Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s social media numbers take a dive

The halo may be slipping for Annastacia Palaszczuk, dubbed our “red carpet premier” – and that’s bad news for her 30-strong team of spin doctors.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s social media numbers have tanked since the height of the pandemic, with her followers, video views and interaction rates diving in the past six months.

Despite a team of media spinners of up to 30 people – including a digital arm assigned to her various social media platforms – statistics show Ms Palaszczuk’s online audience is plummeting, with even One Nation leader ­Pauline Hanson having a stronger interaction rate with her followers.

Views on Ms Palaszczuk’s Facebook videos have dropped ten-fold in six months – from more than 3.6 million in January, to about 398,000 in June.

Interactions on her page have also dived to less than half what they were a year ago, from about 618,000 in August 2021, to 252,000 in July this year.

Ms Palaszczuk’s total followers on Facebook are 340,300 – significantly fewer than The Courier-Mail (638,700), 9 News Queensland (519,300), ABC Brisbane (583,800) and 7news Brisbane (1.26 million), and more than 300,000 fewer than the Brisbane Broncos (671,700).

While Ms Palaszczuk’s least-watched video in January was a Covid-19 update with 53,000 views, last month her best-performing live video featuring an announcement by Ms Palaszczuk recorded just 20,000 views.

It was in stark contrast to January 17, when a video of chief health officer John Gerrard urging Queenslanders to get a third Covid-19 booster recorded more than 700,000 views on Facebook.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with partner Reza Adib (left) and director Baz Luhrmann at the premiere of ELVIS

The Premier’s office defended Ms Palaszczuk’s social media use and the resources assigned to running it, claiming that “more and more Queenslanders” were turning to Ms Palaszczuk’s online platforms as a “source of important information”. “The Premier loves talking to Queenslanders – social media is just another way she can do that,” a spokeswoman said.

However, an analysis of Ms Palaszczuk’s followers on Instagram shows her numbers on that platform were going backwards, with her total followers declining each month since April.

Her Facebook followers have flatlined since the beginning of the year.

Ms Hanson’s Facebook interaction rate – a calculation which measures a page’s total interactions per followers – was more than three times higher than that of Ms Palaszczuk in the past 30 days.

New Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recorded an interaction rate four times stronger than Ms Palaszczuk.

AFL team the Brisbane Lions recorded more than one million video views in the same time period, compared with Ms Palaszczuk’s 314,000 views.

Griffith University political scientist Paul Williams said there was a danger of governments and political parties using social media to dress-up partisan spin as news, with a growing chunk of the electorate getting the bulk of their ­information online.

“If it doesn’t pass through that filter of neutrality, objectivity, critical thinking, balances of sources and voice of reason, and then people are looking at it thinking, ‘well it looks like news’, then I think that – no matter which party is doing it, whether it’s Labor or One Nation – is lamentable, and dangerous,” he said.

“When you’ve got people putting out ‘news’ with political objectives, and their first loyalty is to a political party... it can only end badly.”

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s social media numbers

But Dr Williams also said a government who ignored social media would do so at its peril, noting the Greens’ strategic use of various social platforms during the last federal election.

The Premier’s office declined to confirm how many people worked on Ms Palaszczuk’s social media, or their roles and responsibilities, but it was understood to be a team of about 12 staff.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman confirmed during last year’s budget estimates there were staff reporting to the Premier’s office, which were being ­funded out of other ministers’ budgets.

“The digital team ­services all Ministerial offices working across all portfolio areas to ensure the Premier and Ministers can provide Queenslanders with access to up-to-date information about the pandemic, our economic recovery and other important matters through a number of platforms,” a spokeswoman for Ms Palaszczuk said.

“As with all office expenses, costs are met within the relevant budget and it is not unusual for the Premier’s office to have oversight over whole-of-government operations.”

Last month, Ms Palaszczuk faced backlash to a “tone-deaf” social media post boasting of the government’s spending on social housing only hours after the Auditor-General handed down a ­damning report on a number of failures regarding the housing register.

Other posts include a 10-second video featuring a graphic of the Sydney Harbour Bridge turning maroon to spruik Ms Palaszczuk’s bet with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet on the State of Origin game, and a 16-second slow-motion video of Ms Palaszczuk taking off her mask.

In the past week, Ms Palaszczuk has also shared a ­picture of her dog, a sand crab lasagne, and a video of near-misses at railway crossings.

Ms Palaszczuk’s office did not answer questions on whether her social media team would be reduced given numbers had fallen.

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s social media numbers