Leveraging the power of social media in Ohio campaigns

Written by Kevin Holtsberry on March 4, 2010 - View Comments
Categories: Campaigns

Interesting article at the Daily Caller: What’s social campaigning got to do with it?

In the 10 states where leading political prognosticators deem the Senate seat a “tossup” (Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania) an analysis of social media tools being employed by the various candidates from Jan. 29-Feb. 6, 2010, revealed some striking results.

Here is the section on Ohio:

Ohio provides yet another example where both candidates could be doing more to launch the social campaign strategies. The presumptive GOP nominee, former Congressman Rob Portman, is only utilizing some bare-bones social media tools; while Portman’s campaign is showing strong Facebook (4,018 fans) and Twitter (1,210 followers) numbers, he has thus far failed to incorporate YouTube, SMS/text, MySpace, LinkedIn, Digg or Widgets. To his credit, all the following are also being used by his campaign: a blog, Flickr, email sign-up and grassroots/action center.

Fortunately for Portman, his two rivals in the Democratic primary—Jennifer Brunner and Lee Fisher—appear similarly situated with their weak social media strategies. Brunner has 2,208 Facebook fans, compared to Fisher’s 2,817 fans; Brunner has 1,286 Twitter followers compared to Fisher’s 806 followers; and both have nearly the same number of YouTube channel views (585 vs. 518, respectively). While Brunner is using SMS/text and a campaign blog, Fisher is a rarity in that he’s using Digg—but neither Brunner nor Fisher has embraced MySpace, LinkedIn or Widgets.

What do you think? Will social media play an important role in Ohio campaigns? Will it be a difference maker or just another component? Who do you think is best utilizing these tools right now?

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  • I think it's going to become more and more difficult for candidates in Ohio--and everywhere, for that matter--to delegate social media to a mere peripheral role in their campaigns. I think a lot of candidates don't yet understand the larger marketing benefits that come along with a substantial social media following (beyond the bragging rights from having a large number of fans or followers).

    And I'm not just talking about statewide candidates, either; I'm seeing a lot of innovative social media strategy being used by local candidates, too, in northeast Ohio and across the country. I'm willing to bet that social media consultants are going to start playing a much more prominent role in high-profile statewide campaigns in the near future.

    Great post by the way, I'm an RSS subscriber and like your stuff.
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