It emerged on Thursday that an aggressive social media campaign to engage with members had helped the two candidates considered the strongest supporters of Hird remaining as coach – Paul Cousins and Catherine Lio – to win the positions on the board vacated by the retiring Kevin Egan and also Jo-Anne Albert, who was unseated.

Cousins, a 37-year-old web designer with his own business, and Lio, a 31-year-old digital media manager with Telstra, received 1582 and 1398 votes respectively to edge out former Melbourne Storm boss Ron Gauci, who finished just 18 votes behind Lio.

Although he accepted the decision, Gauci told Fairfax Media he believed there was an underlying message to the vote that also left another high-profile candidate, financial expert Jason Cunningham, without a position on 1013 votes, behind the up-for-re-election Albert, on 1032.

"Clearly the support was for those two candidates who supported the coach," said Gauci, who had maintained an ambivalent stance on Hird's position as senior coach during the election process. 

"That seems to have been more important to the members of the club than experience going onto the board," he said. "There were experienced candidates there that were not successful."

Another candidate who had called on Hird to resign as coach, Bill Jennings, received just 417 of the total 3684 votes cast, finishing 6th out of the nine candidates.

Cousins and Lio had outlined their stance for improved communication between the club and its fans by answering members' questions on the club's unofficial fan forum "BomberBlitz", as well as Facebook groups and Twitter.

Chairman Paul Little said he welcomed the "fresh set of skills and experience to the board" that the election of Cousins and Lio would bring, and looked forward to formally welcoming the directors-elect at the club's annual meeting on December 15, the same day that the case of the 34 past and present Essendon players accused of taking a banned substance is scheduled to start.

Speaking to Essendon's website, Cousins said he wholeheartedly supported the current administration's handling of the supplements scandal and also the decision to keep Hird on as coach, despite his 12-month suspension from the AFL for his part in the saga.

"There have been, obviously, some difficulties, but I think on the whole the board, and particularly Paul [Little] publicly, I think he has handled it well," Cousins said. "James, I think, has been put under a lot of pressure by the media, but I think he's handled it terrifically well," he said.

"My background is in ... new media so I would think there are obvious tie-ins with the football club moving that way, so hopefully I can bring some of that skill set to the board. But hopefully just a fresh set of eyes, too."

In her interview with the website, Lio said the current administration had done a "fabulous" job and that she wanted to bring a "youthful outlook" to the direction of the club.

"I'm really looking to give that membership view to the club, which is that person in the stands," she said.

Little still has the power to himself nominate one more director to take a position on the current nine-person board, a point Gauci raised when contacted on Thursday.

"If the board is interested in taking on additional experience, the chairman has the ability to bring on extra skills if he chooses," he said.