Algonquin College professor’s TrendifyLive provided statistics for municipal candidates

In 2018, all of Alem Legesse’s work culminated in a Twitter feed that provides statistics for corporations and electoral candidates.

The statistics and tools gathered through TrendifyLive provide electoral candidates with the analytics necessary to better connect with their target audience.

For example, you could research a specific timeline to access information about leading mayoral candidates.

TrendifyLive saves people from skimming through pages of information.

“TrendifyLive empowers voters to make informed decisions by providing them with simple and easy-to-use visual reports containing public sentiment and ranked candidates’ promises. The software is always trusted for its accuracy and insightfulness specifically up to and days before election day because of its real-time projections,” said Legesse, the founder of TrendifyLive and a part-time computer programming professor at Algonquin College.

Legesse’s goal was to simplify finding advanced statistics for those seeking out specific content and it has become a tool his students use for projects and assignments.

Salah Griffith is an engineering program student at Algonquin College. Legesse described her as a role model for many women, specifically in underrepresented groups. The reason being is she doesn’t let outside noise, or her skin colour deter her from her goals.

“I believe TrendifyLive is a great tool for people like me who get overwhelmed by the continuous management of multiple social media pages. It is a simple way to keep track of social media and the tool can be customized to your liking,” said Griffith, a third-year computer engineering student.

Griffith met Legesse during an intro to database course during the first semester of her first year in her program and she feels he has increased her passion and drive. While Griffith is driven to succeed and sets big goals, such as running her own business after graduation, Legesse pushes her to pursue her own business venture, rather than working for a corporation.

“There were many times after class we would discuss the semantics of becoming a successful, black entrepreneur and he would often motivate me to strive for more than what I set out for myself,” said Griffith.

Legesse believes TrendifyLive responds perfectly to the upcoming municipal election for three reasons.

“It tracks Twitter activities, and many candidates use the platform to communicate with voters and supporters. For the past couple of years, we have been covering Canadian elections including the federal, Ontario provincial, and Ottawa municipal. And our software is always trusted for its accuracy and insightfulness specifically up to and days before election day because of its real-time projections. The City of Ottawa has been one of our lead customers that included Mayor Jim Watson, and other councillors who are familiar with our software,” said Legesse.

Griffith believes social media has become a popular way to promote and connect with supporters.

“Social media is a crucial aspect of receiving feedback about a campaign. TrendifyLive easily gathers social media analytics so that candidates can figure out the most effective way to connect with their target audience and tailor their online presence accordingly,” said Griffith.

Legesse explained some of the things you can learn using his Twitter tool.

“[It can] measure the impacts of a candidate’s election activities. Overall voters’ sentiments towards the election and different candidates can be derived from the software,” he said.

Live predictions about the election or the campaign can be tracked daily or weekly. Instant reports before, during, and after a debate are easily accessible.

For Legesse, he feels he has only scratched the surface and has plans to expand the software to other countries, with an emphasis on his home continent of Africa. This will potentially gain more exposure and frequency of women competing for important roles in municipal, provincial, and federal politics.

“When the time is right, our team would like to expand to two other continents [Europe and Africa] as well, hopefully soon. Because as a start-up venture, we are always busy not only refining the tool but also introducing it to potential markets,” said Legesse.

“If a single story is to be told from TrendifyLive analysis over Twitter, the demand for change is historically driven by women of all backgrounds, both influential and ordinary citizens,” said Legesse about who has driven the demand for change and growth and inspired the advancement of TrendifyLive.