Three GOP Hopefuls, Three Facebook Strategies

I was fishing around on Facebook, looking different politicians’ pages to see what they were up to when I noticed some differences in the strategies used on these pages.

The top of Newt Gingrich’s page shows his logo, “NEWT2012” an unsurprising blue and read, with a swish below and a star. The whole page, in fact is in red, white and blue. Very American. Below the logo is “a special announcement from Newt” with the video of Newt announcing that he will run for president. Below the video is a link to get involved, followed by a link to donate, followed by a link to “follow Newt on Twitter.” And that’s it. No announcements or updates from the campaign on the main page. If you happen to notice the small icon on the side that says “wall,” then yes, those things appear, but it is not out in the open, and people just passing through the site might miss this. His “Likes” are a mix, mostly politically or news oriented from Fox News, to other pro-Gingrich pages, but with a few wild-cards thrown in such as “Geno’s Chowder and Sandwich Shop”.

In America, when reading, most people start at the top left corner of a page work their way across, and move down following the same pattern. If you did this with Mit Romney’s page, the first content you would find is a red button that says “Donate,” then a mobile phone with the Romney logo, then the just the Romney logo, and ‘R’ in, shockingly enough, red, white, and blue, then the Twitter ‘T’, followed by the YouTube logo. Click on these icons and it will lead you to a picture, with a link as a caption taking you to the respective sites. The Romney wall, unlike Gingrich’s is up and running, with posts nearly ever day, the most recent of which inviting followers to watch on Facebook as he announces his candidacy on June 2. Where Gingrich showed that he likes left leaning news shows, chowder, and, well, himself, Romney does not seem to “Like” anything. While Newt had his wall as a small icon off to the side, Romney has a similar small icon titled “Misery Index.” Click on this and you’ll find a petition against Obama regarding the creation of jobs.

Tim Pawlenty took a third route. The top of his page are a serious of amateur pictures. The wall is below, with posts almost every day. Unlike the two above, Pawlenty’s “Contribute” link is not prominent, and off to the side like Gingrich’s wall, and Romney’s “Misery Index”, and his logo is no where to be found. What does he like? The Minnesota Vikings. The color scheme? Black, white, and that Facebook blue.

It’s surprising to me that Pawlenty, who used Facebook as a means of announcing his candidacy as well as his formation of an exploratory committee would seem to have the dullest, and least enticing page of the three. Gingrich’s seems to be the most organized, and Romney is somewhere in the middle. It will be interesting to see if these Facebook strategies evolve as the campaign progresses.