Archives for 2008

The Battle for the US Election, Social Media Style

As November 4 and the US Presidential Election looms ever nearer, there’s a new battle going on for the hearts and minds of the American voters. It’s not between Barack Obama and John McCain (although they are the two major players in it). No, this battle is between social media giants MySpace and Facebook.

Ever since Facebook broke the 100 million users barrier, the dogfight between them and MySpace has intensified, with each one coming out with new ways to keep their users happy.

(Not counting the forced-upon Facebook redesign, of course, which has split opinions on Facebook considerably).

Therefore, it’s incredibly zen-like timing that the battle is picking up in the US Presidential Election year. After all, this is a decision that’s going to impact the world we all live in for the next 4 years. What better opportunity to engage your users and give them something the other site isn’t?

Looking at Facebook and MySpace, it’s interesting to see the different approaches they’re taking. Which one works best, of course, is down to the user and target audience.

MySpace, for example, have set up a special My Debates area in partnership with the Commission on Presidential Debates. Their aim with this is to truly offer an interactive medium for both MySpace users and non-MySpace users alike (an excellent idea).

Entering the My Debates area, users can join interactive forums, watch the live debates between the candidates and even submit questions for the candidates to answer. There are also options to host your own group discussion, as well as print off the key issues that the candidates are using for their campaign voice.

Encouraging visitor interaction, MySpace are also involved in a Town Hall debate on October 7 where questions and views uploaded to the My Debates area will be discussed via a live stream on the site. With MySpace traditionally attracting a younger demographic, their election options offer an invaluable insight into what the new generation of voters would like to see change.

Compare this to Facebook. Unlike MySpace, there is no dedicated option for Facebook users to log into and offer their opinions. Instead, the second-largest social media site has left it to the politicians, their campaign teams and the ordinary Facebook user to start their own discussions or groups – so, nothing really different from existing discussion groups.

There are some useful applications that Facebook are allowing on the site. One, from ECOresearch, allows users to cast their vote weekly, as well as taking part in an interactive real-time quiz that discusses the latest updates and news from the campaign trail.

Apart from this, though, and the ability to join your preferred candidate’s Facebook Election 08 group, there’s not really a lot on Facebook when it comes to the upcoming election. This seems strange for such a major event that impacts us all. The limited options offered by Facebook are thrown into perspective even more by websites like If The World Could Vote which has seen over 104,000 votes from 176 countries so far.

There’s no doubt that in this particular battle, MySpace wins hands down. Which makes MySpace one to watch for all the candidates looking to see how the younger and more traditional voters are swaying. If the latest graph from the MyDebates area is correct, it doesn’t make pretty reading for McCain.

If the actual election goes anything like the current social media one, then MySpace and Obama will be sitting pretty while Facebook and McCain will be left to wonder where it all went wrong.

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Backseat Drivers and Blog Commenters

Back in January of this year, Hjortur Smarason (owner of Scope Communications) wrote an interesting blog post about Target and their response to feedback left by a blogger named Amy Jussel.

Jussel had written to the retailer to complain about an advertising campaign that showed a woman lying spreadeagled on a target, with the unfortunate placing of the woman meaning that her crotch was immediately over the bulls-eye.

What makes the whole thing interesting was not the fact that Target used the ad in the first place, nor the fact that Jussel complained about it, but the response that she received from Target. Hjortur goes into it in more detail in his blog post, which is gaining a second wind thanks to a new-found popularity on social media site Stumbleupon. But basically, the gist of the post is that Target didn’t deem it necessary to respond to Jussel because she was a blogger.

(It’s particularly amusing that Target seemed to ignore the fact that Jussel is the founder of Shaping Youth, an organization that looks at the media’s effect on impressionable children).

While Hjortur (quite rightly) makes many valid points why Target and its PR team got this so wrong, the whole episode also raises some interesting points regarding the whole blogosphere and its standing with the business world, and certainly within the eyes of the PR industry.

When the PR team of Target responded in the manner they did – “Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets” – they made it quite clear that they didn’t take blogging as a serious media outlet. Big mistake.

With the power that the blogosphere holds today, not recognizing it as a credible media source is just opening you up to a major backlash – just ask Associated Press and the furore they created when they went after the Drudge Retort. Yet, at the same time, is the blogging community to blame as well for the views that Target’s PR team held?

For critics of the blogging community, one of the weapons they’ve always used as an argument is the unprofessional and irrelevant nature of many commenters. Yet is this fair? Yes, there can be some incredibly bizarre and often unfortunate comments left by blog visitors, but is this any different from other forms of media?

Target’s argument at the time was that it preferred to deal with the traditional media outlets. Now, depending on what your view of? a traditional media outlet is, this would mean newspapers, television and radio. But traditional media outlets don’t always get it right either – many letters to national newspapers are just as irrelevant and pointless as some comments to blogs are.

The point is, it’s true that blogs by their very nature offer the personal voice of the person writing them. Yet that doesn’t mean that they should hold less sway with the businesses, media, news sites or similar that seem to hold blogging in disdain. The introduction of tools like BackType should also help to improve the quality of comments left on a post.

I find it hard to believe that Target – or any other business – would refuse to offer a media response to bloggers like Seth Godin, Brian Solis, Chris Brogan or others like them, merely for the simple reason that these guys can still be considered bloggers. Then again, Target never showed any sense in the first place, so perhaps they would ignore them.

Blogging has come a long way from its early days of sharing a few thoughts and stories with anyone interested enough to read. Professional bloggers have audiences of thousands and can wield some powerful influence when it’s needed. Companies like Target would do well to keep this in mind.

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A New Beginning

Hello. I’m finally here. It may have taken me a while, but like the old saying goes, better late than never.

As emerging media, marketing and platforms continue to merge, I felt it was time to add my personal site to my existing blog (discontinued). While there may be the occasional cross-over, that shouldn’t happen too often – I’d be too worried about going crazy and having multiple personalities, for one thing.

Instead, the blog posts you will find here will offer a more personal voice – views on social media, its effect on personal and business online identities, community-building and much more.

I can’t say I’ll always be right. I can’t say I’ll always be entertaining. But hopefully I’ll be worth stopping by to check in on. Who knows, maybe you’ll even subscribe…

Until the next time.