Social Media and the 2008 Presidential Campaign: Obama vs. McCain (and a little bit of Hillary and those left behind)

What better way to kick off my blog after a wee bit of vacation then with coming back to the Social Media Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Campaign? Now that the primaries are officially over (thank goodness!), we are down to two candidates: Obama and McCain.

So let's see how their websites and social media approaches have changed...

McCain (http://www.johnmccain.com/) (note, don't just type in "mccain.com" as you'll get a food company)

BEFORE

TODAY

So Wow.

No more black and grey, stark and serious for Mr. mcCain. It's blue and stars and light blue and green (note that "make a contribution" button in green -- on the right hand side -- yep they want your money for sure! Prime realestate in the "GO" color). Much more cheery!

Also see that "Get Involved" section. Quite nice.

However what I really like is the first time you come to the site you are given an option. You get to choose your edition -- the "supporter", "undecided" or "unregistered voter". This is sweet.

The above screen shot is for the "undecided". So I expected a very different message for each...however...um...well. No. I guess not. A side-by-side comparison of the supporter vs. the undecided reveals no difference that I can see.

When you dig deeper there's another nice thing going on here. The web team is clearly pushing the focus of this campaign on spreading the word beyond the "conservative base". Once you click on "spread the word" from the home page you get the option to look at blogs from the conservative or the liberal side and they give you suggested talking points! Hmmm...wonder where they got that idea from (hint: initials RP -- see my earlier post of the grassroots winner himself!).

There's also a several blogs and the one that is the most interesting, of course is the "Blog you can Believe In" called The McCain Report. Seems similar to the Hillary site that was out there to provide the real facts -- HillaryHub it was called. So this one is to highlight the flaws in Obama's campaign, or news stories or almost anything I guess.

McCain is focusing now on three social networks: Myspace (54, 705 friends, up from 10/2007 when it was 39,159) Facebook (144,343 supporters up from 11,576 in October) and YouTube (5, 614 subscribers, up from 10/2007 when it was 1,644). You don't find these on his home page though. And it took some digging for me to find them. The links are at the bottom of the "Action" page.

So the site has changed, the social networks are more focused and growing, he's got two blogs, and there is a greater emphasis on the overall brand image and appeal to a wider voting public. Quite a change from October of last year (see my original post).

Overall, I'd say a much better improvement! Although I can't help being a bit snarky on this one (pictures say 1,000 words) -- check this one out from his Facebook page (oh, and did you notice the similar picture on the home page of his website?):

OBAMA (http://www.barackobama.com/)

BEFORE

TODAY

Not much difference at all in the Obama website. The main change is that there is no longer the primary states listed on the right side, all the states are now listed under the "state" tab.

Another interesting difference is in an an area that I've commented on before (see my original posting on this) on the focus of this campaign on specific demographic segments of the population. It's a "google-esque" type of play with the Obama Logo. Check it out and see if you can identify these "special interest groups" by the logo:
I'm torn with this approach, although I really like the use of the logo. WAY better than what they were doing before. This is major segmentation and I guess when reading the information that comes with it, it makes a great deal of sense -- each section is specific to that group and highlights information from Obama speeches and from supporters who identify with those specific groups. It's true inclusion which is very cool. However, the risk is that it misses other groups. Men for one. There isn't one for Native Americans either. I'm sure there are others. So by listing out all of these different groups, does it really help them? I wonder.

Obama is still appealing to "everyone" on the social media side.

So how do the numbers compare from before (October 2007)?

Facebook: 979, 253 supporters (153,998 in October)
Myspace: 396,729 friends (182,096 in October)
YouTube: 55,914 subscribers (11,507 in October)
FlickR: 4,940 contacts (n/a in October)
Digg: 18, 707 fans (n/a in October)
Twitter: 38,615 followers (5, 332 in October)
Eventful: 93,979 demands (36,858 in October)
LinkedIn: 500+ connections (can't really see how many others) (n/a in October)
BlackPlanet: 487,910 friends (188,872 in October)
Faithbase: 2,953 friends (145 in October -- note that at that time his profile stated he was "nondenominational". Today it says nothing about his religious affiliation at all. Interesting.
Eons: 295 friends (147 in October)
Glee: 2,053 friends (1,099 in October)
Migente: 49,612 friends (20,244 in October)
MyBatanga: 163 friends (5 friends in October)
AsiaAve: 2, 746 friends (1,209 in October)
DNCPartybuilder: 2,307 friends (754 in October)

So a good bit of growth since I checked back in October of 07. What I have noticed is that the campaign has also gotten better at posting some different information on the different sites -- still not truely segmented the way their website is, and by the way, how come the fancy segemented logos aren't on the different appropriate sites? Small detail, but surprising that it hasn't happened.

Obama now has a fact center -- similar to the Hillary Hub and the McCain Report. Seems the candidates now get the fact that they can actually control the message they put out on their website and provide point/counterpoint info. He'll need it I'm sure.

Ending with this update is this little oops that I'm really surprised the web folks have let slip -- it's on the action center page -- can you find it?