December 15, 2006
On The Download: He's Got Such A Pretty Facebook
Welcome back to On The Download, your dispatch on politechs: Politics, Multimedia and the Internet. If you have tips, comments, or suggestions, email us.
When Evan Bayh announced he was forming an exploratory committee to run for President last week, he already had thousands of virtual supporters and potential volunteers behind him. That's because Bayh was able to develop his profile and name ID on Facebook.com since early last summer.
After Labor Day, Facebook set up public pages for every candidate up for re-election and any other politician who asked, including Bayh. And now that the election is over, all sitting members of Congress and Governors's pages will move forward (losing candidates will be given the option to open a regular account or be removed) and similar public pages for 2008 Presidential candidates will be added in 2007.
And as presidential announcements start rolling out, many of pages and the online networks that accompany them have continued to grow for WH '08 candidates.
"Facebook was really just part of our outreach strategy," said Bayh's online organizer Ryan Alexander. "Senator Bayh has always been a strong advocate of students."
It's a strategy that pulled in more than 6,000 supporters at last count because, in part, Bayh's approach includes pro-actively recruiting and maintaining relationships with his "friends," according to his e-campaign. Bayh's internet team wishes supporters a Happy Birthday, updates Bayh's status almost every day and puts in more personal nuggetts on his profile than those that appear on his Senate Web site.
"You can't just throw up a facebook (page) that is a rehash of your Senate Web site. You have to understand that people on this Web site are looking for personal information," Alexander said. "We really wanted to approach this how a regular facebook user approaches this."
Oh, and it also helped that Bayh promoted his facebook page at the National College Democrats of America conference last July. In the 48 hours following, Bayh received 1200 friend requests.
But how does a candidate turn his or her "friends" into "volunteers" or "activists"?
Jacob Colker used facebook to recruit a couple hundred volunteers. As Peter Franchot for Maryland Comptroller statewide field director, Colker said it's a matter of using the microtargeting that Facebook sets up.
The downside, according to Colker, is that it's tedious work for one lucky campaign staffer.
"You need a computer-savvy, almost nerdy-quiet person to sit there on the Web sites and try to talk to as many people as possible," said Colker.
After the jump, check out out On The Download's Facebook Guide to all the Democratic candidates. A separate guide to Republican candidates' facebook efforts will run next week. [SHIRA TOEPLITZ] and [TINA SALVATO].
Evan Bayh's Official Facebook "Election 2006" Profile and the Evan Bayh's All America PAC group (2,016 members). Unofficial but notable groups: Evan Bayh for President 2008 (239 members), I will vote for Evan Bayh for President in 2008 (627 members), and Send Evan Bayh to the WHITE HOUSE! (360 members).
Joe Biden has no official facebook profile or group.
Unofficial but notable groups: Students for Biden (73 members), Biden-Gelb Plan for Iraq (75 members) and Biden for President - 2008 (472 members).
Wesley Clark's official WesPAC page: Wesley Clark - Securing America's Future (783 members). Also this unofficial but notable group: Wes Clark for President (172 members).
Hillary Clinton's official Facebook "Election 2006" Profile. Also check out these unnofficial but notable groups: Hillary for President in '08! (126 members), HILLARY '08 (721 members) and Hillary '08 (447 members).
Chris Dodd does not have an official profile or group page, but there are these unofficial but notable groups: Chris Dodd for President (5 members), Sen. Chris Dodd for President, 2008 (22 members), and Students for Dodd (20 members).
John Edwards's official Facebook "Election 2006" Profile. Unofficial but notable groups: John Edwards for One America (227 members), John Edwards is Good! (1,233 members) and John Edwards 2008 (331 members).
Barack Obama's official Facebook "Election 2006" Profile. Other unofficial but notable groups included "Barack Obama for President in 2008" (24,929 members at press time for this student group, but it's growing by the minute), "Barack Obama for President" (2,895 members) and there at least nine additional groups that have more than 1000 members.
John Kerry's official Facebook "Election 2006" Profile. Unofficial but notable group: John F. Kerry For President 2008 (84 members).
Bill Richardson's official Facebook "Election 2006" Profile. Unofficial but notable groups: America for Bill Richardson (160 members) and Bill Richardson for President in 2008 (20 members)
Tom Vilsack's official Facebook "Election 2006" Profile. Unofficial but notable groups: Vilsack for President, 2008 (228 members) and Vilsack in '08! (433 members).
Posted at 07:40 AM
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Tom | 12.16.06 10:48 AM
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