Facebook and College Students

Wow! I'm on a roll! That's what happens when you turn in your dissertation for edits, you are all prepped for class, and it's Labor Day Weekend!

On Wednesday (Aug. 29th) Seven Days (my FAVORITE Weekly!) ran an article about Facebook and College Students and how they are using it to as an outreach tool to incoming frosh. The article highlighted Middlebury (it's ok, they are a good school too!) but also quoted yours truly AND Marketing Major extraordinaire, Dan Bergeron.

Nice article Cathy!

Cathy has since started a Vermont Media Group in Facebook. I wonder if she would like to be a guest speaker in one of my classes...perhaps even in on of my class Facebook Groups...hmmm...could be VERY interesting!

Presidental Candidate Social Media Analysis #7: Sen. Mike Gravel (D)

Social Media Analysis: Sen. Mike Gravel (D)

Mike Gravel has the following:

• Website: http://www.gravel2008.us/


• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=gravel2008


• MySpace: http://myspace.com/mikegravelforpresident


• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/person.php?id=2344438391


• DFA-Link: http://www.dfalink.com/group.php?id=2246


• Blog: http://www.gravel2008.us/blog


• ActBlue: https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/12513


• MeetUp: http://democrat.meetup.com/1056/


• Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/group/gravel2008?hl=en


• Virb: http://www.virb.com/mikegravel08


• SecondLife: http://govirtualforgravel.wordpress.com/2007/06/10/snapshots-from-the-new-gravel-hq/

Website: Fairly basic site, although there is NO SPLASH PAGE! What I like about this site is it is very easy to very quickly figure out gravel’s stand on many different issues, as they have clear statements right on the home page. They are also pulling in a lot of blog and news information that is very current. Big focus on YouTube at this site. It is very very easy to navigate and has few bells and whistles. Clear and straight to the point, much like the candidate himself.

Right at the top on the home page is a call to enter in your email address. When I did that, and clicked submit, it took me directly to their donation page! This is the first candidate website to do that.

There’s an RSS feed for the news items, prominent placement for the official YouTube site, and he has a podcast going. There are no readily apparent links to MySpace, Facebook or any other social media off of the home page. However, hidden under the tab “meet like minds” is a list of the different social media sites that Gravel is involved with. ActBlue, MeetUp, Google Groups, MySpace, Virb, Facebook, YouTube, DFA-Link and Second Life! This is the first candidate I’ve run across who is using Second Life.

ActBlue: Seems like a general site where individuals who have donated money to the campaign can interact with one another. You can see who is supporting the candidate and how much money he has raised within the space. So far, 54 supporters, $2,407.

MeetUp: This is the meeting organizer site that allows people to set up meetings and see who is coming to them. Looks like this group has been in existence since January and they are moderately active. It’s a good site to link to from the main candidate site and I’m surprised that others haven’t done the same.

Google Groups: The first candidate as far as I can tell that is using Google Groups – or at the very least, linking to it. A low use site, it looks like they are feeding in news items, but not much else is going on there. Too bad. Interesting idea to play with, but you need more people involved to make it worth while.

YouTube: Very ACTIVE YouTube site. Links to campaign videos – some of the most interesting and off the wall that are available for any candidate – and links to supporter videos too. One of the best YouTube sites not so focused on the rich TV ads, but more real and focused. More than likely this is due to the fact that the campaign doesn’t have a lot of money. But they get how to use YouTube. 2,686 subscribers

MySpace: Fairly basic MySpace site, although they do link back to the main site, have a focus on getting people to donate and there is the ability for people to cut and paste code onto their own site. There is also a YouTube pull in. Could they do more? Yep. Just not a lot going on here at all. 9471 Friends

Virb: Another social networking site. This one has a clean feel and one that is very easy to navigate. The campaign is using this space for some good general information about candidate, and pulling in a lot of the YouTube video. 42 friends.

DFA-Link: Used by Democracy for America. Only 24 supporters listed here, and very little action. Is it worth linking to? Probably not.

Facebook: Interesting Facebook site. On the surface, fairly normal, and yet, here’s a campaign actually trying to get people to join a group “Rock08” and actively encouraging participation there. They are also using several different applications: “Ask Me Something” and the NewsVine candidate supporter. The Ask Me Something is a clunky application. It looks like the campaign wants to use it so the candidate can ask people questions and get feedback. It’s just recently launched and it will be interesting to see how it goes. Newsvine is a great application – interesting that the Campaign hasn’t placed in on their Facebook! Two groups “Rock08” and “Mike Gravel 2008” are highlighted on this page – there are 2,834 people on the Mike Gravel 2008 group and 16 members of Rock08 (this one is fairly new from the looks of it). This has been the one candidate who has really pushed the group option and formalized it. There are links to MySpace and YouTube as well. 4,607 supporters.

SecondLife: There are some great screen shots of the campaign HQ within Second Life. Since I’m blogging from home…and not at work, I can only go by the screen shots, as I don’t have the system resources to buzz around second life. This is an interesting one to utilize and I would say that this is ahead of its time a bit – not enough people have access or interest in this space to really use it well. However, the campaign should get points for trying! I would say, that they could be publicizing this a lot more aggressively than they are. How? Given their reliance on YouTube, why not a YouTube from within Second Life? If you consider the importance of linking your social media together so each plays off of the other, then this makes a lot of sense.

Blog: There’s not a clear link to his blog on the site, and it looks more like it is being used as an information posting site more than anything else. So the information from the blog is populating the “news” column on the home page, but the word “blog” isn’t used. There could be a lot more here, and it is unfortunate given the candidates outspoken nature that they aren’t doing more with this. For example, there should be more direct postings by the candidate (although I’ve been pointing that out to all of them, haven’t I) and it should be clearer that this is a blog. I think the real issue is that this is more of a forum/discussion area and less of a blog format. Too many clicks to see the postings and responses is a bit of a challenge from a user perspective. It is current though, and that is a bonus.

Search Results: I’m impressed. I expected a much different result when I plugged in “Gravel” in the search bar at Google. First item up was the official campaign website. Next item was the campaign issues page and the third item was WikiPedia.com. It was after that that the stone and gravel sites came up! At Yahoo! there are sponsored ads for rocks, and the WikiPedia.com entry for stone first, but then the WikiPedia.com for the candidate and then the campaign site is listed. MySpace is #9 on the list. Over at Live there are similar results, with the WikiPedia.com entry for the stone first, then for the candidate second, then the candidate site and the MySpace and a YouTube entry as well.

Recommendations: Like many of the candidates, Gravel has some strong points and some weak points when it comes to using social media. The campaign is taking advantage of several different social media outlets, with perhaps their strongest showing in YouTube. They should be doing more cross-linking, and certainly moving the social media sites of Facebook and MySpace to their home page along with YouTube. They should also adjust their site to put more emphasis on the blog. Their SEO is really good and I’m impressed that with a name like “Gravel” they were able to get the top spots. The campaign probably cannot afford to do any CPC, so must really focus on viral and word of mouth – especially given the challenges he is having in getting into debates (but there, folks is a totally DIFFERENT blog posting!). Overall, some good things going on here. Strong YouTube/video but more needs to be done to connect them all. Put your limited resources into the properties with the highest coverage (i.e.: YouTube, MySpace and Facebook) and push those hard. Move away from the others because they are a waste of resources at the moment.

Presidential Candidate Social Media Analysis #6: Rudy Giuliani (R)

My plan was to do a full review of the Giuliani social Media, however, the main campaign site is down, the MySpace is set to private and I cannot find anything on Facebook, save for an application. I will have to revisit this site analysis at a later date.

Presidential Candidate Social Media Analysis #5: John Edwards (D)

Social Media Analysis: John Edwards (D)



*Disclaimer. It’s important to note that I’ve been following the Edwards Campaign for some time and while not an active supporter, I’m certainly leaning in his direction.

John Edwards has the following:

1. Website: http://www.johnedwards.com/
2. YouTube: http://youtube.com/profile?user=johnedwards
3. MySpace: http://myspace.com/johnedwards
4. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/person.php?id=2352506197
5. FlickR: http://flickr.com/people/forallofus/
6. Mobile: text “today” to 30644
7. Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnedwards
8. Blog: http://blog.johnedwards.com/

Note that there is a long list of social media sites that the Edwards site links to. I’ve included a quick review of them all…whew!


Website: Here we go! There’s that splash page! Ok, so here’s the thing. It’s clear I don’t like them. But…I’ve been to this site before … shouldn’t see that splash page anymore! Come on! It’s a simple JavaScript people. If I’ve been here, get me in without seeing that splash page! I can already report that I’ve been getting Edward’s emails for some time, so his email sign up does work and I’m not overwhelmed, but I do keep getting information.


Once past the splash page, I get to the site which is pretty straight forward. Call to action in the far right hand corner (seems to be the place – someone did an eye-tracking study, eh?) to get me to sign up (just in case I missed it on the splash page), contribute, create a personal fundraising page and join “one corps” to volunteer locally. This one is interesting. Clicking on it reveals a beta site that shows the different chapters in each state, profiles and pictures so you can see how many there are, how old they are and how many people are involved. Quite nice.



On the home page there’s a YouTube pull in, recent news and along the right hand side the list of “social networks”. Sites listed are Facebook, Flickr, MySpace and YouTube. Oh…and there is RSS…but it is at the bottom. Edwards also does the mobile thing.

So, I clicked on the “Social Networks” and OMG! I have hit the MOTHERLOAD! I had NO IDEA that Edwards was so social networked. And what’s even nicer is the little commentary by each. I won’t reproduce it here…go check it out yourself. But, here’s the list of video sharing, blogging, profile and networking sites. They also provide nice badges to add to your own profile (scroll down for my full review of the one’s that aren’t “mainstream” and my overall reactions to the Campaign’s social media strategy)

• YouTube
• MySpace
• Flickr
• Facebook
• PartyBuilder (from the DNC)
• 43Things
• Ning
• MetCafe
• Revver
• Yahoo! 360
• Blip
• Capitol Hill Broadcasting
• VSocial
• TagWorld
• CollectiveX
• Bebo
• Care2
• Essembly
• Hi5
• Xanga
• Gather
• Del.icio.us
• LiveJournal

However, there is ONE MISSING – TWITTER – I’ve been subscribed to the Edwards Twitter for several months now…why isn’t it listed here?

So Wow!...lot’s of good information here and a Social Network panacea. They might want to consider a different approach and let us know that there are so many options. A mini feed on the home page with small icons would be nice – a mouse over would explain. One thing that is neat is that they do invite people to Facebook groups. I like that. Links to the blog and of course issues too! Some integration here, which is nice. Overall, clean, clear and easy to follow. Not as action-oriented as Clinton, but blows them all out of the water with the Social Media focus.

YouTube: Mix of a bunch of videos – Very recent post right off as of the 18th from his bus tour of Iowa. It’s recent which is nice. Campaigning and cheering, but it shows that Edwards is doing different things and they are keeping it current which is VITAL. Nice to see how much they are connecting the YouTube videos to the other social media sites. 3,774 subscribers.

MySpace: WOW! This is by far the best campaign MySpace site I’ve seen so far. First it is clear and easy to follow and starts off with a fabulous integration of visuals along with connections to other sites. Running a nice blog app, as well as connection to Twitter, Demand, and even a Hispanic social networking site, MyGrito.com. The most integrated (links to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, etc.) social site so far. Interlinked, current, and running some very nifty applications. Down side? My computer can’t handle it and is grinding to a virtual halt! eep! And…well…I really do like the music at this site…and there isn’t any. 47961 “friends”

Facebook: So here’s another one who can’t seem to figure out that you can link to a “public” page on Facebook. Click on the link and we get the login screen of doom. Anyway, once logged in we finally come to a site that is using some applications, is clearly updated and is linking back to the main site, MySpace, Demands, YouTube, Twitter and even a “fan group” in Facebook. Yep. While it doesn’t look like this is an “officially” run group, it is certainly one that the campaign supports and is pushing people to be involved in. The campaign is also porting in Flickr and YouTube Video, using the notes application, listing a bunch of groups that are both issues and support focused, and they even have the Twitter feed as well as the calendar. Basically, this is the best use of Facebook by a candidate so far. What’s missing? There are several trip/map applications that I would have expected to see here that I didn’t, especially given the bandwidth hogging map they are using at MySpace. Also, the blog import should be listed, and I noticed that they are asking people over at MySpace to support John using the Newsvine application in Facebook. Hmmm….don’t see that here either. Too bad. 16,511 Supporters.

Flickr: You ask…and well… you receive! I wondered in my last post if anyone would really use Flickr to convey a message. Well here it is. The Edward’s campaign is really pushing it here. The profile opens up to a message…and a way to see all the photos (of course), but there are messages from supporters, a listing of the groups he “belongs too”, and a direct link back to the campaign website. There are more than images of kissing babies here my friend! 549 contacts.

Mobile: Text “today” to 30644.

Twitter: I’ve been “following” Edwards for several months now at Twitter. Pretty good use of the application – and it’s ported into MySpace and Facebook. Too bad it’s not listed on their site anywhere!

Blog: The Edwards blog is a confusing mess. There is no other way around it. Three columns, different postings from different people, it doesn’t make sense and is hard to follow. Actually overwhelming…where do I go?? The information is wonderfully current and there are links to video blogs as well as issue posts. Social networking site buttons are everywhere and RSS is on every post. There is even a link to Technorati. However, the usability factor here is very poor. At least when you click on “video blog” you get a nice clean simple to follow list of different entries. I like the segmentation along the top so you can go to specific themes – which are then much clearer. I guess it’s just the first page that is a mess…um…kinda like locking that door there folks. I have little to no desire to go any further. Lack of usability has killed this one. Too bad.

Search Results: Searching on “Edwards” in Google results in news items first, then Edwards Life Sciences, and then the Edwards for President site. Unlike the past four candidates I’ve reviewed, this one is not a current senator, so we don’t see that site anywhere. There is a WikiPedia.com listing further down. No YouTube or MySpace…However if the search is on “John Edwards” then there is more listed – and his TWITTER site comes up. (side note…notice the change in Google listings? – They seem to be segmenting information differently). Not much on the sponsored ads. I’m surprised that the Edwards campaign hasn’t done anything with “Edwards” – common name. People might not search on John Edwards. Over at Yahoo! Similar results. The campaign site comes up #4, with WikiPedia.com directly below at #5. YouTube references and Blog at number 10! Many sponsored listings, but that has more to do with the general key word “Edwards” than anything else. More focused results if someone searches on “John Edwards”. Over at Live the campaign site follows Edwards Life Sciences, just as at the other sites. The WikiPedia.com entry comes fifth, and there are references to YouTube and MySpace further down. No interesting sponsorships to report. Easy to find information if you type in “John Edwards” but just “Edwards” isn’t nearly as clear. You could say that about all the candidates, and since I’ve only focused on searching on last name, I’ll stick to that and advise that the SEO work on the last name get busy! It might be worth a few sponsored ads to make sure the connection is made.

Other Social Media Sites:

• Partybuilder: http://democrats.org/page/dashboard/public/gTVGc/ This is the DNC’s “social networking” site. Um…bleh. But, the Edwards Campaign is using it and has posted general information and a blog. Blog isn’t very up to date. I wonder if this DNC service ports in from an active blog, or if someone has to “re-blog” to get it listed. Looks like the Campaign is using it to its ability, but the DNC could do WAY better. Not worth the effort. 547 Friends
  
• 43Things (http://www.43things.com/person/onecorps/): This is a new site to me, so I had to explore a bit. I’m now a member and this is pretty cool. It’s a list site basically. The 43 things you want to do, or the places you want to go, etc. however, it then links you with all the other people who want to do whatever it is you want to do, and the places you want to go. You can add this to your blog (stay tuned!). So, how’s the Campaign doing? Um…not so much. Considering all the things they could list about places they are going (bus tour… HELLO!), where they’ve been, and the things they want to accomplish. It would seem that they are using this for One Corps, but I think they could really use this for the campaign – list the people they are meeting, the places they have been, the things they want to accomplish (gee…no brainer on this one!), and what they are consuming. Interesting opportunity…MISSED.
  
• Ning: OOPS! While the campaign site lists this as a place to follow One Corps and their videos I got the broken link of doom page. Who is checking your links?? Can’t find it by searching either. Bummer. Looks like they have moved away from this one. Too bad. This site is new and has some interesting potential. Build it first folks, then beta, then release!
  
• MetaCafe: http://www.metacafe.com/channels/John+Edwards/ A social media video sharing site. Looks like effort stopped here about three months ago. Doesn’t seem like this one has a lot of people engaged. No subscriptions and only one post. Holds promise, but only if you use it and drive people there. I’d assume the campaign had to focus on other more popular sites. Um…so remove the link if you aren’t going to keep it updated gang!
  
• Revver: http://one.revver.com/account/show/JohnEdwards/ A video site. Nothing here. So why link to it? Beta test it first folks. Put content there and get some volunteers to get involved…then link to it from your site.
  
• Yahoo! 360: http://360.yahoo.com/jrepresident A group-based sharing site. Photos, general information, friends list, blog feed, and comments. Under utilized. The feed that comes in is current – must be ported in from somewhere else. Not a lot of activity. Again, another one that may not be worth the effort given the amount of people using the service.
  
• Blip.tv: http://johnedwards.blip.tv/: Interesting video site that allows you to subscribe via iTunes and other services. Looks underutilized by the campaign – doesn’t seem to be high traffic, but this is a very cool looking site.
  
• Capitol Hill Broadcasting Network http://chbn.com/johnedwards: So this could be interesting, but again, not much info here at all. If the campaign is going to put something out there and link to it, it needs to be fully functioning.
  
• Vsocial: http://www.vsocial.com/user/?d=105967: It’s a listing place for your different social media – um...if you used this, you’d think that Edwards doesn’t exist in the social media world. Need I say it again??
  
• TagWorld: http://www.tagworld.com/johnedwards08/: Another social media site – low support, no current info.
  
• CollectiveX: https://johnedwards.collectivex.com/join: This one looks very interesting and allows for discussion and active engagement – but…again, no critical mass = no engagement. Why link to it?
  
• Bebo: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MID=367137231&MemberId=3057165809: another social networking site popular in the UK and growing here in the US. More up-to-date than a lot of the others, but most recent post was 23 days ago. The same map application that is being used in MySpace is being used here. There are some other widgets and wall posts (spam is high). Overall ok, but not at the same level of effort as the MySpace/Facebook.
  
• Care2: http://www.care2.com/c2c/people/profile.html?pid=811375420: Another social networking site ala MySpace. Just about at the same level of Bebo. Social change is the focus here, but again, not as current as the big players. Pulling in YouTube, but that’s it really. Profile isn’t even fully filled out. Some blog posts from 17 days ago and notes from 6 days ago.
  
• essembly: http://www.essembly.com/groups/profile?gid=-422: It’s a social change site. You can connect with others who are ideologically aligned with yourself – um...if the site is working. No blog activity there since march, looks very quite. The Edwards area is blank save for several pictures. Waste of Time. Take it off the list.
  
• Hi5: http://edwards2008.hi5.com/: yet another social networking site where there is minimal activity. Some video and image slide shows. Nothing posted since April.
  
• Xanga: http://profile.xanga.com/johnedwards08/ (from main website inks to the mobile site…whoops!) here’s the other link: http://www.xanga.com/johnedwards08: Basic only. Last post was from May. Not very active at all.
  
• Gather: Uh Oh! Dead link alert! The website is linked to “presidentedwards.gather.com” but that doesn’t work. After some quick navigation and searching the real URL is: http://johnedwards.gather.com/. Anyway, more recent activity here – as of August 7th. Nothing new or special though.
  
• Del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/JRE_POST_LOG/: Just a list of recent postings from blogs, etc. Nice link list. Wonder if the folks over at the campaign know that there is now a delicious Facebook app that they could plug in? Guess not.
  
• LiveJournal: http://jre2008.livejournal.com/profile: blogging/journal site. Very low activity.

Recommendations: Whew! So here’s a Yin/Yang analysis if I ever saw one. The overall website is ok, the MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter are all AMAZING! Well done, in-depth, all linked to one another, current and engaged. Nicely done!

However, the social media listing off the site is beyond misleading. Most of the long list is poorly populated at best, with broken links and zero involvement at worst. Many missed opportunities, but I believe overall that this is a clear case of social media run amok! Someone decided to go crazy and link to EVERYTHING. Well, then…you better keep it all up to date, and since none of the sites talk to each other until some fairly recently, that’s a lot of updating on a lot of sites. There is nothing worse than a social media site with NO ACTIVITY! This campaign would do much better to focus and narrow their social media involvement (which I think is happening naturally) and get the dead links and low performers off the campaign website.

The blog needs help! That first page is a nightmare and prevents real engagement. I’m surprised – they could do much better.

Great work on the main social media sites. Keep it up! Average website. Fix the blog. Oh, and do some SEO and even some CPC on the search engines for a bit to help drive more traffic.

Where's #5?

Sorry folks. The Social Media and the Presidential Campaign postings have slowed down because I've had to focus on prepping classes for the fall (yeah, there's where the "professor" part comes in).

I'm currently working on the Edwards Campaign and it's not going quickly. As a matter of fact this is going to take a little while, so hang in there...this guy is connected to social networking sites that I don't even know about! Not just Ning (which I did know about) but lots of others too...so in good faith I have to look. So I expect this one will be up over the weekend.

It'll be good though.

Elaine Young: A Champlain Professor: Social Media and the 2008 Presidency: Part I

Elaine Young: A Champlain Professor: Social Media and the 2008 Presidency: Part I

Presidential Candidate Social Media Analysis #4: Sen. Chris Dodd (D)

Social Media Analysis: Sen. Christopher Dodd (D)

Sen. Chris Dodd has the following:

1. Website: http://www.chrisdodd.com/


2. YouTube: http://youtube.com/senatordodd


3. UStream.TV: http://ustream.tv/senatordodd


4. MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/senatordodd


5. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/person.php?id=2873715532


6. EONS: n/a


7. FlickR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisdodd


8. Mobile: n/a


9. Twitter: http://twitter.com/chrisdodd


10. Blog: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/blog/
    

He’s got the email to sign up for. No book that I can tell.

Let's go a bit deeper, shall we?

Website: So we enter the website without having to go through a splash page (Yippee!) Right up front though is a great big call to become part of the “Dodd Squad”. So I signed up. Will see how that goes. There is a call to volunteer and even intern with the Senator. The site is pretty straight forward and very easy to navigate – just four main sections (one of which is the blog) with the fifth being “contribute now”. Not a lot of content overall on the home page…hmmmm…may explain a lot as to why the organic search isn’t working so well! General information on policies…and his White Hair. Um…ok. There’s the Dodd Education Plan with a video, and a sign up to get campaign info…and the main navigation has disappeared. Lost much? There’s a media page and...Oh THERE’S the YouTube link! That’s how we get to see his ads. His event schedule is posted for all to see which is a nice feature. Overall though…no depth, and NO links to any social media other than the buried link for YouTube. Wait…hold on a sec…OOPS! I missed it! So by the sign up email area there are three tabs. They blend really well. Anyway, when I clicked on the “connect” tab there it was! Or there they were – the Social Media links: MySpace, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and UStream.TV. So here is our first TWITTER sighting! Oh! And at the bottom of the event page in the far right hand corner is the RSS symbol.

I had read something about the “Dodd Pod” but can’t find it on the site anywhere. Too bad.

YouTube: Mix of different videos – playing that silly “White Hair” commercial that they aired for the YouTube debate. Um. Ok. Done now. Funny once. Not so much anymore. Something new please! They do link back to their website. 616 subscribers as of today.

UStream.TV: Interesting site that allows for video. Looks like someone posted a page here for Dodd, and there are quite a few videos, similar to YouTube. Only 2 subscribers. Not sure if there is value here to splitting resources on both of these, however – especially with one that is not very well known. Could prove interesting in the future though, so while it pretty much duplicates YouTube content, I give the Sen. and his campaign credit for using something else.

MySpace: Again, a clean site that shows some personality, but doesn’t really take advantage of the fun you can have with a MySpace environment. No music, but there is a pull in of a MySpace Video of the Senator from his announcement when he filed papers to run. Banners and things you can put on your site…and What Ho! There’s the Dodd Pod!! And here’s the link, even though it doesn’t seem worthy to showcase on the main page of the website: http://www.chrisdodd.com/doddpod . I thought for sure I could listen to snippets of his play list, but no, it’s just a listing…um…now here’s a thought to the Dodd Campaign – pull in the audio player at MySpace and put in your TOP Dodd Pod song so we can hear it! If you are going to try to have fun, then really have fun. Remember social media is about connection. 8658 Friends

Facebook: So here’s another one who can’t seem to figure out that you can link to a “public” page on Facebook. Click on the link and we get the login screen of doom. Anyway, once logged in, we got nothing. It wasn’t even worth the effort to log in, frankly. On the plus side, they do link out to their MySpace and YouTube sites. But um. That’s kinda it. No aps, no nothing. YAWN. 1,199 supporters.

Sen. Dodd does have several groups out there rooting for him AND a Senator Dodd Network. However, I’m not seeing clear evidence that these are created by the campaign as official sites, nor do they seem to be exploiting the opportunity at all. Too bad. I had my hopes up for a minute.

Eons: No information on Eons. Missed opportunity!

Flickr: Basic images, kissing babies, barbeques, etc. Hmmm…wonder why no one (so far anyway) is using this to really push a message – like visuals that reflect policy. It’s easier to take pictures of BBQs I guess.

Mobile: Nothing on Mobile either, however with Twitter....well...at least they have some type of presence going on.

Twitter: Just “followed” Sen. Dodd. Nice mix of posts from both the Senator and the Staff. Most recent post is from 1 day ago. Will see how active this is and how useful. 50 followers, the Senator is following 21 people.

Blog: Ahh lots of video in this blog…almost like a VLOG with text added! Looks like there are several people who are blogging here, but no comments are enabled. That pretty much defeats the whole purpose of a blog! By the way, it occurs to me that I would really like to know who the bloggers are for real. It would be great for the campaigns to list who their staff bloggers are with a picture and their role in the campaign. That would make it feel real and make up for the fact that the candidates themselves are doing little to no blogging of their own. I like the use of both text and video here. There is an RSS feed for the blog.

Search Results: Searching on “Dodd” in Google results in news items first, then the Senator’s official Senate site, then the Dodd Camera site (I didn’t even know there were Dodd Cameras!), then the WikiPedia.com entry for Chris Dodd and then at #4, the official campaign site. Shortly after that was the MySpace and the YouTube sites for the Senator. No sponsored ads that are campaign related, just one for art. Over at Yahoo! there are similar results. The senate site comes first, then WikiPedia.com, then MySpace, the senate site again, and at #6 and #7, the campaign website. Lot’s of sponsored ads here, but none are campaign related. Live Search reveals WikiPedia.com as number one, then the campaign site, then the senate site with MySpace after that. I wonder how many of the candidates are using a “WikiPedia.com” strategy? No sponsored ads at all here. What does this reveal? Well, natural search is mediocre especially at Google. Not even a good result on the blog search. Tsk. Tsk.

Recommendations: In the words of Tim Gunn, “I’m under whelmed”. There is some interesting things going on here. The Dodd campaign is using many different social media. However, “using” is really not a descriptive enough word. Using is too action-oriented. Facebook and MySpace, which should be updated every day and really used to network and reach out to people, are stagnant. Twitter is probably the most active along with the Blog; however, there doesn’t seem to be much connection. I think the big issue is how the main site showcases the social media. When I found them, I was “DUH!”, but it took me a bit to discover the links. I’m still puzzling over that. I’m so surprised that a campaign like Dodd’s, which is not receiving much media attention…unless maybe he were to dye his hair blue or something, isn’t being more aggressive online with the social media. Overall assessment: average website, poor showing on organic search and some mediocre effort on the social media sites, but certainly not using them to even a basic advantage at all.

Breaking News....well...sort of! Business People Vermont and Blog Links

Just a quick break in in the middle of my blog series to acknowledge the article on Media 2.0 by Bill Simmon in the August issue of Business People Vermont. It's a nice piece about some of the folks here in Vermont who are taking advantage of the opportunities the expanding web (aka Web 2.0) is bringing. A heavy emphasis on blogging with the likes of Cathy Resmer at Seven Days, Ann Zuccardy of Vermont Shortbread and Dave Winslow over at EpikOne. Great article if I do say so -- really gets at the variety of people who can use social media to create buzz...and comments.

Take this article for instance. Cathy referenced it on her blog yesterday, August 6th. Bill referenced it yesterday too. Ann referenced it on her blog today and well...here I go!

The cool thing which Cathy mentioned was that Business People Vermont actually embedded links in the article. Links that take you away from their site to ours. And now...we link back.

It's a BEAUTIFUL THING!

Hope you all watched the debate tonight. Still haven't received an email from Brownback or Clinton. Did receive a note from Biden's campaign to remind me to watch the debate.

Presidential Candidate Social Media Analysis #3: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D)

Social Media Analysis: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D)


Sen. Hillary Clinton has the following:

1. Website: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/
2. YouTube: http://youtube.com/hillaryclinton
3. MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/hillaryclinton
4. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=570885455
5. EONS: http://community.eons.com/members/profile/hillaryclinton
6. FlickR: n/a
7. Mobile: Text “Join” to 77007
8. Blog: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/blog/

She has an email newsletter you can sign up for on the website. doesn’t look like she’s touting a book though.

Let's go a bit deeper, shall we?

Website: I’m just going to quote my comments from the Brownback analysis here... “We start with the splash page designed to get people to sign up for the email info BEFORE we even read about the issues. Stupid. A collage of pictures is NOT going to get me to sign up for things for my email. Information will.”

Having said that, there is really nothing more to say except WOW! I cannot believe the focus of this website. Call to action and involvement right up front. “8 things you can do for Hillary”. Nicely done. Allows people to set up groups, email their friends, and help fundraise. Very community involved. No news on the main site, but available through http://www.hillaryhub.com/. The RSS feed is there for the news. I’m surprised though that there isn’t an RSS feed on the main site to alert people to site updates. HillaryHub also wasn’t found in the search engines on a search for Clinton. This would be a GREAT one to buy the sponsored ads for! Great link to what is going on...and the news includes a blog listing too. Also call to action regarding safe withdrawal of our troops right up front. Action oriented. Great stuff! So where are the social media links? Need to scroll a little to find them and they are listed as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and EONS!! Yep...we have our first Eons sighting. Target market much? Eons, the social networking site for 50+ is a GREAT place to be reaching out. While both MySpace and Facebook are growing in older users, Eons is the branded site for Boomers. Nice touch! And...the Clinton site is also doing the text message sign up for news. Overall the site is easy to navigate with many ways for people to get involved! Well done!

YouTube: Mix of different videos – really playing up the experience card with the clip from the CNN debate about visiting leaders of other countries. No personal message here. Too bad. Would really like to see that. 5,052 subscribers as of today.

MySpace: Another well structured, clean and neat MySpace site. No music, but there is a video scroll (with links to MySpace TV), lots of banner ads to grab and post on your own sites, and linking back to the campaign website (now there’s a thought!). Not the same power or call to action here as on the website…hmmm…why not? Social media is about linking together, so why not have more of an aggressive call to action here that drives people the same way the website does. Just post the top 8 things you can do. What about a news items too? I had higher expectations for the MySpace site given how great the website was. Oops! 127399 friends.

Facebook: Same problem for Hillary that Brownback’s campaign had…they linked directly to the Facebook page…and not the PUBLIC page…there’s that login screen of doom. Bummer. Actually Bummer is my whole reaction to the Facebook site. With the amount of traffic that Facebook has seen over the past several months, I would have thought there would be a much more aggressive focus here – again, high expectations set by the website I guess. Nothing happening here at all! No newsvine link, only one link out to the main site, no calls to action, no connection to You Tube…under posted items there are links to videos at least. Not taking advantage of the groups either. Overall pretty poor showing on Facebook. 33,017 Supporters as of today

Eons: Pretty basic fair here, although there are more links to sign up and take action than at MySpace, where the emphasis was on placing a banner, these links ask you to tell America why you support Hillary (why wasn’t this one on MySpace or Facebook in some form?), add the mobile alerts, send a message of support (this one was on the MySpace page) and Women for Hillary. Her online folks must think that the majority of people on Eons are female…hmmm… based on the exploration of the “friends” looks like they are right…lots of women there. There is also a blog feed. 122 friends so far.

Flickr: Nothing official that I can find. There is a Clinton for 2008 group of photos from March. Do I think this is bad? Well if you are going to have the account, you should keep it going. If not, delete it. The Clinton campaign has a lot going on at the website around photos, and I haven’t really seen that Flickr is that useful so I wouldn’t sweat not having this one, but the campaign may want to shut down the one that hasn’t been updated.

Mobile: so I joined the Text Messaging from the Clinton site. Very easy to do...now awaiting my first text message.

Blog: What I really like about the Clinton blog is that the individuals who are posting are part of the campaign in different ways – and they are posting lots of good information. Again, though, no messages written by Hillary. An email she sent out was posted on the blog – I wonder why a blog post isn’t listed in an email? Come on people! Think! Hillary could write an AMAZING blog posting and then what could you do with that in the email and on the website, etc.? Still relying on email a lot, and that is fine, but mix it up a bit. There are links to a bunch of RSS feed readers – didn’t include netvibes I’m sorry to see. Overall not too bad, but certainly again, not the dynamic I would have expected based on the website.

Search Results: Searching for “Clinton” on the major search engines is very interesting. Sen. Clinton has the challenge of competing against her husbands online legacy, so it was interesting, indeed to see what popped up at Google. News was the first item – with a picture of Barak Obama! Gee whiz! Anyway, her campaign site was top in organic search, and the WikiPedia.com entry for Bill Clinton came next, with the Wiki entry for Hillary Rodham Clinton after that, slightly indented underneath Bill. Hmmm…a bit of sexism from WikiPedia.com?? or is it just the Google algorithm? You decide! The Senate site for Clinton was next and then a mix of Community Colleges and other things. No MySpace or social networking. Sponsored ads? The Clinton foundation was top, and some other items listed, and what ho! a sponsored ad for John McCain. I wonder if the Clinton campaign has purchased sponsored ads for the McCain search? I guess we will find out later. Over at Live, news tops the list, with the Clinton Senate site first, the Wiki entries (again, with Hillary indented underneath Bill…not liking that at all!) and then the campaign site. Her MySpace page shows up a bit further down. Sponsored ads? Nothing out of the ordinary…looks like all the fun happens at Google! And at Yahoo! the results are even more interesting. #1 = the Wiki entry for Bill (nope…no Hillary underneath!), #2 = Clinton’s senate website, #3 = White House biography of Bill Clinton, #4 = the Clinton Foundation, #5 = the Wiki Entry for Hillary Clinton…and where is the Campaign site? Rank #8! There is no MySpace either. Sponsored ads abound, but nothing out of the ordinary. Wow! Might want to have your web folks get busy on the Yahoo listings there – or at least buy a sponsored ad at the top! Searching on her full name the results are better however.

Recommendations: So my overall recommendation for the Clinton Campaign is to do some organic search work and consider some sponsored ads over at Yahoo! at least. Not everyone is going search on “Hillary Clinton”. The website ROCKS! Well done – but then everything begins to fall apart. Certainly not capitalizing on the social media tools the way they could be and it would be so very easy. Those 8 call to action items should be on EVERY social site. The fact that they aren’t aggressively going after the Facebook applications stuns me. They need to do more to really use the social media to make progress. Further along than the others I’ve reviewed so far, but still a long way to go to meet the potential. Great site. So-so social media.

Presidential Candidate Social Media Analysis #2: Sam Brownback (R)

Social Media Analysis: Sen. Sam Brownback (R)

Sen. Sam Brownback has the following:

1. Website: http://www.brownback.com/


2. YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Brownback4President


3. MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sambrownback


4. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=570885455


5. FlickR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sambrownback08/


6. Blog: http://www.sambrownback.goingon.com/

He has an email newsletter you can sign up for on the website.

Let's go a bit deeper, shall we?

Website: We start with the splash page designed to get people to sign up for the email info BEFORE we even read about the issues. Stupid. A collage of pictures is NOT going to get me to sign up for things for my email. Information will. I did sign up though. Haven’t gotten anything yet. Not even an auto responder “Welcome to my Campaign and Thanks for your Support” email. Anyway, onto the site itself. A lot going on when you come into the site, but it’s very easy to navigate. News right on the home page (did I mention already how much I like that!) And look…he’s got a book too! (Perhaps we’ll find out that writing books is another way to market yourself for the presidency). But…where’s the social media? Scroll…scroll… (Lot’s of news here)…scroll…Oh wait! There it is! It’s akin to having your very important news below the fold in the lower left hand corner of the newspaper. Um…not great placement! The social media options should take more precedent than the Book. Oh…no RSS feed on that news listing or for updates on the site at all. I like the “get right to the info” insert on the homepage, but other than the blog, Brownback is not really pushing the social media on his site in any aggressive way. Even the video on his site is not linked through YouTube – it’s a separate (albeit cleaner and more polished) service.

YouTube: Mix of different videos – he’s got his personal message up. Gee…why isn’t it on his website? Or linked through Facebook? or MySpace? Basic listing of a mix of videos anything from the simple non-professional to the clips from debates, etc. 484 subscribers.

MySpace: Pretty basic MySpace site. Another nice, neat and clean site that has video – um…but it’s not of him…it’s of a piece from the weather channel about skiing in Colorado. Hmmm… (anyone in charge of CONSISTENCY here Sen. Brownback?) He does have that great little blog application that comes with an RSS Feed (I wonder if his MySpace interns are talking with his Website Team?) He’s got issues tags going and a list of news releases. No music though! Total friends as of today: 11062!

Facebook: So the Web folks at Brownback’s site didn’t link to the PUBLIC Facebook page, so um…when you click on the link you go to the login screen – the one that says you must be a member! Oops! They should fix that! On the main Facebook section, he’s got some applications running – pulling in the YouTube and he has a connection to the Newsvine Election ’08 which is nice. He links to his website and to his YouTube. Nothing super exciting here, but providing some information and some linking. Doesn’t look like they have an “official” Sen. Brownback group – lots of unofficial ones though. If they do decide to set up a group (and they should) they better get creative and make it begin with “A” like “Americans for Sam Brownback: The OFFICIAL Facebook Group” why? Because groups are listed in alpha order and it is wicked hard to go through them all to find the official one. 2,136 supporters as of today.
Flickr: Standard list of campaign type photos from the heartland! Waving and smiling. No comments going on that I can tell.

Blog: Ok, so here’s where it really fell down. Brownback’s blog is developed in the “goingon.com” network which is an open space. So, this isn’t really bad or anything, although it looses the polish of one that is incorporated into the site. There’s widgets and tag clouds…standard stuff. It’s the content that is very poor. If I was grading this, it would fail. What’s here? News releases and Speeches. Not that in itself is bad, but there is a place for a news release and speeches and a blog is not it, UNLESS you are commenting on them or quoting them. I said it for Biden and I’m going to say it again – if you have time to pull off a 1 minute video for YouTube, you should have time to post something in your own blog. If you aren’t, then you should have staff that are. Using the open platform here means you have more of a discussion forum – someone even asked for cheap hotel rates so they could volunteer. The link to his website is all the way at the bottom. 175 members.

Search Results: As I searched for Sam Brownback the results were interesting to say the least. At Google his campaign comes up number one in Organic search and his Sen. site is ranked third. Great for the campaign. Of course, the sponsored ads are a hoot! Guess what is number one? Not Brownback! It’s MITT ROMNEY!! So a little extra bidding on those key words there eh Mitt? I’m surprised Brownback’s campaign isn’t on this one. It’s like Mitt taking out a banner ad on the Brownback website! At Live, his senate site comes up first, then WikiPedia.com, then news and then his campaign site. He has no sponsored ads (and neither does Mitt!). At Yahoo! the campaign comes first, then the senate and then WikiPedia.com. MySpace shows up a bit further down. Sponsored ads are a mix, but no Mitt!

Recommendations: Well, there are some good things going on for Brownback on the web – natural search placement is high (top three in the top three), and the website isn’t too bad. But from a social media perspective he is doing poorly. Little linking is going on, and it’s hard to get from one to the other (hint: social networking and media means, connection…connection…connection!). By far the worst however is his blog. If you really want to use a blog in a campaign, make a commitment to it. Make it personal. Integrate it in your website and do more than post speeches! It’s a great way for constituents to interact with the candidate and key staffers, and the campaign doesn't have to pay a lot of money to do make it happen! Opportunity lost.