Gubernatorial campaigns rely on social media

As the two men campaigning for Virginia governor make last-minute sound bites to get out the vote on Tuesday, the virtual cocktail parties they host on their Facebook fan pages have exploded in activity.

Both campaigns have rolled out Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube videos and other social media tools to reach voters over the course of the race, in addition to their primary Web sites.

Their fan pages serve as a virtual gathering place for campaign rhetoric, supporters' messages and ad-hoc debates.

"It's blown my mind how much access we have to these candidates," said Bob Sanregret, a software company executive who is a "fan" on both R. Creigh Deeds' and Bob McDonnell's Facebook pages.

Social media sites reflect McDonnell's lead in polls. By yesterday, Republican McDonnell had more than twice as many fans on Facebook as Democrat Deeds -- more than 26,600 to 12,300. Also, McDonnell's numbers are growing faster this week than Deeds'.

Speaking about McDonnell's success on Facebook, new-media strategist Ravi Singh said the Republican's message is "get involved" while the Democrat's is more passive -- "get connected."

McDonnell has not quite double the number of Twitter followers as well. And on YouTube by yesterday morning, the "mcdonnellforgovernor" channel had 218 subscribers and 13,610 views; "deedsforvirginia" had 116 subscribers and 8,176 views.

Eli Kaplan, 25, new-media director for the Deeds campaign, said he was concerned not with building raw numbers of supporters but in persuading the so-called Obama surge voters to come to the polls. Kaplan ran new-media strategy for Terry McAuliffe, who lost to Deeds in the June 9 Democratic primary, and for Sen. Mark R. Warner's successful Senate campaign last year.

Deeds spokesman Jared Leopold declined to share online statistics, though Kaplan said he has found e-mail is the most successful new-media tool. The percentage of people who donate money after receiving e-mail requests is "the highest among any campaign I've worked on," Kaplan said.

McDonnell had outspent Deeds more than 5-to-1 through Oct. 21 on Web, e-mail and blog-related expenses, which include online advertising, according to Virginia Public Access Project data.

Alex Lundry, a Republican pollster, cautions that social media is too new in political campaigns to be "broadly inherently predictive" of a race. Yet, "in the same way as people look at the amount of fundraising, the number of phone calls made, the number of volunteers, it can help measure the energy and passion for a campaign," he said.

McDonnell's and Deeds' personalities show through their social media actions. On Twitter, the virtual network where users "tweet" their followers in dispatches of 140 or fewer text characters, Deeds himself tweets the songs he's listening to while driving between campaign stops, mostly rock music by Gram Parsons, Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.

"5 days. The Band (Brown Album). Keep pressing" was one recent tweet (Deeds likes to count down the days until Election Day).

McDonnell's staff tweets announcements on new endorsements, appearances and promotions.

"I will be making stops in Charlottesville and Richmond today. Read further details here (link)" was a recent tweet.

McDonnell's Web director, Vincent Harris, 21, who ran GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's online campaign, and two staffers solicit participation on Facebook constantly. They reached the 26,600-plus mark this week by constantly asking people to bring their friends on board and run mini-membership drives.

Political consultant Singh, whose Election Mall Technologist Inc. provides tech platforms for candidates, emphasized that any political campaign must use social media for raising money, improving awareness and getting out the vote.

"On Election Day, we don't need everyone in Virginia to vote for us. We need to find the fans of ours, target them and get them to the polls," he said.

Contact Chris I. Young at (804) 649-6754 or .