John Edwards is on 24 social networking sites

Posted on February 16th, 2007
By Todd Zeigler in Politics, Social Networks

John Edwards social networking presence After Tom posted his review earlier today I went back and took a closer look at the John Edwards site. I immediately noticed that Edwards' has dramatically expanded his presence on the social networking sites (see icon on the right).

Upon close inspection it turns out that the Edwards' campaign is maintaining a presence on an astounding 24 social news/networking sites. Wow.

Below is a list from Edwards' site with links to all his accounts:

43Things, del.icio.us, essembly, facebook, flickr, gather, myspace, partybuilder, youtube, orkut, ning, metacafe, revver, yahoo! 360°, blip.tv, CHBN, vSocial, tagworld, collectivex, bebo, care2, hi5, xanga, livejournal

I get it. The Edwards campaign is really into the whole Web 2.0 thing. Message delivered. I understand the power of these networks. I do. But 24 accounts? This just strikes me as sort of ridiculous.

More importantly, I just don't think it is good strategy.

First, I think 24 is way too many options to present a user. Instead of giving me four or five clear choices (say MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr) I'm overwhelmed with options.

Second, I think it is better for the campaign to invest in creating robust presences on a few sites than to spread yourself out across 24. Inevitably, aren't you going to forget to update one of them or not see a comment? To prove the point, here's a link to the Edwards' campaign Livejournal account, which hasn't been updated since 2004 yet is still highlighted on his new site (bonus screenshot after the jump).

What do you think? Do you agree that 24 is too many or is this the way to go with this sort of stuff?

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Comments

Benny

February 16th, 2007 at 8:00 pm

I agree that as the campaign goes on and if Edwards becomes the Dem nominee, the Internet team for Edwards’ campaign can hone on more significant sites depending on the hits.

All updates I receive from candidates are on yahoo, facebook and myspace, as well as directly into my e-mail boxes.

But where I differ from your assessment at this juncture is that Edwards considers the blogosphere as a grassroots place for democracy, as he said on CNN’s Situation Room this evening. Grassroots on the Net have become netroots. Roots mean “something resembling or suggesting the root of a plant in position or function”, or in human terms, many feelers.

You have raised some good points.

Benny
Steve

February 17th, 2007 at 1:20 am

I was just thinking about all the social networking sites I belong to — facebook, Gather, LinkedIn, and a few others like del.icio.us and flickr. While each of the three specific sites fills a niche (socializing, writing, & professional networking respectively), I’m beginning to wonder if I want to have heaps of usernames and passwords. Let’s not forget the effort it takes to find all of my friends on various sites; let alone coaxing them to join all the ones I’ve joined while I have no intention of joining ones that they’re members of that I’m not currently.

Edwards is just trying to boost his visibility to as many web savvy individuals out there. However, it seems like he’s trying too hard if his Livejournal account that he is touting was last updated in 2004.
m

February 17th, 2007 at 8:36 am

I can’t imagine how maintaining profiles on this many sites is worth the staff time involved. But hey, maybe the secret to winning 2008 lies in a 43 Things profile…

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