Social Media and Politics: How Many Facebook Fans Translate Into Votes
16/06/10 18:34
Social media has become a part of most people's everyday life. Facebook now has 400 million active users, and Twitter is at 75 million and growing. According to Facebook, people spend over 500 billion minutes on it's site per month. For many of us, Twitter has become an addiction. Naturally companies, organizations, and candidates are trying to tap into these sites to reach consumers/members/voters. But many companies are also asking, "what is the marketing effectiveness of social media?" This article from Tech Republican sums up the growing concern: How Much Is A Facebook Fan Really Worth?.
Companies like Syncapse and Sentiment 360 are now offering market research services that tell companies what is being said about their brand/products on the web. They try figure out what the overall attitude toward a brand or product is, and also offer social media marketing services to try to change that image. More companies are using these services to find out how much value they are getting out of social media.
In many ways, this applies to politics as well. An increasing number of candidates are trying to harness the power of the internet, specifically social media to build their support. President Obama was able to do this very effectively in 2008. At the rate Facebook and Twitter are growing, this seems like a logical step for many campaigns. However, the question then becomes how much time and money candidates should spend on these efforts? Do Facebook Friends and Twitter followers really turn into votes?
The answer appears to be sometimes. Candidates like Scott Brown (R-MA), Nikki Haley (GOP candidate for Governor in SC), and Marco Rubio (GOP candidate for Senate in FL) have been able to generate enough online to buzz to make them real contenders. Brown beat out long-time Democrat Martha Coakley to take Ted Kennedy's seat in the U.S. Senate--a feat many thought would be impossible in Massachusetts. He used Facebook and Twitter frequently to raise money and get out his message. He started the "Money Bomb" trend which is now being used by many candidates to up their fundraising numbers from around the country instead of just in their state. Nikki Haley, once considered a long-shot candidate, raised her profile when Erick Erickson started writing about her on Red State. Rubio was also a long-shot candidate who was catapulted to stardom through blogs and social networks, again specifically Erickson at Red State. All of these candidates were considered long-shots at the beginning of the campaign, and all of them were able to use the internet to help them build a winning campaign. [Note: There were other forces at work in each of these campaigns that helped these candidates win. I use them as examples because they all ran effective social media campaigns.]
On the other hand, internet enthusiasm doesn't always turn into votes. Perhaps the most popular campaign ad ever came out of Alabama this year. Agriculture Commission candidate Dale Peterson's ad by Ladd Ehlinger, Jr. went viral on You Tube attracting attention from all over the country. He even made Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" list. Unfortunately for Dale, viral videos didn't turn into votes at the ballot box. Peterson claimed only 28% of the vote, which didn't get him in the runoff. There were some other popular ads from Alabama this cycle...Les Phillip, Young Boozer and Tim James all had adds that got hundreds of thousands of hits on You Tube. Of those, only Boozer won his race.
The bottom line in all this is that you have to know how to use social media in a campaign and how much time to spend doing it. The answers to those questions will vary by the candidate and the district, but all candidates need at least some presence online these days. But they must also keep in mind that popular ads, thousands of friends and followers don't necessarily turn into votes.
Companies like Syncapse and Sentiment 360 are now offering market research services that tell companies what is being said about their brand/products on the web. They try figure out what the overall attitude toward a brand or product is, and also offer social media marketing services to try to change that image. More companies are using these services to find out how much value they are getting out of social media.
In many ways, this applies to politics as well. An increasing number of candidates are trying to harness the power of the internet, specifically social media to build their support. President Obama was able to do this very effectively in 2008. At the rate Facebook and Twitter are growing, this seems like a logical step for many campaigns. However, the question then becomes how much time and money candidates should spend on these efforts? Do Facebook Friends and Twitter followers really turn into votes?
The answer appears to be sometimes. Candidates like Scott Brown (R-MA), Nikki Haley (GOP candidate for Governor in SC), and Marco Rubio (GOP candidate for Senate in FL) have been able to generate enough online to buzz to make them real contenders. Brown beat out long-time Democrat Martha Coakley to take Ted Kennedy's seat in the U.S. Senate--a feat many thought would be impossible in Massachusetts. He used Facebook and Twitter frequently to raise money and get out his message. He started the "Money Bomb" trend which is now being used by many candidates to up their fundraising numbers from around the country instead of just in their state. Nikki Haley, once considered a long-shot candidate, raised her profile when Erick Erickson started writing about her on Red State. Rubio was also a long-shot candidate who was catapulted to stardom through blogs and social networks, again specifically Erickson at Red State. All of these candidates were considered long-shots at the beginning of the campaign, and all of them were able to use the internet to help them build a winning campaign. [Note: There were other forces at work in each of these campaigns that helped these candidates win. I use them as examples because they all ran effective social media campaigns.]
On the other hand, internet enthusiasm doesn't always turn into votes. Perhaps the most popular campaign ad ever came out of Alabama this year. Agriculture Commission candidate Dale Peterson's ad by Ladd Ehlinger, Jr. went viral on You Tube attracting attention from all over the country. He even made Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" list. Unfortunately for Dale, viral videos didn't turn into votes at the ballot box. Peterson claimed only 28% of the vote, which didn't get him in the runoff. There were some other popular ads from Alabama this cycle...Les Phillip, Young Boozer and Tim James all had adds that got hundreds of thousands of hits on You Tube. Of those, only Boozer won his race.
The bottom line in all this is that you have to know how to use social media in a campaign and how much time to spend doing it. The answers to those questions will vary by the candidate and the district, but all candidates need at least some presence online these days. But they must also keep in mind that popular ads, thousands of friends and followers don't necessarily turn into votes.
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