Social Media Analysis at the local level: The Vermont Race for Governor
I was interviewed today by Kristin Carlson of local CBS affiliate WCAX about the Vermont Gubernatorial Race and how the candidates are using social media, specifically YouTube, to post online videos about themselves and their opponents.
That got me thinking that perhaps I should do the same thing on the local level for our Governor's race that I've done for the presidency...so here goes!
As of this typing (smile) there are four candidates for Vermont Governor that I am aware of (have I missed anyone?):
- Gov. Jim Douglas (R): The current governor running for re-election
- Gaye Symington (D): Former speaker of the House of Representatives
- Anthony Pollina (I or P, depending on how you lean): Perennial candidate for some office
- Sam Young (I): Newly announced candidate probably most famous for getting his site shut down by facebook a week or so ago.
Gov. Jim Douglas
A quick Google search on "Jim Douglas for Governor" brought this site right up (no ad words campaigns being used by the other candidates, however the Vermont Captive Insurance Industry does have a sponsored listing...odd). Nothing really out of the ordinary here, frankly it's a bit boring. Ok. No it's not a bit boring...it's REALLY BORING. BUT...notice the little FACEBOOK Icon down at the bottom of the homepage? Also there's this really interesting link to a YouTube Video the campaign has posted about Gaye Symington and how she is anti-IBM. And, very cool, by the way, they have pulled in a Google Calendar...it's empty and shows no activity...but we'll give the campaign points for at least putting it there!
So it's clear that this campaign has a Facebook site and a YouTube site.
At the FB site there are 583 supporters, two photo albums, some posted video from YouTube, 1 fan video, 70 Wall posts, and a voice message. What's missing? Well no discussions. So the campaign is treating this as a place to post things but they are missing the main point -- engaging with the audience. Interesting that there are no discussion topics to find out what people might be interested in or concerned about.
The YouTube site is a bit trickier to find. It's clear they have one but doing a search on Jim Douglas doesn't get to a Gov. Jim Douglas YouTube site. It does, however reveal a GREAT adword from the Pollina campaign:
2 More Years of Douglas Think Vermont needs a change in leadership? Learn
about Pollina. http://www.anthonypollinaforgovernor.com/
Perhaps a search on "Governor Douglas" -- nope. So resort to double-clicking the YouTube video from the Governr's site and you get DouglasforGovernor at YouTube. Two videos posted. Two subscribers (ok, now three that I signed up) and two comments on the one Symington video. Ho Hum. What could they do? A direct link to the campaign YouTube site and get people to subscribe. Load more video. Get people to comment. Start a conversation.
Of course, as the incumbent, resting on your laurels, whether they be real or virtual isn't necessarily a bad thing either!
Searching for Gaye Symington on Google doesn't quickly reveal a campaign site. There are lots of other sites that come up...but the campaign site doesn't hit until seventh on the list. No sponsored ads or adwords here from her competition. Her site looks more polished and very, dare I say it, "Obama-like" or Democracy for America-like:
Notice the support videos, the icons and blocky feel and the Facebook and YouTube links. Also the Google Calendar here is populated with events! (by the way if you didn't know this you can subscribe to that calendar in your own Google calendar...that way you ALWAYS know where Gaye is!) The supporter videos are a nice touch -- especially on the homepage!
Clicking the link to the FB group reveals a REALLY BIG PICTURE OF GAYE!!!! Wow! Um...note to the campaign, smaller picture = better. Big picture = scary. 184 supporters at this group, 3 videos, a Google calendar feed, 7 wall posts, and well...that's it. Pretty quiet in there.
Over at YouTube (direct link thank you!) there are 13 videos and 5 subscribers (one of which is me) and not too much commenting going on. Same advice here that I gave above for Gov. Douglas.
Some good things going on here -- the burning question, will it help?
A Google search on "Anthony Pollina" brings up the campaign site right away. No Adwords or sponsored listings, though. The site, as you can see is very very very very long....and I still cut off the bottom part where it lets you "Digg" the site.
What they've got going on here is a video right up front, news items, links to FB and Myspace, as well as the ability to add code to your website that has "progressive" messaging on it -- I like this, but they aren't showing us what it would look like. Oops!
I took the direct link to FB and found that Pollina has no face -- just a logo. Um, campaign folks, while I don't advocate for the BIG FACE like Symington has, some kind of face would be good here. 139 supporters, the Google calendar application, video and notes. No discussion here either folks.
The MySpace page for Pollina at least has a face on it (smile), as well as a BIG MOOSE in the background --isn't that the progressive party symbol? I thought he was an independent? Anyway, he's got 24 friends and 1 "thanks for adding me as a friend" comment. Yawn.
So what about YouTube? No direct link from the website and all the video on the website is from BlipTV. I did a search and it was easy. So the candidate does have a YouTube site. It's just not linked to from the website. Perhaps they should try linking them together -- yeah...that's the ticket!
Sam Young is new to this contest. We've already seen that he was busy using FB to friend people which got him in a bit of hot water with the FB spam patrol, so now he can't reach out to you...but you can still friend him (grin). A Google search on Sam Young reveals lot's of other Sam Youngs...so we'll narrow that one down to Sam Young, Vermont -- Bingo! We have a winner. First listing.
Another really long site but this one is really pushing the social media. Right up front there are links to Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn and Digg. There's even a donate button powered by Pay-pal. He's got a theme song and is rockin the many different apps that come when you use a content management system such as Joomla. He knows his stuff for sure. There's also a prominent RSS feed and even an email sign up. All of these are great features -- but my advice here is to be sure he doesn't spend all of his time online because he'll need to reach voters using all the media. He's using a great application from "IdeaSource" -- you MUST check this out. This is a very nice feature and a way to engage with people who are interested in the campaign. He's promoting it via FB and Twitter so far.
Over at FB he is running a global group AND his own personal site. The difference? Features mostly. Each one has different functionality. At the group, he's got 150 members. At the personal site (the one he got clipped for) he's got 1,118 friends.
His MySpace page has a lot of the same content and here he has 162 friends.
He is the FIRST local candidate I've seen so far to use TWITTER! Which I found on his Facebook page, not his website -- time to add that one in Sam! Oh...and add an image to your Twitter page please. I'm one of his three followers.
Now on to YouTube. Um...maybe not. The only video on his site is from Stuck in Vermont over at Seven Days. Perhaps that is coming.
Wrap-up and Analysis
So our four local candidates for Governor seem to be mirroring quite nicely the national campaigns attempts at using social media. Some are trying more than others but no one is hitting what I would call a home run. They all need to be more intentional about what tools they are using and they need to make sure that anyone can find any of the tools from whatever place they are at. If I'm at YouTube, I should be able to find Young's Twitter, or Symington's Facebook. If I'm at Facebook I should be able to see Pollina's MySpace and YouTube. If I'm at Douglas' website I should be able to see not just Facebook but his YouTube site and any others. That's the key.
Kristen asked me today how would the campaigns know what "worked". I told her it all has to do with metrics and deciding what you think is a success -- the number of subscribers or supporters or visits. However, in the end none of that will matter. It will be who got the most votes at the polls.
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