We’re a pretty liberal bunch in Social Gloo. Being open-minded about new ways to connect with people and new ideas about how things could work differently is what we’re all about.

Which is why we jumped at the chance to work with The Alliance Party’s Naomi Long.

She is the shining light in a political party that doesn’t appeal on religious, historical or sectarian tribalist lines. Naomi and her Party are a breath of fresh air amongst the choking division of the ‘main’ parties in NI. They think in a new way for NI and offer an alternative vision.

Although Naomi was already an MLA in NI and the Lord Mayor of Belfast, she faced a massive hurdle in yesterday’s election.

The First Minister of Northern Ireland, Peter Robinson, was an imposing opponent in the battle for the MP seat representing East Belfast that Naomi wanted to win. He’d held it since 1979. He is basically Northern Ireland’s PM. Our Gordon Brown, if you like.

But Naomi won.

She beat Robinson and by quite a way. It’s perhaps the biggest story of the 2010 election in NI. Last night, I heard it described as a ‘Portillo Moment’ – remember the famously unexpected loss of Michael Portillo’s Enfield seat in 1997, live on British TV? He was literally gobsmacked. Do you think it’s as big a surprise as that?

The Social Gloo team got involved with Naomi and The Alliance Party with just three weeks to go to General election D-Day. Not much time, but we managed to write some of their direct marketing material and also created an online film that differentiated them – and Naomi in particular. It gave them a unique online presence and presented a fresh alternative to the dowdy, grey politics of Mr Robinson.

We’re realistic enough to know that most people voted for Naomi today because of the hard work she’s put in locally and because of the great campaigning work her team have done: Chris Lyttle and Judith Cochrane in particular.

But we’d like to think that Social Gloo played a part in getting Naomi elected. A small part yes, but one that we are very proud of.

What do you think about Naomi’s success?

And what do you think about Social Gloo’s involvement?

This is a link to the final piece of publicity that was posted out - Naomi Flyer

and below is the video we put together to highlight why people should vote Naomi

We’d love to hear your comments.