Did ABC Alumni make a difference to the election?

Late last year, with the Federal election looming dateless, in the shadow of Trump’s attack on public broadcasting, accountability and facts, the ABC Alumni Board decided the problem might be Dutton getting in, and we started hammering out an election campaign. We communicated closely with ABC Friends throughout, sharing data, ideas and strategies between us.

Our focus was to invite the Independents themselves to speak about what was most important for them about the ABC, and to provide verbal support. This they did in spades, and were inspiring.

We certainly reached a vastly greater number of people than we could have without social media; our content was viewed on Facebook over 122,000 times and 97,693 unique accounts saw our content at least once. The most popular were Alan Kohler, Kate Chaney, David Pocock, Helen Haines, and our infographics of ABC funding.

We cannot yet quantify our impact. All but one of the Independents we filmed and put on social media are now MPs and in a position to make good on their stated passion for the ABC.

And there is no measurement on the enhanced quality of our relationship with these decision-makers, by using this strategy. We all have our fingers crossed that the government delivers for the ABC.   Read a more detailed account of our activities here.