Social Media Analysis: The blogs of two would be "top dogs"

In honor of Blog World Expo...which I am NOT attending (follow the Tweet Stream here) I thought it would be fun to add another in my series on Social Media and the Presidential Campaign and how they are using their "official" blogs to communicate with you and I -- the people of this great nation.

First and foremost let's get really clear on what a BLOG is.

According to Knol (Googles response to the academic backlash against Wikipedia) poster Duncan Riley,

A Blog is a website that consists of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically and underpinned with a content delivery system which provides the ability to deliver content frequently and with little skill. Blogs have a strong focus on building meaningful social connections or virtual communities on any and all subject matters.

This works pretty well for my purpose today, which is to examine the blogs of Barack Obama and John McCain. That last sentence, in particular about "building meaningful social connections" is pretty key.

How are the campaigns using their blogs? How are they using technology to "build meaningful social connections"? Well in past posts I've highlighted how both campaigns are tossing out the MySpace and Facebook links and creating social spaces within their own sites. I've show how the campaigns are fumbling (like the text message VP announcement of Obama) and how they've nailed it such as McCain's site redesign or Obama's fun ring tones. It leaves the sense that the campaigns are innovative and are using technology to leverage their messages in new and engaging ways.

Or not.

First of all staffers are doing the blogging. Ok. I get it. Barack and John are busy guys. They have TV appearances and the same speech to deliver in every "battleground" city all over the country (well, not here in Vermont). They have snarky ads to approve (snarky, my new word of the day...had to work it in here), and fingers to point (ok, now that's me being snarky). There's no time to draft a blog post that personally reaches out to your constituents and the voting public. Those ads are just plain good enough. Um. Yeah.

I've been subscribed to the Obama Twitter for some time and I get a tweet every time there's a speech in some town (usually in Michigan) directing me to their site to watch the live speech. Ohhh Ahhh.

So why am I being so cranky about this? It's because it drives me crazy that they aren't using their blogs in a way that bypasses all the traditional political idiocy. Want some examples? Of course you do!

Obama

1. Voices for Change: Teresa in Michigan. A political sob-story about a troubled American. Nice touch at the end of the post -- a big red DONATE button.
2. Barack Obama on the Terrorist Attack in Pakistan. Copy of their official statement. Same thing I'll hear on the news channels and at those speeches.
3. Democratic Radio Address: Senator Obama on the Current Financial Crisis with a link to the radio address (wonder why this one didn't come through on my Twitter!).

McCain

1. Weekly Radio Address with link to the audio file.
2. Report on a McCain-Palin Event in Minnesota. Yeah. Picture of a big crowd. Update urges me to go to the action center to "take action".
3. Report from a McCain-Palin Event in Iowa. No pictures of this one.

Not one of these things brings me closer to understanding either candidate. I'm being refed and recycled the same stuff I can get anywhere else.

So what SHOULD they do?

Leverage the technology of course. Write something PERSONAL and PERSONABLE and not handled. For example wouldn't it be nice to go to the blog and see that Barack has written something like this:

Between speech stops and trying to figure out how to best address the folks in *insert struggling town here* as we watch the financial crisis unfold. This isn't about fluff like "from wallstreet to mainstreet". This is a financial crisis unlike any we've seen and it will be my job to take the reigns and make a difference. How will I do that? We need to protect the taxpayer and the homeowner. We need to make sure retirement plans are strong. I plan to examine.....insert actual stuff here... Well...times up. The bus has just pulled in to *insert town here*.

So that just took me about 2 minutes.

Imagine going to the McCain blog and reading something like this:

And you folks don't think I know how to use a computer! I'm very troubled by the economic issues we are facing. Just a few days ago, I said the fundamentals of our economy were strong. And then overnight we face perhaps the biggest financial crisis of our country. Like you I am saddened and more than a little frustrated. I believe in free markets and do not like to have too much regulation, and yet, there are times when we have to step in and now is clearly one of those times. In my speech in *insert town here* in the next hour, I'll be outlining what I think should be done. Yes there will need to be regulation and yes there will need to oversight but at the same time it is vital we strike a balance.

But I don't think I will ever see any of this.

Why?

Because they are afraid. All of them -- you know the them I reference. The handlers and advisers and dare I say PR and Marketing folks (shame on you!) who want to control everything. Script it all. Avoid room for mistakes.

Blogs are there to build connection and what these campaigns are doing is just using a space on their website to allow a group of people to write stuff that is all about give me money and here's my new attack ad and here's this sob story so you should vote for us...

Sigh.

No innovation here.

Of course, perhaps there's nothing wrong with this at all and I'm just a naive, out of touch academic who has no real understanding of the political process.

Social Media and the Presidency: Site evolution, playing games and contrasting messages

Sen. McCain's site has gone through another evolution. It's tighter, even easier to navigate, less cluttered and right to the point. A little "straight talk design" maybe? Notice the emphasis on energy policy?


My earlier post on this shows some of the evolution as the campaign moved from dark to light and made things easier to find. At the same time, they continue to focus on trying to maintain control -- there's the McCain Space (vs. MySpace) and that nifty push to get people to post on blogs and how to do it (I like this). Hard to find the social networks and as I wrote in the earlier post they are still focusing on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook.

I like the evolution. The site packs more power. They've done an excellent job using design, images and text to make their point without making people wade through so much information they don't know where to go.

But...what's really fun is the new game that has been posted on his site. It's called "Pork Invaders". To be honest I'm not sure if McCain is the first to do this (probably not) but what I like here is not just the fact that the game is on the site, but you can grab the code and put it on your site AND you can add it to your Facebook. So now they begin to see how to create synergy between the main site and the social media sites.

Wanna play? (notice how you can "join the team" with one click)






It's like the McCain Campaign has a sense of humor or something. Hmmm....

By the way it was a big fundraising deadline last night (June 30th) and you would certainly know it this morning (July 1) by looking at both candidates blogs:

Obama: Deadline Closing In
by Amanda Scott Monday, June 30, 2008 at 11:43 PM
Remember, the deadline for June fundraising is midnight local time. Help the campaign build our 50 State strategy and bring change to Washington. Every donation counts!

McCain: Posted at 9:43 AM on 6/30/2008 by matt_lira
Travel with John McCain Every person who makes a contribution, of any amount, by midnight tonight will be entered in a drawing to join John McCain on the Straight Talk Express for a day. Click here to participate.

Um...it is the July 1st now folks. Where's the update? Do I ask for too much? It's almost 9:00 a.m. EST Time. Both of these blogs should provide some info. Anyway, just by this much of a posting can you see the contrast in the two campaigns? McCain will let you win a ride with him on his straight talk bus if you contribut...Obama is earnest and wants us to help him bring change to Washington (think intrinsic reward).

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't provide equal time and one thing I don't think I've talked about at the Obama site yet is the Mobile Text with really cool ring tones -- in a mix of musical genres. Wish I had any sense of musical ability so I could list them, but I distinctly got hip-hop, techno, country and I think marching band (grin).

Not sure how I feel about the whole ring tone thing -- and yet, it is a great and subtle way to get people to spread the word for sure. I wonder how this one is doing for the campaign.

Next post will be a blog analysis. Why? Because I'm noticing that the blogs are becoming less and less about information and more and more about showing off a video or begging for money. What is the roll of a blog in a political campaign when you have a website to provide information on issues? Um...commentary maybe?

On a final note, some recent buzz on the social media series here at my blog:

1. Tracking Obama's, McCain's Use of Social Media at AppScout (from PCMagazine)
2. Aggregate blog Social GaGA links to the AppScout Story

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?

And the field gets smaller and smaller

Been a bit since I've posted. In that time...

Kucinich dropped out on Jan. 25th leaving a nice little message on his website, but hardly any ripples in the news media.

Obama won S. Carolina and gained "momentum" (more on that later).

and yesterday McCain won the Republican primary in Florida (check out the Huffington Post for a great recap of that one!).

This morning we hear that John Edwards is dropping from the race now as well as Giuliani. Let's see what their websites have to offer ...

As of 9:20 a.m. nothing at the Edwards site. Remember he had a bunch of the social networking things including Twitter -- my Twitter has not gone off, but my CNN alert sure has.

As of 9:20 a.m. nothing for Giuliani on his site either.

I'll check back after class. See if there is a difference/change.

Where's Wyoming?

Today is the Republican Caucus in Wyoming. Yep. Big news. Um...didn't even make a "blip" on CNN Headline news this morning as they talked about politics and showed footage from New Hampshire.

This news item from CBSNews Online tells the story...sort of: GOP Ignores Jan. 5 Wyoming Conventions. In the story it is clear that the candidates aren't paying much attention to Wyoming and its 28 delegates [UPDATE 1/6/08 -- its 14! NYTimes had 28 yesterday and has upsted to 14 so they did get penalized for moving the primary forward] (out of 2,500 approx total). Poor Wyoming. What happens when a state party moves it's primary/caucus up to get more attention and they are STILL overshadowed by Iowa and New Hampshire? Tsk tsk...Poor Wyoming...

Here's today's schedule for Wyoming and here is where the results are supposed to be posted (it's an excel file -- not super high tech, but it works if they update it). Looks like the earliest one starts at 8:00 a.m. and the latest at 5:30 p.m.

Let's see who cares....

• Giuliani: Clearly doesn't care. Not a mention on the website or the blog.
• Huckabee: Really cares...about New Hampshire. Sorry Wyoming..no mention there either.
• Hunter: Well I can load the site today. Um...still has an Iowa countdown. No mention of Wyoming...or New Hampshire for that matter. Hello?? Anyone Home??
• Keyes: Hey -- Wyoming is actually on the Calendar on the home page! Wow! This of course from a candidate who is struggling to get anyone to report his results in Iowa.
• McCain: Um...nope. Doesn't care. Even in the state listings there is NO Wyoming. And no Wyoming on the blog either.
• Paul: Nope. Doesn't care. Care's about New Hampshire for sure...but not Wyoming.
• Romney: Don't feel the love here either. Under upcoming events NH, SC and MI get billing...but no Wyoming.
• Thompson: OMG! on the "Fred File" there is actually a post that says, "Help Fred in Wyoming!" And it's on the Home page of the site! Wow! That's it.

So while I like to think that I'm not naive when it comes to politics I admit to being surprised at the total lack of media coverage and news about this caucus. Explain to me how this shows the candidates are inclusive and care about the country as a whole? Seems almost like Vermont! I guess I shouldn't be surprised really. So...sorry Wyoming.

From one small state to another, look at it this way, at least the President has visited YOUR state (grin).

Presidential Candidate Social Media Analysis #11: Sen. John McCain (R)

Social Media Analysis: Sen. John McCain (R)

Sen. John McCain has the following:

• Website: http://www.johnmccain.com OR http://www.exploremccain.com
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/johnmccaindotcom
• MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/johnmccain
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/person.php?id=2307258706
• Eventful: http://eventful.com/performers/P0-001-000016098-5/demand
• Huddlez.com: http://www.huddlez.com/hotdiscussions.jsp?s=1187115252203078
• Blog: http://www.johnmccain.com/Blog/ AND/OR http://mccainblogette.com/index.shtml (read below for more on this!)

Website: The McCain campaign site has some surprises in store. First of all from a design perspective, they’ve gone with a black and white and shades of grey motif which actually looks pretty good! It’s a clean and easy to navigate site – like most of the others this campaign has an action center which they are calling “McCain Space”, there’s a big red contribute button (several as a matter of fact) and a lot of video on the site. The campaign has actually done a good job of incorporating video that is quick to load and well placed. They’ve done a mix of YouTube and internal video. The press section is by far the best I’ve seen so far with a good mix of information including campaign photos, a spot for the media to join and news. Unfortunately they are leading with a story from Sept. 15th, and their news roll is below that – small mistake, but one that they should rectify. The issues section also provides a great mix of text and video. Nice touch!

From the home page there is information on social media sites: Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and eventful.

There is also a blog, where I got quite the surprise! Just several days ago John McCain’s daughter launched her blog called “McCainBlogette.com” which, while not part of the Senator’s presidential campaign, IS following the campaign from a different point of view. So there is the main campaign blog site where staffers are dumping in video and news items (not much of a blog) and now there is the daughter’s “non-official” blog. Read more on both of these below!
Overall this site is strong – the layout is clean and easy to follow and there is a good mix of video. The downside? The social media are present on the home page, but once you leave the homepage they are gone. Also this campaign is trying to get people to stay on their site (like many of the campaigns) so followers can create their own site at the McCain Space – but again, why would someone do that? None of these are being found in the search engines. What’s the point? (But…more on this point of view at the end of the series!)

YouTube: The campaign has done a great job of tying together the main website and the YouTube site. It’s clear they belong together. Still, not the YouTube I’d like to see – less advertising and more one-on-one conversation – that whole straight talk thing that McCain is pushing could work very well here with some more direct and shorter pieces. Back off on the polish a bit and go more edgy. Not much depth here at all – and no real push for a profile and groups to really capitalize on YouTube. 1,644 subscribers.

MySpace: Don’t bother clicking on the MySpace icon from the home page of the McCain website – it doesn’t work! It takes the user to the home page for MySpace, not the MCCAIN MySpace site. Oops! This site is also tied very nicely to the campaign site. Good continuity. Overall there are a lot of different videos and a link to Eventful. The most recent MySpace blog entry is from August! The most action this site is getting is from the “friends” – doesn’t seem that there is much updating going on here. 39,159 Friends

Facebook: The Facebook account for the Campaign requires that people log in – I guess the folks at the campaign haven’t set up the public search feature yet. Basic information here. They have incorporated the newsvine application, are listing groups and have photos up. Not much else – doesn’t look like they have created an official Facebook group either. 11,576 Supporters

Eventful: The McCain campaign is running a “Demand” through Eventful. Currently the Candidate is demanded by 2,649 people in over 200 places. I wonder if he’ll make them all.

Huddlez: A social grouping site for discussion. Doesn’t look like much is going on here – only a few people and the posts were from August. Not sure if this is even worth linking to.

Search Results: An initial search on Google for “Mcain” (yep, I typed it wrong) revealed a sponsored link at the top for the John McCain Campaign! Nicely done folks! There is was also a paid ad for the Fred Thompson campaign. Looks like that’s where the Thompson campaign sees a threat! A correctly spelled search on Google resulted in top organic results for the campaign site, WikiPedia.com, the senate site, and news results. The MySpace site was listed at #7. Sponsored Ads were purchased here as well by the campaign. Over at Yahoo! the campaign site comes up on top, then the senate site, WikiPedia.com, news items, the McCain PAC: Straight Talk America, and MySpace at #9. The campaign has also purchased sponsored listings here. At Live, it’s a different story. Live hasn’t indexed the candidate websites homepage – or at least isn’t listing it. The first sites are the senate site, then the food company (which is mixed in on the others as well, just not third!), WikiPedia.com, then the exploratory committee site for McCain, (which is now a mirror image of the main site) and then a deep link to multimedia for the candidate site – but not a direct link to the home page! The campaign has also purchased a sponsored link here too. Someone is on the ball at the McCain campaign!

Depending on which option you click, you get a different part of the site – either the splash page or the home page.

Blog: So there are two blogs. The official candidate blog which is really a video show case with little notes interspersed. Of course, the comments are always the fun things to read! Overall though, this blog is ho-hum. Not being picked up by the search engines, opportunity really missed. As to the daughter’s blog, it is too soon to tell, but from the beginnings there are a few things that are missing – no RSS feed (whoops! but there is no RSS on dad’s either) and no ability to comment, so it’s more of a reporting then a blog, really. There are three contributors to it, and it will be interesting to see how it progresses and what type of visibility it gains. Already a quick search revealed several different bloggers blogging about the blogettes (um…did I just do that?). I suppose we will have to check back in on it – at the moment there are only a few postings and they are about parties…not political ones, but rather fundraising ones…so I guess one could argue that they are political. Here’s an interesting one to watch. [Spoiler – perhaps this is a nod to the Romney campaign and their blog “Five Brothers”? More on that in the Romney analysis!]

Recommendations: Interesting mix of pros and cons for the McCain Campaign. From a search perspective they are clearly leaving nothing to chance and are using CPC – which IMHO is a good way to go. The site is clean and easy to navigate and clearly communicates his message. There is continuity among the social networking sites the campaign is using which also ties things together. At the same time, the campaign is not fully leveraging the opportunities for social search. Every site should be linked from every other site – and this is not happening consistently. Also, because they are choosing to keep things within the action center they are loosing opportunity for greater online visibility – this certainly isn’t the only candidate to do this, however. Overall a good site. They are focusing on only some of the social media, which I think is a good strategy, however they aren’t leveraging each one nearly enough to its fullest potential. More could be done and more needs to be done if this candidate is to increase his presence online.