It is very likely that social media helped to propel Obama into the White House, so will these tactics bode well for the 2012 election? Shortly after his bid for the 2012 race, Obama’s campaign team turned to these trusty online tools once again, immediately changing his Facebook status, tweeting his 2012 candidacy on Twitter, and sending out an email blast to millions of Democratic enthusiasts.
It didn’t stop there, as Obama’s campaign team took to YouTube and released a two-minute video featuring a number of supporters giving their “voter blessing” to the President, and sharing the reasons he should once again be voted into the White House in 2012. Looking to serve as a tag (News - Alert)-line for this year’s elections, the phrase “Are You In?” has also been strewn across these social networking sites, as well as Obama’s website, barackobama.com.
But potential Republican Presidential candidates were also quick to hop on the social media bandwagon following Obama’s illustrious efforts to connect with voters. According to Mashable.com, as soon as Obama’s first campaign video appeared on YouTube last week, Tim Pawlenty, ex-governor of Minnesota and possible GOP candidate for the 2012 race, came back with his own version by boldly calling out Obama, whom Pawlenty hinted at as a failure to America. At the same time, GOP party representatives Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann (News - Alert) and Newt Gingrich responded to the Obama campaign announcement on their respective Twitter accounts.
Despite these efforts, GOP candidates have a lot of catching up to do. To put it into perspective, Pawlenty has only 81,000 Facebook fans, as opposed to Obama’s 19 million fans, which, of course, have accumulated over the past few years. Palin, who has both captured the hearts of and sparked many an uproar among Americans, has over 2 million Facebook fans.
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