8 million, while Maia Sandu has only 438,000 followers.
President Iohannis had the first post after the military parade at 11.00, with the message “Happy birthday, Romania!” and a Youtube video from the parade. The second post on Facebook came in the evening, with the message “Every December 1, our National Day, we feel the same strong emotion that unites us around a holiday that belongs to us all, no matter where we are. Happy birthday, dear Romanians! ” and a video clip of the president’s official message.
Maia Sandu posted a message on Wednesday morning talking about the connections between Romania and Moldova. “Dear Romania, for your birthday, I wish you to remain strong and generous. To be a distinct voice in the world and in a united Europe, and a model of a country for which democracy and the well-being of the people are fundamental. Let’s move forward together. Happy Birthday Romania! Happy birthday, dear Romanians! ”, Wrote the President of the Republic of Moldova.
Most of the comments on Maia Sandu’s post were in a positive light, including from several USR politicians such as Simona Spătaru, Oana Cambera or Filip Hăvărneanu. Instead, President Iohannis was criticized by many users for his alliance with PSD.
The endorsers (supporters), public figures who distribute and comment on a post, also mattered a lot. These endorsers – some with verified pages (that blue dot given by Facebook after verifying the real identity of a public person or a brand) – also brought their own audience “in the service” of posting. For example, Maia Sandu had at least three strong endorsers for that post, in addition to over 3,000 regular users without public status. In the case of the post on Klaus Iohannis’ page, the strongest, most voted comment was in fact a negative one “, Dan Arsenie added.
“Then, the message of the post was extremely inspired in the case of Maia Sandu, by using the metaphor of bridges between countries and by references to the common language and even to a common future. It is the kind of patriotic message that mobilizes large and very large audiences. In the case of Klaus Iohannis’ post, the message was short and cold, unable to generate solidarity. In addition, the type of message (text post + Youtube link), on the president’s page, was a rather uninspired choice “, added Dan Arsenie.
Maia Sandu, the president of the Republic of Moldova, is the foreign leader in which Romanians have the most trust (28.8%), according to an October 7 Inscop poll. It is followed by Joe Biden (25.8%, down sharply), Vladimir Putin (up) and Viktor Orban.
- Klaus Iohannis’s first post:
Photo source: Ilona Andrei / G4Media.ro
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