720STRATEGIES

Barack Obama

Supporters: 156,898
Photos: 365
Wall Posts: 16,218
Groups: 16

Not surprisingly, Obama is blazing the trail when it comes to capitalizing on social networking. He has, by far, the most Facebook supporters of any candidate as well as the most posts on his wall. This is indicative of a highly involved and engaged supporter base that is active on the site. Not only does he engage voters on existing social networking sites, he even has his own social community at my.barackobama.com, which launched to much fanfare this spring. The Obama campaign even developed their own Facebook application so users can stay abreast of campaign news right within their own profiles. Barack is clearly the front runner when it comes to social networking campaign strategies. It's such a new medium that constant experimentation is necessary to achieve strategic success, however, it's clear that Barack's message is resonating with a large constituent group on Facebook.

One really interesting thing on Barack's profile is that the link to his official campaign website is actually a link to his outreach site for students (students.barackobama.com), which indicates that his campaign staff view Facebook as a strong communication tool to reach out to the student population.

Hillary Clinton

Supporters: 49,087
Photos: 56
Wall Posts: 7,251
Groups: 11

Hillary Clinton has the second strongest presence on Facebook, approaching 50,000 supporters. Her profile certainly could use a little more personal information, however she does employ a few custom applications with campaign-specific imagery (YouTube Badge and My Flickr). Her profile fails to do the single most important thing, which is to humanize her. Her supporters would be interested in reading what music she likes, or what she does to unwind. Painting the picture of the candidate as a regular person allows people to see that not only does their chosen candidate support issues that affect them, but they also have common personal interests.  

John Edwards

Supporters: 22,244
Photos: 341
Wall Posts: 2,342
Groups: 175

John Edwards has one of the most grounding videos on Facebook right now where he speaks directly to his supporters about eventful.com. It's an excellent video because he's not in a stodgy suit with a power tie, but rather a faded, Carolina blue t-shirt. Also as an alternative to updating his Facebook status, Edwards uses the Twitter application to keep his supporters apprised of his whereabouts (he just arrived in the small, rural town, pop. 229, of Columbus KY for a town hall with Columbus Residents). His profile is also fairly comprehensive, mentioning his favorite song by Bruce Springsteen, Shawshank Redemption as his favorite movie and an endeering endorsement of his wife in his bio.

One oddity on his profile is his joining foreign groups such as 'Brits for Edwards' and 'British Columbia for John Edwards'. Seems like these would be strange groups to join if one is running for President of the United States.

Mitt Romney

Supporters: 19.823
Photos: 2,458 (Flickr Photos)
Wall Posts: 2,827
Groups: 98

Mitt Romney has one of the most comprehensive and complete personal profiles on Facebook. He lets the world know that enjoys spending time with his grandchildren, waterskiing, listening to The Beatles, and Garth Brooks. He also has the profile of someone that is clearly running for office. His listed interests are clearly the foundation of his political platform, and his bio is quick snapshot of his credentials. However, by-in-large his profile paints a clear picture of his personality, which is the overarching goal of having a social networking profile.

Rudy Giuliani

Supporters: 7,972
Photos: 16
Wall Posts: 446
Groups: 0

According to Rudy's Facebook status, he is in Washington, D.C. as of two hours ago. No surprise that he's a Yankees fan (what about the Mets Rudy?), but I never knew he was an opera buff or this favorite movie is The Godfather. He also has a nice and concise biography written in his about me section. He makes strong use of the Facebook video application, in addition to having his own official campaign application. Evidently, according to his Tripadvisor application, he has traveled to 213 cities in 35 countries. That's a pretty impressive travel schedule. It's interesting to see that he's not a member of any Facebook groups and his wall has the fewest posts of any candidates listed here. It would seem that Rudy's campaign strategy does not focus heavily on reaching out the Facebook's user base.

John McCain

Supporters: 12,363
Photos: 36
Wall Posts: 1,097
Groups: 34

John McCain seems like a candidate that should have a stronger presence on Facebook, but this spring his campaign seemed determiend to focus their energy on their own social network: McCainSpace. This venture has had mixed results and in my opinion is not the best way to foster a large community of supporters. People already have enough social networking accounts, they likely don't want to be part of yet another closed community. The smart online strategy is to go where there already is an established user base and build your community there. McCain's relatively sparse profile reflects the fact that his campaign is not as focused on existing social networking sites as his own McCainSpace.

Ron Paul

Supporters: 33,343
Photos: 38
Wall Posts: 4,864
Groups: 4

Why is Ron Paul thrown in amongst the front runners? He's a little bit of an Internet phenom in Republican circles. It may be slightly aggressive to classify Paul as a phenom, however relative to his red state peers, he's doing a good job connecting with the public online. He has a much larger support base than any of the traditional front runners in his party and seems to be captivating his audience online. A young Ron Paul supporter even created a Facebook application for the campaign. His profile a little sparse regarding his own personal interests, limiting his ability to connect with people based on common interests, however he still is the lone Republican that understands the power of social networking.

Fred Thompson

Supporters: 17,998
Photos: 0
Wall Posts:1,291
Groups: 101

Fred Thompson also has a profile very light on personal information, however his support on Facebook is approaching 20,000 users. One thing that really stands out on his profile is that his favorite movie is The Hunt for Red October. Fred was in that movie and I don't know if that signals extreme confidence in his own acting abilities or narcissism. Despite the dearth of personal information on his profile, in a short timespan he has garnered the third largest republican support base on Facebook. One thing I really like about his profile is that he updates his status from time to time (Fred Thompson is discussing America's illegal immigration problem this week). Facebook has not yet developed that capability to have candidate statuses appear in your news feed, however that is coming down the road.

These candidates are, with varying degrees of success, all harnessing the power of Facebook's social graph to spread their message to as wide an audience as possible. Facebook recognizes that their site is a tremendous platform through which candidates for office can communicate to their constituents. During each election cycle, Facebook staff automatically create profiles for candidates in major elections down to gubernatorial races. Political campaigns with progressive online strategies can request to take control of their own candidate's profile to make sure it is frequently updated and a grounded representation of who the candidate is. The candidate's profile is an excellent way to paint a picture of him or her as a down-to-earth individual that likes watching Sportscenter, enjoys eating pizza with the family, and loves listening to Bob Dylan or Miles Davis.

The social networking space is wide open for all political candidates. While Obama is clearly a leader in this space, by no means does he dominate with his presence. It is evident that candidates' messages spread rapidly through Facebook. Social networks are clearly a venue to which candidates and their supporters are turning in ever greater numbers, to meet, to organize, and to win elections.