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US Presidential Campaign Using Web 2.0

As it is the eve of Super Tuesday I thought it might be interesting to have a look at how the US presidential campaign is using Web 2.0. An interesting article on Detroit Free Press cites an example of how one of Mike Huckabee’s supporters used the national online network for Huckabee supporters to help with his campaign and rally support. Using the social networking portion of Huckabee’s official Web site, she’d told supporters how to duplicate an event she helped to organize in Westland, offered other volunteers tips on how to contact the media, and rallied supporters.

It is not just specialist networking sites or official websites which are been used by Candidates or supporters. The more popular social networks such as MySpace and Facebook are also being used. Social networks are used to mobilise people as well as to drive fund raisiing. TechPresident.com, a New York-based company which tracks social networking supporters of 2008 presidential candidates, cites this example:

“In Sen. Barack Obama’s Iowa headquarters, young staff members sit at computers, analyzing online voter data and targeting potential backers. They zip one e-mail to an undecided voter and zap a different message to a firm supporter. Depending on the voter, they follow with Facebook reminders, telephone calls, text messages and, most important, house visits.”

Techpresident.com also has some interesting statistics regarding the candidate’s Facebook supporters:

Barack Obama – 340,036 supporters

Hillary Clinton – 86,996 supporters

Mitt Romney – 40,009 supporters

John McCain – 40,100 supporters

Mike Huckabee – 47,354 supporters

Ron Paul – 81,266 supporters

Candidates and supporters are using social networks to drive fund raising, upate supporters on campaign news, invite supporters to events and send out reminders to vote. It will be interesting to see after Super Tuesday if the candidates who used the web the most efficiently see corresponding voting results.

Tags: Facebook, MySpace, social networking, web 2.0