Social media chatter about the upcoming election has peaked now that a date has been announced by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Election discussions picked up steam since Sunday – thanks to the announcement of a date and renewed discussion about the National Broadband Network – with more than 200,000 mentions a day.

But, while Rudd’s decision to refer to himself as the underdog did the rounds in the news, it failed to catch on in the Twittersphere, collecting only 209 mentions.

Abbott’s use of the term “fair dinkum” about Rudd provided much more excitement amongst tweeters. More than 2,700 references to this quote have appeared on Twitter since Abbott first muttered it.

Discussion about the NBN also picked up:

Meanwhile, the leading hashtags are #auspol and #ausvotes. Besides #qanda, Channel 9 is the only media-sponsored hashtag appearing in the top 10, suggesting the network is having some success in affiliating itself with the debate. Nine is using the hashtag #youdecide9.

Statistics were provided by Brad Buzzard, senior research analyst at We Are Social.