Absurdly Digital

There are some 40 odd days until the Massachusetts democratic primary. There are four candidates vying for the seat vacated by the late Ted Kennedy. You may have heard that the commonwealth tends to be a little liberal. So it is almost guaranteed that whoever represents the Dems in the race will end up in the senate.

The four Democrats running are:

1. Attorney General Martha Coakley
2. Congressman Mike Capuano
3. City Year Founder Alan Khazei
4. Boston Celtics Co-Owner Steve Pagliuca

In such an accelerated race how voters get their information on candidates is going to be different. It takes TIME to produce and disseminate a TV commercial, design an ad campaigns or execute a PR blitz. It also takes time for voters to digest and understand these messages.

That is why social media is going to play such a huge role in this race. Social media happens in real time. A candidate can send out his/her stance on an issue that just happened via Twitter or Facebook instantly and then that message will spread like wild fire assuming the candidate has a large enough network. We all know how social media can have an effect on a campaign *Obama*. So which candidates are doing it the best in the race for Teddy’s seat? How can they improve?

The Grades:

Martha Coakley: Overall B-

Twitter: C         Followers: 962 Tweets: 183

The Coakley campaign has almost 1,000 followers which is a great base. They tweet often and are good at using links and hashtags.

The tweets are often coming in the third person, however. Martha is this or Martha is that. So if this isn’t Martha tweeting than who is it? The handle is also very broadcasty. Not a lot of @replies.

Facebook: B    Fans: 4,824

The Coakley campaign has a very strong Facebook presence with almost 5k fans. The do a very good job of adding updates daily. These update are heavily liked and commented causing them to spread virally over Facebook.

Again however there is no interaction between the fans on Facebook and the campaign. No responses to the comments.

Action items:

ENGAGE! The Coakley campaign needs to stop ignoring their followers and fans. These are the people most dedicated to the campaign. Engage with them and figure out ways they can spread the message.

Alan Khazei: Overall B-

Twitter: B         Followers: 1,162          Tweets: 265

The Khazei campaign is by far doing the best job at using Twitter to engage their people. They are doing a good job of @reply people, posting links and using hashtags.

They do need to continue to tweet more often though and build their following. This could be an easy piece of low hanging fruit for this campaign.

Facebook: C+  Fans: 4,025

What I loved about the Khazei Facebook page was that a lot of the content was being uploaded by fans. They also do a great job of posting great links and updates that get out in Facebook and go viral.

The setup of the fan page could use some work though. For instance adding an events and video tab could boost this page from a C+ to an A.

Action items:

Considering that Khazei doesn’t have the funds or name recognition as some of the other candidates, they need to win online and have a great opportunity to do so. If they continue to increasing followers and fans they will be able to spread the mission faster than TV ads or print pieces.

In this accelerated election if you win online you give yourself a great chance to win at the poles.

Mike Capuano: Overall C-

Twitter: D         Followers: 452 Tweets: 145

The Capuano campaign does do a good job of engaging on Twitter. They are adding links and using hashtags, but there really need to become more involved in the space. It’s such an easy way to make connections and there are not spending enough time on it.

Facebook: C+

The Capuano Facebook page is very well done. They have boxes for their Flickr and YouTube pages. They are using more function on the page than other campaigns however they are not updating regularly. On Facebook it is important to get as much content out into the public stream so that fans can like it and comment on it.

Action Items: With Capuano’s name recognition there is no reason he shouldn’t have followings the size of Coakley’s or Khazei’s. There campaign needs to make a commitment to being in the social media game instead of half-assing it.

Steve Pagliuca: Overall D-

Twitter D          Followers: 395            Tweets 133

I think that the need to take the time at the Pagliuca campaign to figure out how Twitter works. They don’t really have a grasp on the whole @replies thing but they are trying. They did get the big time twitter “celebrity” endorsement from @DonnieWhalberg.

Facebook:  F     Fans: 442

They are on Facebook and 442 fans is a start, but you have to do better than that.

I only took a look at Twitter and Facebook because I didn’t want to post to get to big. Also I didn’t compare website traffic because compete.com doesn’t have the Oct. numbers out and Sept. doesn’t tell the whole story.

How big of a part do you think social networks are playing in this campaign?

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