The candidates and Facebook Timeline: How (and if) they've jumped on board
While many of us have either resisted switching to the Timeline format for as long as possible or have wasted countless hours making sure our cover photo is just artsy enough, the 2012 presidential candidates are figuring out what the fuss over Timeline is all about. Facebook played a major role in President Obama’s election in 2008, but four years later, the dynamics of Facebook and other social media platforms are rapidly changing. How are the candidates keeping up? We break it down below:
Newt Gingrich
Alex Fitzpatrick at Mashable reported that Gingrich was the first GOP candidate to switch to Timeline, and since doing so in early February, he’s amassed 14,731 subscribers.
Gingrich uses the Timeline format to highlight his recent speeches and achievements, like “Won the South Carolina Primary’ on January 21st”, and, showing the Gingrich campaign’s embracement of social media, even has a link back to Mashable’s original article. Gingrich also still maintains his “public figure” page, which has 296,267 likes.
Timeline seems to serve as a showcase for Gingrich’s record, while his public figure page promotes user interaction.
And in a creative use of the new format, the campaign recently launched an “Anti-Romney” Timeline on Facebook, as Fitzpatrick reports. The page is sparse, with a cover photo that simply says, “Romney: ‘Liberal & Out-of-Touch”, and has a mere 814 likes.
The timeline highlights videos of perceived gaffes by the candidate and includes what the campaign perceives as Romney’s less-than-conservative moments throughout his career.
Will Carbery, a sophomore at Boston University studying chemistry and international relations, is a writer for the Boston University blog Culture Shock. He says of Gingrich’s anti-Romney move, “I think Timeline has the potential to be humorous during the campaign trail—popping up with a talking point that a candidate said two years ago right before a primary could be awkward. Does that put pressure on candidates to be more rigid in what they say? Maybe, but I don't know if that's a good thing, especially if it’s targeted at younger generations.”
Mitt Romney
Romney has also upgraded to Timeline and has since gathered 1,539,574 likes.
He doesn't including biographical information in his “About” space, instead featuring links to his website and Twitter. The content is similar to that of Gingrich’s -- page—policy criticism of president Obama, video highlights of speeches and photos from campaign spots.
And there’s something a little creepy that happens: friends’ posts about Romney appear on his profile, even if they weren’t directly linked there by the friend. For example, when one of my Facebook friends updated a status that mentioned a Mitt Romney t-shirt, a copy of her post appears on Romney’s wall with the heading “x posted about Mitt Romney in her status”.
Click on the "Born" tab, and you’ll find a picture of a baby Mitt with his father. And there’s even a “Stand with Mitt” page. Visitors are directed to simply download a file, print it, write their names on it, and take a picture of themselves with it. Then they upload it and are included in Romney’s photos.
Rick Santorum
Santorum seems a bit behind in the social media game, as he just has a traditional profile with 183,172 likes. But the page is packed with content, and there’s many photos from the campaign trail, quotes from his recent media appearances, and calls for local support.
His profile places a large focus on donations, with a subpage that allows for direct contribution to the campaign. Another page describes sign-up instructions for joining “Team Santorum” and offers different ways to raise support from a grassroots level.
Ron Paul
Paul has not switched to Timeline either, but has 914,917 likes on his Facebook page. His profile includes a donation page and a page featuring give-aways of autographed merchandise (the last prize was a shirt), and features photos from Paul rallies and contact information for those interested in supporting the campaign.
And though the Ron Paul campaign’s official social media efforts may be lacking compared to the other candidates, the congressman has more than 30 supporter-made pages, ranging from the Ron Paul Social Network to Ron Paul Fans to Students for Ron Paul (with 10,330 likes).
Summing Up
While Gingrich seems to be the most prolific user of social media so far, and the most inventive one when it comes to using Facebook, it remains to be seen what impact the heavier focus on social media has in Election 2012.
Carbery believes it’s influencing the ways political points are made during the campaign. “Even during the debates it seemed as if the candidates couldn't make a point without it being "140 characters or less". I don't know if this is a republican preference for simple government policy but it definitely seems like in order to get their campaign message out, the mottos and taglines have been customized to fit into Facebook messages.”
Samantha Glavin is a Spring 2012 Paste BN College Correspondent. Learn more about her here.
This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.