While I am not a social media super-star, I do have some very popular friends and family. My votes have been nearly a straight line from the beginning after spending about 60 hours campaigning from Saturday to Wednesday - ignoring all of my real work.
The engagement is almost exactly what Dave describes - VERY LOW. A very low number of the engagements actually act. Most of the actions only act once - many do not come back daily because they have lives to live and don't think about the Keysight voting. This is all normal and expected. It' show people work, especially in a crowded and noisy social world where there is a cause around every link.
When Dave tweeted to 27,000 followers that Carlos A was his favorite - there was no spike.
When Dave posted on the blog to check out the contest and Carlos A was his choice - there was no spike
When my (actual real) friend with 15k followers on is FB page posted several personally written appeals to vote for Carlos A - there was no spike or other discernible increase in votes
Many other socially prominent supporters of mine have blasted Twitter and Facebook relentlessly to at least 100k people now. - still no spike in votes, just a straight line
The EEVBlog thread I started has 8,400+ views - no spike in votes
I made a sponsored ad on FB that has reached 3000 people - 30 engagements - ZERO clicks. That is right - ZERO clicks.
My sisters run a large cheerleading/dance competition that is about to start in the UK. They are going to make announcements to the kids and parents. Many thousands of them, will hear an appeal to vote for the brother of their leader. Will it result in a vote spike? Will they vote until the 15th? We shall see.
I am completely and totally perplexed that the fate of an exotic oscilloscope lies in the hands of a bunch of teen cheerleaders and their parents. I do not know any of them at all. I doubt any of them know what an oscilloscope is - yet their participation or non-participation will have a big impact on this. There is enough people at this event that if 25% vote 3x for one day - it will close the gap. Only 1/4 of the people that will be addressed via microphone from a big stage all at once have to go to scopemonth.com and vote for Carlos A. and the gap will be closed.
The reality is that it probably will not happen - they will cheer for the underdog, and clap for the appeal that my sister makes and they will then carry on with the competition. That is how it works when they don't know me and have no skin in the game.
Imagine there was a house with no doors and has $70k worth of jewels inside. It was announced to the world that if you can steal the jewels without being caught, you keep the jewels. If you get caught, there are no consequences and you are free to go.