The Web and the Race For the White House February 4, 2008
Now more than ever, presidential candidates are making their respective presences felt online. Mediums such as blogs, YouTube, and social networks like MySpace and Facebook are giving candidates a new platform to utilize. Inspired by TechPresident and the Social Media Index concept, we decided to take an aggregate snapshot at how much buzz the candidates are getting in advance of Super Tuesday. 
Those making the biggest splashes on the web aren’t necessarily the same ones leading the polls. While pollsters employed by the likes of ABC News and CNN show Hillary Clinton and John McCain as favorites to square-off for the White House in November, the two aren’t their own party’s most popular candidates online.
With over 12,000 links to his official website from Google Blog Search, 350,000 Facebook supporters and more than 15,000,000 people viewing his YouTube channel daily, Barack Obama seems to have the internet race won among Democrats. Compare those numbers to Hillary’s less than 9,000 Google Blog Search links, less than 88,000 Facebook supporters and only 5,693,448 in daily YouTube viewership. Obama also enjoys more support on MySpace, with over 252,000 friends to Clinton’s 171,761, all according to the latest techPresident stats.
As for Republicans, the most popular man online is ironically the same one sitting next to last in the polls. Ron Paul has 14,215 Google Blog Search links to his official site, more Facebook (81,639) and MySpace (125,733) support, and more daily YouTube viewers (12,104,767) than anyone else competing for the Grand Old Party’s ticket. No other Republican comes close to Paul’s online celebrity. Mitt Romney is second on Google Blog Search with 5,905 links. Mike Huckabee has the second most YouTube viewers a day with just over 5,000,000. John McCain is second on MySpace with 44,689 friends, and Huckabee is currently second among Republicans with 47,510 Facebook supporters.
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Its possibly to early to say as yet, but it does seem that having an online presence is useless if it doesn’t translate to the outside world.
Ron Paul (who I would support) has not been able to convert people off the web into real votes - that is the key skill.
Maybe the main lesson from this campaign is that what people do and say online, and what they do in real life are two totally different things. Maybe the wisdom of crowds really is hogwash after all?!
I don’t think it’s too early to say what FOul just said. The proof is in the numbers.
I bet that if you gauge they percentage of Ron Paul supporters who are involved with his campaign in some way online, said percentage would be astronomic as compared to the other candidates.
That likely means the demographics of his supporters are both internet savvy but not very influential. And his message, while unique and compelling, doesn’t resonate beyond his base. Digital strategies aren’t going to change that.
So I’d suggest that the Paul situation is not indicative of the power of or the weakness of a candidate, it just merely reflects the way support flows and ebbs in the offline arena as well.
It’s not about the wisdom of the crowds at all. It’s about passionate followers of a unique candidate who has a limited appeal.