17/10/2012

IDG Connect Dan Swinhoe (US)- #Romney vs. #Obama & Big Bird: Social Media in the US Elect

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Dan Swinhoe (US)- #Romney vs. #Obama & Big Bird: Social Media in the US Elections
Posted b y Dan Swinhoe Company IDG Connect 10/17/2012

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10-16-2012

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2008 wasn't all that long ago, b ut in the world of social media an age has passed since then. Widely seen as the first social media election, it was the first time politicians had used the likes of Twitter and Faceb ook to really communicate with their audience. It helped get younger people engaged with politics, and it's a safe b et that Ob ama's win that year was helped b y his campaign's activity across the Internet. But this is 2012, and social media is more central to politics and life in general than last time, and Ob ama won't b e getting the lion's share of the internet's voice. Today, every political event creates a social media firestorm and everything said or done reverb erates online. The first of this year's presidential deb ates b ecame the "most tweeted ab out event in US political history," according to Twitter; and millions more tweets and posts will b e generated b y the sub ject b oth b efore and after the results are in. Back in 2008, Ob ama was followed b y 100,000 of Twitter's 1 million users, while his rival John McCain managed just 4,000. BO outnumb ered McCain's Faceb ook supporters three-fold - 2.3 million to 600,000. Fast-forward to today, and the President b oasts almost 30 million FB supporters and 20 million Twitter followers, while challenger Mitt Romney has 8 million and just over 1 million respectively. Ob ama Tweets far more (around 14 times a day) than Romney (around 1 per day), b ut very few are actually signed BO', the sign that the President has actually

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17/10/2012

IDG Connect Dan Swinhoe (US)- #Romney vs. #Obama & Big Bird: Social Media in the US Elect
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Tweeted personally. While Romney's online presence is dwarfed b y Ob ama, he has b een making rapid gains since b ecoming the Repub lican front runner. In 2008, sites like SocialBakers didn't exist, and real-time b arometers that tracked mentions were unheard of. But today they are essential tools for tracking sentiment and general effectiveness of everything the candidates do. By most accounts, things seem very even, although Romney is attracting an average of 100,000 more likes on his posts a day and seems to b e getting b etter engagement than the President. The value politicians are attrib uting to social media was highlighted b y BO's recent Faceb ook push after his performance in the deb ates, which resulted in a million extra likes in a single day.

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Mob ility Management Cib ecs Security Mob ile Phones Technology Regional Content IT skills Social Media Data Security Data Management It's not just the internet stats that matter though. It's also a question of culture. Generation Y spend more time on the internet, communicate more across it, and generally hold more stock in it than their older counterparts. The likes of the now-iconic "Hope" poster b ecame popular thanks to social media, so it's no surprise the internet widely approved of BO's Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, and showed the Democrat leader knows how to keep in touch with the young and tech savvy. On the other hand, Romney's declaration that he would cut the funding of PBS caused the kind of viral response social media managers would die for - it's just a shame that it was all against him. As a generation who invest so much in pop culture, Big Bird has b ecome a sort of internet rallying point against Romney. Twitter parodies and memes may sound like harmless fun, b ut it is a good indicator of popularity and clearly something that Mitt is lacking with the younger end of the populace, which could harm his election chances. It's no coincidence that major political players on the left, such as Ob ama and b oth Bill & Hilary Clinton, get favourab le treatment online while Romney is portrayed as rich and un-relatab le. Venafi Computing Cloud ILX Group Data CAMM IT Skills ISACA Internet Brocade Media Social Epicor Software Other Gerdau SA Trends CIO East Africa eDevelopment Resource Centre

The humb le mob ile phone still has a part to play in the elections. Both sides are now taking donations via text, while studies show half of 18-24 year olds have discussed politics and the upcoming elections through text messaging. The smartphone b oom since the last election means social media plays a b igger role, as do apps and mob ile ads. According to Localytics, Democrats prefer the iPhone while Repub licans favour Android. Mob ile voter registration is now offered in 13 states and has seen hundreds of thousands added to the electoral roll and personally, I feel phone or online voting should b e enab led, alb eit with strict measures in place. With voter turnout growing ever lower, it may b e an effective way of increasing the voter b ase. Despite the talk of followers, likes and engagement, the young vote less than the old, and the old use the internet less than the young. So there's no guarantee sentiment will b e converted into votes. How effectively the sentiment of the internet has really b een channelled will b e revealed at the polls.

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17/10/2012

IDG Connect Dan Swinhoe (US)- #Romney vs. #Obama & Big Bird: Social Media in the US Elect

By Dan Swinhoe, Editorial Assistant, IDG Connect Image courtesy of openroadsopendreams

How engaged are you with politics on social media? Do you follow Obama or Romney? Let us know below.

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