Norris and Gallagher show high net worth

SOCIAL NETWORKING: INDEPENDENT candidates Senator David Norris and Seán Gallagher are topping the poll when it comes to followers…

SOCIAL NETWORKING:INDEPENDENT candidates Senator David Norris and Seán Gallagher are topping the poll when it comes to followers on the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.

Mr Norris has four times the number of twitter followers of any other person in the campaign, with almost 21,000 as of last night.

This is followed by Mr Gallagher on almost 5,500 followers, Michael D Higgins on almost 5,000 followers and Independent candidate Mary Davis with almost 2,000.

Labour candidate Michael D Higgins was the most active tweeter since the campaign began. His Twitter account has sent out 40 messages to followers in the past two days.

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Despite his enormous following, Mr Norris had last night sent no tweets since the campaign began.

His campaign website has not been reactivated since it was taken down after he left the race in July.

Mr Gallagher led the way with Facebook fans, amassing more than 13,500 so far, followed by Mr Norris at almost 11,500. However this does not take into account the almost 25,000 fans of the unofficial “Senator David Norris for president” Facebook page.

Sinn Féin candidate Martin McGuinness came third in Facebook fans with more than 4,500. Gay Mitchell’s campaign had just 794 facebook fans.

Dana Rosemary Scallon is the only candidate without any presence on either site.

Genevieve Carbery

Genevieve Carbery

Genevieve Carbery is Deputy Head of Audience at The Irish Times