Kris Aquino drowns out Kristel, Pope Francis in social media —survey

With her latest controversy involving ex-husband and cager James Carlos Yap, the president's sister, Kristina Bernadette "Kris" Aquino, became the talk of the town again —even in the digital world, drowning out discussions of other current events.

 

In the latest Philippine Digital Landscape survey from Movent, Aquino stole the thunder from Pope Francis (Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio) and Kristel Tejada, the University of the Philippines (UP) freshman who took her own life recently allegedly over tuition problems.

 

An analysis by digital marketing agency Movent for the week March 15 to 21 showed Pope Francis - who was selected March 14, Manila time - topping conversations until late Tuesday, Mar. 19, when his inauguration Mass was held at the Vatican.

 

But conversations about the Pope saw a downward trend shortly after the inauguration Mass. Conversations about him peaked during his inauguration Mass, with 3,574 mentions. Celebrities have 'stronger hook' on public

 

"It seems that celebrities have a stronger hook on us than things of great local or national significance. It may have something to do with the way mass media reports it, for one.  But it may also have something to do with what we think we have at stake," explained Movent's digital intelligence head, Marck Rimorin.

 

"(It may be that) Philippine social media identifies a lot with Kris, or maybe the advocacy for Kristel reaches fewer people than a big Pinoy celebrity.  Either way, these things show us a lot about who we are as 'the social media capital' (of the world)," he added. Rimorin concluded: "The opportunity here is, how can we deepen the conversation?  How can we elevate the level of discussion, as a social media community?  How can we make sure that an advocacy like Kristel's, or someone valuable to the Filipino community in real life —like say, Pope Francis— reaches the same level of conversation as we do for Kris?"

 

Aquino gains the lead in online discussions

 

Conversations about Aquino began to pick up late Tuesday, eventually surpassing the conversations about Pope Francis on Thursday, and peaking Thursday evening (with 13,783 mentions) when she appeared on television news interviews.

 

Meanwhile, Tejada, whose death prompted protests that led the UP system to lift its no-late-payment policy on tuition, was the subject of much talk but did not quite experience a spike.

 

Although initial news about her suicide gained 965 mentions, interest appeared to dip and remain constant for the rest of the one-week period.

 

In terms of mentions, Aquino got an easy lead in terms of average mentions per day at 2,282, followed by Pope Francis at 1,727, and Tejada a far third at 374.

 

Share of online voice 

 

In terms of share of voice, Aquino got a 52.06-percent share of voice (SOV) compared to 39.41 percent for Pope Francis and 8.53 percent for Tejada.

 

"Almost 95 percent of all conversations for Kris Aquino happened on March 21, 2013. ... Kris Aquino gained 52 percent of total SOV in this category inone day. The 43-percent SOV for Pope Francis was sustained over one week. Kristel Tejada is the only story that had a downward trend," Movent said.

 

Movent said SOV is directly proportional to the number of people talking about a topic.

 

"The average user discussing Kris Aquino would talk about the topic 1.59 times; Kristel Tejada 2.00 times; and Pope Francis 1.92 times," it said.

 

Pope has advantage in reach

 

While Aquino may have been the talk of the town since Thursday, the reach of news about Pope Francis was far wider.

 

Movent indicated that in terms of reach, Pope Francis was tops with nearly 300 million who saw online conversations about him. Aquino had a bit over 50 million, while Tejada had about less than half Aquino's figures.

 

"The total number of people who saw online conversations about Pope Francis is equivalent to the total number of Twitter users in the world as of Jan. 2013 ... In contrast, the number of people who saw Kris Aquino-related conversations is roughly the size of the total combined populationof Jakarta and Metro Manila," Movent said.  — TJD, GMA News