Election 08: candidates face off in social media

by Gordon Finlayson Jun 20th 2008

As the 2008 US presidential election campaign finally approaches full steam, presumtive nominees Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama are facing off in the media to win hearts and minds. But which candidate is making the most of the of online social media services?

A visit to www.barackobama.com shows that the Obama campaign has established itself firmly in the social media world with an offical presence on major services such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn and more specialist sites such as Glee, Eons, MyBatanga, AsianAve and Faithbase.

On the Republican side, John McCain's presidential campaign has developed its basic Web presence with a mult-faceted Web site but McCain lags far behind Obama in terms of presence and supporters in the key online social media battlegrounds.

The McCain campaign currently maintains Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn pages, but lacks a major presence in specialized sites and doesn't currently have an official Twitter presence, though a supporter is currently operating an unofficial Twitter page tracking the candidate's progress in the battle for the White House.

A look at the respective campaigns' Facebook pages is symptomatic of the gap between the campaigns in social media. Obama has a massive lead over McCain on Facebook, where Obama recently surprassed 1 million supporters, as opposed to John McCain's official page which has just 149,505 buddies. The picture is repeated on YouTube where Obama's channel has ten times the number of subscribers of McCain - 58,023 to 5,824.

On MySpace McCain also lags far behind Obama's support with only 55,323 Friends, compared to Obama's 401,807 (maybe John should ask MySpace and Fox owner Rupert Murdoch to give him a hand). John McCain's MySpace page also demonstrates the need for candidates to carefully manage their online presence. John McCain's home page includes a friend comments from user name 'F*ck Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan', hopefully not a indication of McCain's plans in the foreign policy arena.

The social media presences of the two campaigns are summarised below, and as the election continues, we'll come back and review the progress of each as they try to harness support in both the online and offline world.

Election 08 Social Media Showdown

Senator Barack Obama

Twitter http://twitter.com/barackobama 40,400 Followers
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/barackobama 1,019,657 Supporters
MySpace http://www.myspace.com/barackobama 401,807 Friends
YouTube http://www.youtube.com/barackobama Subscribers: 58,023 Channel Views: 14,495,498
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/barackobama 500+ Connections

Senator John McCain

Twitter Unofficial Site http://twitter.com/JohnMcCain2008 1,166 Followers
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/johnmccain 149,505 Supporters
MySpace http://www.myspace.com/johnmccain 55,323 Friends
YouTube http://www.youtube.com/johnmccain Subscribers: 5,824 Channel Views: 739,510
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmccaindotcom 500+ Connections

Tags: election, facebook, linkedin, mccain, myspace, obama, technology, twitter

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Todd said 5:15PM on 6-20-2008

Yes but, McCain ( born in 1936!!!! ) has gone on public record admitting he does not know how to use a personal computer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/11/mccain-admits-he-doesnt-k_n_106478.html

So let's all just agree to exclude mentioning him here at the Download Squad ( A blog dedicated TO THE USE OF A PERSONAL COMPUTER! ).

Sean Hackbarth said 1:48AM on 6-21-2008

Not to downplay the great online efforts of the Obama campaign but their Twitter use has a lot to be desired. Sure, they're on it, but I wouldn't say the campaign is active.

Chris said 9:22AM on 6-21-2008

McCain for president!

James said 2:00PM on 6-23-2008

Astoundingly, the dude that's twice as old has fewer supporters who are also technophiles. Never saw that coming.

In other news, the sun is hot and water is wet.

Jacque Denise Yap said 10:22AM on 7-16-2008

well i hope that they also think the current issue in our economic crisis..
The housing market crisis is a major issue in the upcoming US Presidential Election and has a significant impact for all Americans where Obama and McCain talk about in http://pollclash.com/ .just like soaring oil prices are affecting the costs of everything from food to gas and even houses rental. There are also significant issues on local and global environmental impact. While there are many issues, we need to look at our next leader and determine which will have the best course of action going forward. Both candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama are attempting to address the issue and differentiate their positions from one another. And I think that everyone is missing the point of this. We need a new resource. We need a solution to this problem not another way around it…

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