Rocco Rossi is the king of social media but a pauper in the polls.

A Northstar Research Partners analysis of how often and how positively Toronto’s mayoral candidates get mentioned online — measured over a period of six weeks — found Rossi got the best buzz, with 28 per cent of the chatter about him considered positive.

Etobicoke Councillor Rob Ford got more overall mentions during the May 1 to June 11 period, but the polarizing figure was as likely to be scorned as applauded.

So why is Rossi, a former political fundraiser and non-profit executive, a darling on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other such sites, while two recent opinion polls put him at only 10 and 15 per cent of decided support — well behind Ford and George Smitherman?

Because he has an army of online supporters, many from the marketing world, posting comments and shaping the online debate to generate positive word-of-mouth, says Patrick Gladney, Northstar’s director of social media.

“Rossi’s aggressive online marketing is driving positive buzz,” Gladney says. “He has a team of people who are the architects of his image online, called ‘Rocco’s army.’ If anything, they are inflating the positive impressions of him.”

“As we get closer in, I would expect more of the public to enter the conversation, perhaps giving a more accurate reflection of how people feel towards the candidates — masking the impact of having a social-media-savvy campaign team.”

Sachin Aggarwal, Rossi’s campaign manager, makes no apologies for the full-court press.

“We know that people get a huge amount of their media from online and informal sources online, so we are trying to drive as much ‘earned’ media as we can,” he said.

Gladney said that, this far out from the Oct. 25 election, candidates such as Ford benefit from being talked about — whether the chatter is positive, neutral or negative. “It shows that people are at least aware of who you are, even if they don't agree with everything you say or do,” he said.

Gladney used software to capture more than 50,000 online “documents” about the top six candidates, winnowed to 3,590 by excluding comments from the candidates themselves, mainstream media and the like. Comments were then rated as positive, negative or neutral.

Gladney said you can look at the disparity between Rossi’s social media and poll results two ways: “Either he hasn’t really gathered much traction with voters despite an active social media presence, or he has held his own despite the inroads made by candidates like Ford,” who joined the race in March and quickly rose to front-runner status in the polls.

Ford, a fierce critic of city spending whose few stated policies include pushing the province to allow mixed martial arts competitions, is a “part protest, part populist” candidate and magnet for online debate, Gladney said.

Only 7 per cent of comments about Smitherman were deemed positive, with 26 per cent negative and 67 per cent neutral. Gladney said reaction to the former deputy premier’s transit plan drove the negative chatter, as well as questions about his record in cabinet.

Joe Pantalone, deputy mayor and standard-bearer for many of Mayor David Miller’s policies, is “pretty nondescript” online, with 81 per cent of comments deemed neutral.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti’s radical policies, including arming bylaw control officers and turning the Gardiner Expressway over to transit and pedestrians, “are not being received positively online — in fact, almost universally negatively.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Polls suggesting growing voter support for Women’s Post publisher Sarah Thomson, whose platform revolves around expanding the subway, weren’t reflected in the social media chatter, Gladney said.

“There was a general lack of awareness about who she is or if she’s even running.”