Pete Quily just saved me a few hours of work by publishing a fantastic Presidential Election/social media scorecard that outlines how the Obama campaign took advantage of social media and the internet to supercharge his grassroots movement all the way to victory. Remember the jokes about his having been a “community organizer?” It appears that the ability to create, organize and engage communities is a pretty useful skill after all. Combine it with social media, and you can work some serious magic – both in the political world AND the business world. If the Obama campaign’s success with social media strategies don’t convince CEOs and CMOs across the US that this “search”, Facebook and Twitter stuff is serious business, I don’t know what will.
Here are the numbers:
Barack Obama Vs. John McCain Search Engine and Social Media Showdown
| Internet Presence |
Barack Obama
|
John McCain
|
% Difference
|
Leading
|
| Google Pagerank |
8
|
8
|
0
|
|
| Pages in Google’s Index |
1,820,000
|
30,700
|
5828 |
Obama
|
| Links to Website in Yahoo – Pages |
643,416
|
513,665
|
25 |
Obama
|
| Links to Website in Yahoo – Inlinks |
255,334
|
165,296
|
54 |
Obama
|
Search Engine Results for Candidates Names in Quotes & Social Media Presence
|
56,200,000
|
42,800,000
|
31 |
Obama
|
|
| Google News |
136,000
|
371,620
|
173 |
McCain
|
| Google Blog |
4,633,997
|
3,094,453
|
50 |
Obama
|
| Technorati |
412,219
|
313,497
|
31 |
Obama
|
| WordPress.com |
19,692
|
14,468
|
36 |
Obama
|
| Google Image |
24,200,000
|
8,620,000
|
181 |
Obama
|
| Flickr |
73,076
|
15,168
|
382 |
Obama
|
| Flickr Photostream* | 50,218 | No Profile | 50,218 |
Obama
|
| Flickr Contacts* | 7,148 | No Profile | 7,148 |
Obama
|
| Google Video |
136,000
|
89,800
|
51 |
Obama
|
| Youtube |
358,000
|
191,000
|
87 |
Obama
|
| Youtube Videos Posted* |
1,819
|
330
|
451 |
Obama
|
| Youtube Subscribers* |
117,873
|
none listed
|
117,873 |
Obama
|
| Youtube Friends* |
25,226
|
none listed
|
25,226 |
Obama
|
|
567,000
|
18,700
|
2932 |
Obama
|
|
| Facebook Supporters* |
2,444,384
|
627,459
|
290 |
Obama
|
| Facebook Wall Posts* |
495,320
|
132,802
|
273 |
Obama
|
| Facebook Notes* |
1,669
|
125
|
1235 |
Obama
|
| MySpace |
859,000
|
319,000
|
169 |
Obama
|
| MySpace Friends* |
844,781
|
219,463
|
285 |
Obama
|
| MySpace Comments* |
147,630
|
none listed
|
147,630 |
Obama
|
|
506,000
|
44,800
|
1129 |
Obama
|
|
| Twitter Followers* |
121,314
|
4,911 |
2470 |
Obama
|
| Twitter Updates* |
262
|
25 |
1048 |
Obama
|
| Friend Feed |
34,300
|
27,400
|
25
|
Obama
|
The statistic that should sum it all up: John McCain’s social network page has only 3 suggested sites, Obama’s suggests 16. One side understood how to seed social media channels to foster grass roots movements while the other had absolutely no idea what to do with social media beyond the obvious (using YouTube as a broadcast channel, and probing the value of Facebook/MySpace communities).
The Twitter Factor
Take a look at the Twitter numbers (in blue): Only 25 updates for @JohnMcCain vs. 262 updates for @BarackObama.
Less than 5,000 followers for John McCain vs. 121,300 followers for Barack Obama.
Boiled down to the basics: 10x more updates for Obama = almost 25x more followers for Obama.
Note: John McCain’s social networking site sadly makes zero reference to Twitter. Missed opportunity? Probably: One of the most notable effects of the McCain campaigns lack of focus on Twitter was obvious during the final few weeks of the campaign: A significant pro-Obama bias which left many McCain supporters alienated on the exploding live micro-blogging service. Instead of feeding John McCain’s social-media savvy army of supporters on Twitter, his campaign left them with little to do but huddle together and stand fast against a deluge of pro-Obama chatter. Imagine what YOU could do with 5,000 organized followers/customer/fans rooting for you on Twitter. Not understanding the value of these channels most certainly cost the McCain campaign dearly in the final weeks of leading to the Nov. 4 elections.
Why should anyone care about Twitter? One word: Numbers. According to stats provided by compete.com last month, Twitter’s year-over-year growth clocked at 573% in September 2008 vs. Facebook’s very respectable 84% YoY growth and MySpace’s negative 15% YoY growth. (Yep, MySpace’s unique visits are apparently shrinking.) Twitter’s growth is staggering.
At this rate, it may take less than 3 years for Twitter’s estimated 2.5 million* visitors to reach Facebook’s current 100 million* mark. When you consider that presidential elections can be won or lost by just a few thousand votes, it doesn’t take a social media expert to understand the extent to which Twitter WILL play a vital role in the 2012 presidential race.
* Worldwide numbers. Not US numbers. It is estimated that approximately 40% of Twitter users are in the United States.
Below: Twitter demographics (usage by age and gender). If you’re a student looking for a cool project involving social media, overlay this data with voter demographics and see what you find out.
To understand the full extent of the Obama campaign’s digital and social media strategies in these historic elections click here: Blue State Digital’s case study on the Obama online campaign is pretty comprehensive. (Political science, communications and marketing students will be studying this for years to come.)
Read Pete’s full post here. Great stuff.
Have a great Friday, everyone! 🙂
