1. 2012 Presidential Election Are you ready? UWSMC3 Alessandra Marseglia

2. 4 years ago... Facebook had 100 million users. TODAY 800 million Twitter had 8 employees. TODAY 400 YouTube averaged 13h of video/minute. TODAY 48h Foursquare didn’t exist. TODAY it claims 1 billion check-ins

3. Also today... Almost every politician uses social media in some capacity In US Congress, Republicans on Twitter outnumber Democrats (228 vs 157). During the primaries, Republican candidates had some successful Twitter debates Social media users are more politically engaged: 88% of Facebook users are registered to vote (source Pew Research Center) Social media buzz surrounding a political candidate can predict election results (source NM Incite) 83% of Millennials uses social media (source Pew Research Center). They are expected to make up to one-fourth of voters and likely determine the election Romney and Obama expect to raise $1 billion each by November, $300 million in small donations for Republicans, $500 million (and possibly more) for Democrats In order to win Obama and Romney will need Millennials AND money. Ergo they will need social media

4. Obama has a big social media team and is everywhere (FB, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Foursquare, Tumblr, Pinterest...even an app on FB) outnumbers by far Romney in followers, likes, tweets and FB posts has a specific strategy for each social media (website calls to action, FB for pics, Twitter to stay on top of the news) Romney works with Targeted Victory which helped Marco Rubio to get elected has the best website and social media strategy among all the Republican candidates has implemented a social network (MyMitt) to engage with volunteers and increment fundraise

5. Consistent Candidate? Recent accounts Num of followers

6. Consistent, straightforward Lots of contents

7. Tet Engaging, not asking for pledge Not many like but lots of “talking about this”

8. Main goal: collect emails (13 million emails in 2008) www.barackobama.com experimenting new buttons

9. MyMitt: social network to get people involved, donate and volunteer (similar to MyBO) www.mittromney.com “Learn more” button and family image (successful factors in 2008 Obama campaign)

10. Obama vs Romney on Twitter the game is already on Before the Republican primaries are technically over, Obama legitimates Romney twitting “5 thinks you need to know about Romney” This sparks a big discussion on Twitter about abortion, women rights and jobs Democrat consultant Hilary Rosen says that Ann Romney cannot be an economy expert since she was a stay-at-home mom who never worked On Twitter women start defending Ann Romney. Obama’s staff distances itself from Rosen Ann Romney opens Twitter and Facebook accounts and surges as a new figure in the campaign

11. So, who will win the SM battle ? Obama PROS: big team, proven strategy. Com’n he is the social media rock star! CONS: more activity more critiques. The most challenging goal: repeat 2008 success Romney PROS: took social media seriously. Smaller goal in fundraising CONS: not strong on young women (only 38%) the main SM target He has to face a SM rock star Source PEW Research Center for journalism.org Tone on Twitter

12. References http://features.journalism.org/campaign-2012-in-the-media/tone-on-twitter/ http://www.barackobama.com http://www.mittromney.com http://mashable.com/2012/04/16/politician-websites/ http://mashable.com/2012/04/12/obama-romney-twitter/ http://mashable.com/2012/04/09/republican-candidates-email/ http://mashable.com/2012/04/04/social-media-election-results/ http://mashable.com/2012/03/22/republicans-effective-tweeters/ http://graphics.latimes.com/2012-election-superpac-spending/ http://mashable.com/2011/10/24/obama-social-media-campaign/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec11/voterdivide_11-03.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/us/politics/after-being-burned-in-08-republicans-embrace-twitter-hard-for-12.html?_r=2&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto http://mashable.com/2011/07/25/republican-twitter-debate/ http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/800-million-target-for-romney-campaign-and-republican-committee/?ref=politics