The DAP is amused about the state BN’s recent announcement that it has more than two million friends of fans on its Facebook page, criticising the validity of the statistics which had been quoted by its leader.

Penang DAP Socialist Youth chief Ng Wei Aik said that with the announcement, state BN chief Teng Chang Yeow appeared to be “Facebook blind”.

“They even posted the statistics which can only be accessed by page administrators and we see that the actual likes are only about 10,000. This is not something to be proud of,” said Ng at a press conference in Penang today.

NONEThe party’s social media strategist Yeo Bee Yin (left in photo) said it is wrong for Teng to say that there are two million fans on the BN’s Facebook page.

“They are only potentital reach. If you see their Facebook page, they do not have the strategy to reach out to these people,” she said at the same press briefing with Ng.

“The weekly total hits mentioned by Teng is also not about a fanbase. They seem to have got all their definitions wrong,” she added.

“Teng says he is still learning about the younger generation. Actually he has a lot to learn,” stressed Yeo.

NONEOn Sunday, Teng revealed that the state BN page, which started operating a year ago when he was appointed as the coalition's state chief, had about two million friends of fans.

With the increase of interest in the BN’s page, the state team then decided to organise an informal meeting between Teng and about 200 people who were active on Facebook, Twitter or on blogs.

As of Sunday night, the page had recorded 10,317 ‘likes’, 2,929,402 ‘friends of fans’ and a weekly total reach of 261,186 for the period of Feb 8 to 14.

“There was a rise in ‘people reached’ for that week as there was much interest in BN’s Chinese New Year open house in Penang, due to South Korean pop star Psy’s performance and the attendance of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on Feb 11,” page administrator Edmund Ng had told Malaysiakini, when contacted.

‘Don’t reveal strategies’

Yeo said with the kind of statistics which appeared on the page, the state BN should not be “bragging” about the matter.

She added that when people hit ‘like’ on a fanpage, it does not necessarily mean that they support the party or its actions.

“It can actually be a positive or negative sign. I do not know why they actually put a message on their page to welcome friends of fans,” she noted.

“Friends of fans cannot see such postings unless the fans share it on their page,” she added.

On the 10,000 odd likes on the page, Yeo said it was not something unreasonable.

When asked about DAP’s official page on the social media networking site, Yeo said it had gathered about 220,000 likes.

“Actually, we should not disclose our strategies to the public. This is not usually something that people do,” she added.

“We would not disclose ours, perhaps we would do so after the general election.”