The BBC recently reached out to Click Rain President Paul Ten Haken to discuss the difference in the social media strategies deployed by the 2012 presidential candidates. Citing a recently released PEW report, the piece focused on the "one way" approach that both candidates have taken toward their social media efforts.
Romney v Obama on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
By Kate Dailey, BBC News Magazine
In 2000, US presidential candidates began to realise that the web was worth taking seriously. And since then, those aspiring to higher office have become more and more comfortable with campaigning online. Now, it's as essential for candidates to have a presence on platforms like Facebook and Twitter as it is for them to kiss babies and host fundraisers...
The Pew Research Center has released a report analysing how the 2012 presidential candidates have set up their virtual shops. Researchers examined the social media output for both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney during a two-week period this summer.
The study shows that while both campaigns are engaging enthusiastically in social media, they are more enthusiastic about the "media" part than the "social" aspect.
"In the case of Corey Booker, social can be hugely effective at relationship building. But when you're Romney and Obama, if they did treat social as a two-way channel I think they'd be so inundated," says Paul Ten Haken, president at Click Rain, a multimedia firm in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
