How Social Networking Will Win the Presidential Election in 2008
Web 2.0 technologies are undoubtedly one of the most powerful tools available to marketers on the internet today. Sites such as Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube are revolutionizing the way that marketing is taking place. If you use any of these sites you have probably seen support for all of the presidential candidates on those sites, including groups or fan pages.
Let’s take a look at one of the most underestimated candidates out there, Ron Paul. Ron Paul is running on the Republican ticket. Some argue that Paul is not strictly a Republican, but I think that it is more that Ron Paul doesn’t look like the Republicans that we have come to know and “love”. Ron Paul holds true to the beliefs of the Democratic Republican party. While each of the candidates have a presence on the social networking sites, Ron Paul is the most requested Republican friend on Myspace, has about 60,000 friends on Facebook (neither Hilary or Barak Obama have profiles on Facebook), and on Google Trends if searches equaled electoral votes, Paul would have been president months ago. Take a look at just the past 30 days on Google Trends for Ron Paul.
Paul is simply an underrated candidate. Most of his supporters are people who are disgruntled with politics and government. Funny, I’m pretty sure that is how this country started. His supporters are also people who haven’t voted in awhile, so their results wouldn’t show up in polls. Yeah, I know about Iowa. Yes, I also know about New Hampshire. All I am really saying is that this guy has some pretty serious underground support. In all honesty, I think that the Web 2.0 technologies can put a man (or woman) into the White House in 2008.
Here is a chart outlining each candidates support on Facebook alone. Barak does have a strong following, but there doesn’t seem to be an official Barak Obama profile or even page. Interesting…
Better yet is the comparison of the various candidates Meetup maps — this is where social networking meets physical reality (aka “MeatSpace” or “MeetSpace”): http://www.infiniteronpaul.com/meetupmaps/
Hey, Thanks for pointing that out. I honestly wouldn’t have thought to check Meetup. Pretty crazy results when you compare Paul to the other candidates. Traditional methods are working okay for them, but seriously Web2.0 is probably going to surprise a lot of people!
Hey Tony,
How about social blog networking to find long lost friends?
Hey Steve. You haven’t got any long lost friends!! Wait a minute…..I don’t either. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) I would offer my friendship, but then you would expect Birthday cards, Christmas cards, organ donation, etc etc.
*smile*
It will certainly be interesting if Ron Paul can pull in voters who haven’t voted in the past or in the last few elections. Once we get to New Hampshire and South Carolina during the primaries we should begin to see if internet popularity will translate into real votes for Ron Paul.
It appears that ‘social networking’ weren’t enough to help Ron Paul in the Iowa Caucus. Yet, it is early.
Question. If Huckabee ends up being the Republican candidate, does anyone think he stands a chance? History shows that the pendulum has swung the other way. I expect a Democrat in office after 8 years of Bush/War on Terror.
I think if Huckabee can get the nomination he has a good chance if Clinton also gets the nomination. Clinton has a large group of Democrats that don’t like her at all, and this will be difficult for her to overcome. But if Obama gets the nomination and Huckabee does as well, I am not sure. I think that scenario could go either way. I think a lot of Americans want change, they don’t want the usual politician in office and I think Huckabee and Obama have some momentum from this. Time will tell.
Also the Iowa caucus isn’t really a primary so I think once we get into New Hampshire and a few other States we will see if Ron Paul can convert his popularity into actual votes.