Presidential Candidate Social Media Analysis #15: Gov. Mitt Romney (R)

Social Media Analysis: Gov. Mitt Romney (R)

Gov. Mitt Romney has the following:

• Website: http://www.mittromney.com/
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/GovMittRomney
• MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/mittromney
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mittromney
• Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mittromney
• Blog: http://fivebrothers.mittromney.com/

Website: There’s that splash page! However in this case, there is a countdown to the Caucus in Iowa and a video from the candidate himself, along with call to actions on how to get involved, volunteer and a link to the Iowa HQ. This site like most so far has the red white and blue, and the clean clear layout that so many of the sites have – it’s easy to navigate and find what you want and less overwhelming than many of the candidate sites. There’s the “Join Team Mitt” (aka Action center) on the right and the moving imagery dominating the main section of the site. There’s news, upcoming events and Mitt TV as well as the Mitt store, and Mobile Mitt. Finally at the bottom in the lower right hand corner is the social media links: YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and MySpace.

There is the great little pitch that comes from Tagg Romney – you open up the site and suddenly a voice starts up and then in your lower right hand part of the screen is a little Tagg Romney doing the pitch – a “walk over” if you will. He even points at the website!
This is an indicator that this site is sophisticated without being pretentious – there are many areas in this site where they have utilized technology tools to make gaining information easier such as the use of Mitt TV and even the Team Mitt, which provides a dashboard to let the user know how many people they have engaged, how much money they have raised, etc. Not that I agree with it (as you know), but this one looks to be the most sophisticated.

At the same time the information on the site is just enough to provide a brief overview – somewhat like a “cliff notes” version. Where other candidates (Democrats) leave you swimming in a sea of words and plans, the Romney site provides “plans” that are more like quick position papers with graphs and charts. It’s digestible, and comes with a video to help you along the way, along with quotes from the candidate. I really like how this information is provided. The Campaign is using the medium well here!

The news section is well organized and provides information on news releases, events, debates and even what people are writing about on the web (wonder if this will get play?). What’s really nice is the use of posting tools such as post to Facebook, delicious and Digg! Well done! All the news is available via RSS as well.

The blog is unique in this campaign as it isn’t a bunch of staffers, but rather…the candidate, his wife and five sons. More on this below…suffice to say that I think this campaign has GOT THE RIGHT IDEA!! Sweet!

YouTube: The YouTube site is up to date and quite current with the new ad that was released today (The National Review) playing stage right. Like most of the candidates the videos are of others, news spots, or speeches. Not much on the direct to the people approach. Too bad. He’s got one on the MySpace site which is pretty good. Should do more of that. 3,613 subscribers.

MySpace: So here’s another MySpace page that has a mix of things going on. Not outstanding, but certainly not horrible. It is here where there is actually a video from the candidate welcoming people to his MySpace page. There are a mix of videos, some music (not quite what I expected!) and badges galore! And…a paypal application right on the MySpace page! (Nice…good use of tools to support what they are doing). Of course, they might want to do something about the ads along the top…”Searching for a Real Conservative? Check out Mike Huckabee!” Oops! 32,154 friends.

Facebook: Pretty much the same as all, although in this case there is a discussion board that is actually a bit active -- real discussions going on. Nice. 22,748 Supporters

Flickr: Good photos. The profile is filled out and includes (can you believe it!) image links to “Team Mitt”, MySpace, Facebook and YouTube! Wow! Actually linking between all the main social media sites. Who woulda thunk it? (grin).

Search Results: A search on “Romney” at Google provides a listing of the candidate sites at first and second places, followed by WikiPedia.com and then a “fan” blog, a state fan site, then MySpace and news items. Here is where the CPC gets interesting – local activists (Iowa global warming) to the one campaign to someone hawking a book about the true “Mormon Agenda” are all available under sponsored ads. A search on “Mitt Romney” reveals a similar listing that also includes the YouTube site and several additional news sites. Huckabee is running a CPC campaign here – interesting. They bought “Mitt Romney” but not “Romney”. hmmm… At Yahoo! the candidate’s site is number one, with WikiPedia.com second. MySpace comes in fifth with other news sites sprinkled about. CPC here is minimal with no other candidates vying for attention. Searching using the candidate’s full name provides similar results with a fan blog (not the same as the one in Google) showing up as well. Two different MySpace pages come up: MySpace.com/mittromney and MySpace.com/voteromeny. The MittRomney site is the official one and is the one reviewed above. Over at Live a search for Romney brings the candidate site at number one, the WikiPedia.com entry at second and a host of different romneys, from a town to sheep! Not much going on with the CPC sponsored listings either other than a “truth about a Mormon in the White House” book listing (jeez!). Searching on the full name provides a listing of different sites including the main campaign site and WikiPedia.com along with deep links into the candidate’s site. Again, no big CPC going on here, just the book again.

Overall good results at the top three search engines. No major CPC going on from the campaign – at least on the primary searching. I do believe they have purchased keywords for other campaigns, however.

Blog: Did I mention already that I LOVE this blog? Not only is it just the family…but it is so easy to navigate – with links to each person on the left hand side AND RSS subscription too! The blogging is done primarily by the boys – Mitt’s last entry was for Sept. 11th. Would be valuable for him to toss one in there soon! This adds such a nice personal touch to the candidate and really captures what blogging is about. Comments can be made and each post is connected to Digg, Delicious and Facebook. Well done! I would have to say that in my opinion this is one of the best blogs out there because it really helps people get insight into the candidate and his family in a way that staffers just cannot do. There is also a fairly decent blog roll going on as well as links to MySpace and Facebook (gotta love that linking!).

Recommendations: Well to be frank there really aren’t a lot of recommendations I would give. Overall the site is well constructed and easy to follow, the social media sites, while not outstanding are updated, current and link to each other (the KEY in social media). I think if anything I would recommend that the candidate consider a banner ad campaign on major online properties – something I think all campaigns should be doing. They can focus on local spots as well as national play too. I would like to see more personal one-on-one from the candidate -- more blogging and even video blogging would be great -- it takes about 5 minutes and can be done in transit between places and then loaded to the website, Myspace or Facebook. Could use it to start a conversation or get people to do something specific.

Bottom line: Keep up the good work and get people TALKING about you on your social media sites.