Craig Rentmeester's Blog

Social Media and the Presidential Race

Ten republican hopefuls take the stage tonight for their first debate in New Hampshire. With the upcoming presidential election in mind, I decided to do a little social network research on Facebook. Here are a few things that I found.

1). Barack Obama has over 87,600 supporters on Facebook. He also has nine photos and some basic personal information posted on his profile. (education, personal interests, websites, etc.)

2). John McCain has over 3,000 supporters on Facebook. He also has basic personal information and 31 photos posted on his profile. He seems to use his profile more blatantly as a marketing tool than Barack Obama. For example, he has events posted for supporters to attend. Unlike Obama, Mccain's profile isn't written in first person so its easy to see that someone else is managing it for him.

3). There are tons of Anti-Hilary Clinton groups on Facebook, some with over 1,000 members. Also, Hilary Clinton does not have a profile on Facebook.

The Big Deal: Social media allows major political hopefuls a chance to position themselves to the public and those that usually don't turn out to vote, such as college-aged individuals. By utilizing social media and engaging constituents, a candidate can entrench an image of themselves among hard-to-reach groups. Also, social media provides a cheap, easy method for unlikely candidates to gain exposure and momentum. I wouldn't be surprised if all potential candidates utilize social media throughout their long-lasting campaigns.

Great products make awareness and sales easier

If you read business publications and main stream media, you're likely to stumble across an article featuring Apple. The surprising thing about the articles that are written is that many of them boast about Apple and its products in a positive light. Meanwhile, Microsoft seems to get slammed in most media mentions. This may come as a result of Microsoft's decreasing customer satisfaction (Link to Dell offering XP again).

I think the main reason this happens is because the Apple iPod dominates the portable music player market (72 percent as of Jan. 2007). I'd also argue that Apple's recent wave of media placement is because of their growing popularity in the laptop market, rather than a result of great external communication. I'm not knocking Apple's PR and marketing department, but rather giving a tip of the hat to their R&D department for making the iPhone in time to capitalize on built up momentum.

However, how well will the Apple iPhone do considering it does not allow third-party applications that many early adopters and business consumers currently use to store information? I think the switching costs for this gadget will be too high for small business owners and older professionals that don't have time to learn a new device, for a few added features.

In addition to high switching costs, the iPhone 's capabilities are not unmatched throughout the world. In fact, consumers in Japan already have phones that can be used similar to a debit card to purchase rail passes and small consumer items (gum, cigarettes, candy, etc.). In addition, Nokia and Motorola look to compete heavily with Apple in the consolidated technology, mobile phone market.

I do think the iPhone will be successful in the U.S. because of the iPod's success. It consolidates devices for people and the technology is new to the U.S., which are two things consumers will like. However, I don't see the iPhone sweeping the world nearly as much as the iPod, no matter how much publicity Apple gets.