By Mike Gingerich
Co-Founder, TabSite
In 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama used social media as a major campaign strategy, a novel approach at the time. But in 2012, social media is neither new nor experimental: It’s an integral part of any election strategy. President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney are deeply invested and active in social media.
So — how are they doing?
The Obama page posts generally one to four times per day, at different times throughout the day, including weekends and evenings. They’re largely image posts — nearly nine out of 10 are photos, and the remainder are YouTube videos.
The Obama page used the Facebook “Pin” feature consistently over seven days of observation. Additionally, a few posts were “Highlighted“, a positive visual strategy to bring emphasis to certain posts.
Every image with a link in its description used a link shortener. Shortener tools help track clicks, but some studies note Facebook users are three times more likely to engage with full-length URLs than shorteners — they want to see where they’re being directed.
While the Obama page has many Milestones noted, it has curiously fewer than one might expect. November 4, 2008 had a post about the election win, but not a Milestone. There was no Milestone for his inauguration, either.
Obama’s page is a “broadcast only” tool: Admins don’t respond to any comments. Good or bad? It’s definitely less social.
The Obama page saw 1.5 million “People Talking about This” for the previous seven days, and the page has 27 million fans. Compare that to the Mitt Romney page, which has far fewer fans – 5.1 million – but 1.77 million “People Talking about This.” In other words, Obama has vast potential reach, but the Romney page better engaged with its visitors.
Finally, let’s evaluate custom tab apps featured here. The Obama page was using only four, which were short on personalized experience. One tab was simply for campaign donations, one for an offsite store, one was an email sign-up form, and one was an app for the “Obama Network,” which essentially allows you to find and “Like” other Obama related pages.
Overall, Obama’s page has done a solid job, varying the topics of its posts — over 50 percent throughout June reflected domestic policy, but it’s made more personal appeals too. The Obama team might try a different mix of post topics, or incorporate questions, simple status updates or more videos.
OVERALL GRADE: B-
The Romney team, as we noted, just had a good week for engagement. The Romney page posts at a similar rate to Obama’s – about one to four times per day, uses “Pinning” and at times “Highlighting” posts. Team Romney posts mostly images, one of the best ways to garner fan engagement (Facebook study). Romney’s posts also use URL shorteners, with the same benefits and detriments. Romney has been sharing more videos than Obama, but it similarly offers no questions or simple statuses. Romney’s team also neither responds to nor censors comments.
The Romney page is ahead on custom tab apps, though. Sure, there are the standard “Donate” and “Store” tabs.
The featured “Stand with Mitt” app allows visitors to select a “Timeline Badge,” a shareable image fans can re-post. There’s also an “I Stand with Mitt” photo-sharing app, and an app through which users can record, post and share their own video message on Facebook. All good story builders.
Unlike Obama’s, Romney’s page has multiple tabs that negatively counter his opponent’s actions: an “Obama and the Youth Economy” tab and at least two “Sign the Petition” tabs — basically an email sign-up and a Facebook posting mechanism, shareable and tailored to the message of the specific petition.
In the end, Romney’s page doesn’t have the reach of Obama’s, but it features a wider array of apps that seem to effectively help visitors create stories.
OVERALL GRADE: B+
CONCLUSION:
While the overall social media picture might be another story, the race is close in Facebook. Perhaps surprisingly, Romney has the social edge at this point, which can be attributed directly to the use of engagement and social experience-building apps accessed via the tabs on the Romney Page.
Time will tell who wins. While both could benefit from moving past exclusively broadcast posts in the Timeline, a key will be how each Page continues to use (or not use) tab applications to empower the creation of stories and personal experiences. With social experts on both teams, and a wide range of engagement tools available, it will be interesting to see what each Page will do.
What about your Page? There’s a lot to be learned from the candidates for your Facebook presence…
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About TabSite
Founded in 2010, TabSite was established to meet the growing demands of digital marketers seeking to leverage Facebook. TabSite’s suite of custom content solutions and social engagement applications inspire fan participation, drive traffic and increase business exposure among thousands of businesses, agencies and partner affiliates worldwide. For more information on TabSite Plans, please visit www.tabsite.com/compare.
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