2012 Presidential Election

Are you ready?

UWSMC3 Alessandra Marseglia

4 years ago...

• Facebook had 100 million users. TODAY 800 million

• Twitter had 8 employees. TODAY 400

• YouTube averaged 13h of video/minute. TODAY 48h

• Foursquare didn’t exist. TODAY it claims 1 billion

check-ins

Also today...•Almost every politician uses social media in some capacity

•In US Congress, Republicans on Twitter outnumber Democrats (228 vs 157). During the primaries, Republican candidates had some successful Twitter debates

•Social media users are more politically engaged: 88% of Facebook users are registered to vote (source Pew Research Center)

•Social media buzz surrounding a political candidate can predict election results (source NM Incite)

•83% of Millennials uses social media (source Pew Research Center). They are expected to make up to one-fourth of voters and likely determine the election

•Romney and Obama expect to raise $1 billion each by November, $300 million in small donations for Republicans, $500 million (and possibly more) for Democrats

•In order to win Obama and Romney will need Millennials AND money. Ergo they will need social media

Obama

has a big social media team and is everywhere (FB, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Foursquare, Tumblr, Pinterest...even an app on FB)

outnumbers by far Romney in followers, likes, tweets and FB posts

has a specific strategy for each social media (website calls to action, FB for pics, Twitter to stay on top of the news)

Romney

works with Targeted Victory which helped Marco Rubio to get elected

has the best website and social media strategy among all the Republican candidates

has implemented a social network (MyMitt) to engage with volunteers and increment fundraise

Consistent

Candidate?

Recent accounts

Num

of

follo

wers

Consistent, straightforward

Lots of contents

Tet

Engaging, not asking for pledge

Not many like but lots of “talking about this”

Main goal: collect emails (13 million emails in 2008)

www.barackobama.comexperimenting new buttons

MyMitt: social network to get people involved, donate and volunteer

(similar to MyBO)

www.mittromney.com“Learn more” button and family image

(successful factors in 2008 Obama campaign)

Obama vs Romneyon Twitter the game is

already onBefore the Republican primaries are technically over, Obama legitimates Romney twitting “5 thinks you need to know about Romney”

This sparks a big discussion on Twitter about abortion, women rights and jobs

Democrat consultant Hilary Rosen says that Ann Romney cannot be an economy expert since she was a stay-at-home mom who never worked

On Twitter women start defending Ann Romney. Obama’s staff distances itself from Rosen

Ann Romney opens Twitter and Facebook accounts and surges as a new figure in the campaign

So, who will win the SM battle ?Obama • PROS: big team, proven strategy. Com’n he is the social media rock star!• CONS: more activity more critiques. • The most challenging goal: repeat 2008 success

Romney

• PROS: took social media seriously. Smaller goal in fundraising

• CONS: not strong on young women (only 38%) the main SM target

• He has to face a SM rock star

Source PEW Research Center for journalism.org

Tone on Twitter

References

http://features.journalism.org/campaign-2012-in-the-media/tone-on-twitter/

http://www.barackobama.com

http://www.mittromney.com

http://mashable.com/2012/04/16/politician-websites/

http://mashable.com/2012/04/12/obama-romney-twitter/

http://mashable.com/2012/04/09/republican-candidates-email/

http://mashable.com/2012/04/04/social-media-election-results/

http://mashable.com/2012/03/22/republicans-effective-tweeters/

http://graphics.latimes.com/2012-election-superpac-spending/

http://mashable.com/2011/10/24/obama-social-media-campaign/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec11/voterdivide_11-03.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/us/politics/after-being-burned-in-08-republicans-embrace-twitter-hard-for-12.html?_r=2&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

http://mashable.com/2011/07/25/republican-twitter-debate/

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/800-million-target-for-romney-campaign-and-republican-committee/?ref=politics