By John McGory
The 2012 presidential campaigns are in full swing. Ohio will soon be the battleground as the March 6 primary looms. Facebook is playing a large role in the campaigns. Facebook's advice to the candidates is to be authentic. Here is an update on how the contenders use the social media giant and content marketing to promote their candidacies.
The numbers
Facebook is the run-away winner among all age groups in terms of social media use. President Barack Obama has a huge advantage among the four established candidates in the number of followers.
Obama has more than ten times the Facebook followers (25 million people) compared to the three Republican challengers combined. Mitt Romney is the top Republican with 1.5 million followers, with Newt Gingrich second at 288,000 and Rick Santorum a distant third at 157,000.
Barack Obama
The president‘s Facebook posts are mostly of young or female activists. His wall uses photos and non-technical materials such as photographs of hand-written signs to attract like-minded followers.
Contests sell on Facebook and Obama has adopted the strategy. A $3 donation can win a follower a chance to have dinner with the president. It is a solid strategy because it is an affordable amount and gives the young an opportunity to be a part of the campaign.
Free bumper stickers and the ability to purchase iPhone cases are also available. These are both items that are popular with younger voters.
The site has a post appealing to Spanish-speaking supporters.
Mitt Romney
Challengers in political races must focus their attention on fundraising. Romney’s Facebook efforts are consistent with that political reality.
Romney takes the contest idea and puts his spin on it. A $3 donation gets the winner an opportunity to hang around the candidate on a primary election night.
Challengers also face the problem of getting known. Campaigns need to make voters become comfortable with candidates. Facebook is a good source of providing followers with issue updates from the campaign. There is no shortage of these on Romney’s site.
He devotes some space for slamming his chief primary opponent, Rick Santorum.
Rick Santorum’s handlers must feel their candidate looks the part of president. There are several posts providing downloadable images of the candidate for use among supporters. Also, there are plenty of pictures of him looking presidential. This is a good strategy considering the importance of visuals in social media.
His site is strong in event promotions. While Romney’s site does this as well, it looks as if Santorum focuses on one event and works it hard. His site is peppered with Daytona 500 posts and Santorum’s efforts during the race.
Newt Gingrich’s Facebook page is issue driven. He posts extensively about the high price of gasoline and the importance of oil and natural gas drilling. His attacks on the president regarding this issue are forceful.
He allows viewers to follow him live on the campaign trail on Facebook. He also works at building post-debate support by encouraging followers to like him for his debate performances.He uses more video than the other candidates. He has a longer history in front of the national cameras and seems to use that to his video advantage.
Conclusion
All the candidates are using Facebook in ways that highlight their individual strengths. Obama can use Facebook in a more traditional method since he doesn’t have a primary opponent. The Republicans are forced to be more aggressive as they fight for the nomination.
It will be interesting to see how the use of Facebook changes for the Republican-party nominee. The biggest challenge will be shifting to a more mainstream approach to capture independent Facebook viewers this fall. Webface will keep its eye on this shift as the campaign continues.
John McGory is a partner at Webface, http://web-face-solutions.com Webface provides content marketing services including video for businesses and organizations.
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