MLB vs. GOP: Sparking a Social Media Frenzy

Being from the San Francisco Bay Area, there was a moral battle that raged between my mind and the hand which held the remote control this past Monday night. In some cruel workings of the network gods, the National League Championship involving the San Francisco Giants who annihilated the St. Louis Cardinals was on at exactly the same time as the third and final 2012 Presidential Debate. Every ten seconds a new Facebook message popped onto my computer screen, and I couldn’t help but take notice that the comments were equally given coverage for this dichotomy of events.   More importantly, I have to say that my faith in the American public was restored as TV Guide posted its rating results for the evening: while the baseball game had a total of 7.99 viewers on Fox, the presidential debates grabbed a combined viewing audience of 28.68 million over three major networks. As this election and political fundraising season is reaching its apex, it is clear that the American people are clearly interested and involved with this momentous political election and that online participation is having immense results. Here are two new patterns that have emerged with this election that were nonexistent in years past:Online hits – Presidents and candidates have always had zingers or one-liners that somehow or another have worked their way into the social fabric of pop culture. Remember George Bush’s “Read my lips: No new taxes” or Bill Clinton’s “It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is”? The defining moment of this election may be highlighted with Facebook shares of caricatures of Big Bird and vivid pictorials of Barak Obama's death stare.Facebook advertising – Even for comparison’s sake, I have not been able to “Like” President Obama in good conscience for my Facebook home page. That being said, I have included Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as “friends” and I can’t help but to sit back and analyze their strategies as one who revels in the complicated maneuverings of the campaign playbook matrix. From my own experience, I have noticed that their teams posts about every three hours. Ryan’s “Likes” over a 24 hour period have ranged from a low of 24,401 to a staggering high of 183,363 minutes after the debate ended. In the same period, Romney had low of 52,806 and high of 285,973. With numbers like these, I can think of no other way that candidates could have possibly connected with such a vast amount of supporters and have the levels of interaction that before were impossible to even fathom.Cyber space has become the great amplifier of political thought and fundraising. Topics that would have soon faded in the past have found extended half lives as Facebook discussions, Tweets, and YouTube videos linger on the screens of our laptops and iPads. As society as a whole has become more dependent on social networking, political thought, access to information, and ease of financial support has become common place. There is a new game to be played, new strategies to be developed, and new rules to abide by. There is also more money to be spent, more money to be raised, more supporters to influence, and more supporters who are influencers. Politics is continually evolving; are you ready for what’s coming up next?