Under the various stages of lockdown and restrictions, traditional campaigning has been difficult. Melbourne municipalities have faced the most constraints, but it also affected candidates in regional Victoria. With door-to-door campaigning advised against, how else to raise your profile in front of voters?

Many time-honoured methods were still at play: print advertising, billboards, how-to-vote cards, questionnaires and leaflet drops.

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However, almost all candidates have also dipped into the newer world of social media one way or another. Most have active Facebook pages and have participated in various candidate forums conducted on Zoom, YouTube or Facebook.

Facebook has also gained some substantial advertising dollars. The Greens were by far the biggest spenders in this arena, with each of the three candidates spending more than $2,000 on the social media platform, notably more than most candidates.

The biggest spender among them was Ellen Burns, the Greens party's North Ward candidate, who spent a total of $3,857 advertising on that site and Instagram during the campaign.

While also using corflute and onlin forums, as well some face-to-face meetings at farmers' markets through her work, Ms Burns said she had invested most of her energy into social media.

Ms Burns told The Courier that she felt comfortable with the medium due to her previous experience using it for her business. The platform was also a key way to reach the under 30s - who proportionally are much more likely to vote Greens - she said. "We wanted to reach younger people and get them engaged," she said. "Facebook and Instragram are where we have focused."

Another significant spender was Ms Burns' rival for one of the North Ward seats, the incumbent councillor Grant Tillett, who spent to $2,126 on Facebook.

In the Central Ward, Geoff Howard took a different approach. He said he was sceptical about the impact of advertising on the social media forum. He made one attempt at "boosting" a post, which did not work.

However, he said he was focused on an old-school approach: hitting the phones. He estimated he made almost two and a half thousand calls during his campaign, connecting with around 30 per cent of them, which he said gave him valuable information from voters.

"After all these years, I am still questioning the value of Facebook, you don't know whether you are reaching the swing voters. I had the time during the day and phone canvassing enabled me to get real feedback from real people."

He was the only one of the six Labor-endorsed candidates not to spend anything on Facebook. Others invested from as little as $139 (Kumuda Simpson, Central Ward) to $2,649 for Bridget Aitchison in the South Ward.

Tracey Hargreaves, an independent candidate in the South Ward, used Facebook but having many years on social media through her business, Absolute Yoga and Pilates, she opted not to pay for any promotion - and instead pushed for 'organic' exposure with an existing audience sharing her posts.

"The money that I had I used as frugally as I could," she said. "That all pretty much went on print and delivering one flyer to people at a targeted date."

Facebook spending figures were previously not available, but are now being published after the social media site was strongly criticised for a lack of transparency.

They are the only areas of spending readily open to public scrutiny. Other campaign costs, including newspaper advertising, how-to-vote cards, letter-drops, billboards and posters, are not published.

However, candidates do need to return a statement about donations worth more than $500 within 40 days of votes closing.

NORTH WARD

Ellen Burns - $3,857

Peter Eddy - $671

David Harris - $398

Bryn Hills - $335

Amy Johnson - $1048

Daniel Moloney - $650

Jay Morrison $1440

Grant Tillett - $2,126

CENTRAL WARD

Belinda Coates $2887

John Dooley: less than or equal to $100

Mark Harris: $430

Geoff Howard: $0

Stephen Jones: less than or equal to $100

Samantha McIntosh: $445

Nick Shady: $0

Kumuda Simpson: $139

SOUTH WARD

Bridget Aitchison: $2,649

Tracey Hargreaves: $0

Des Hudson: $476

Susan Jakobi: no Facebook page

Rachel Muir: $0

Jim Rinaldi: $268

Jackson Snep: $2,132.

Ben Taylor: $145

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