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Big Data and the U.S Presidential Campaign. Already a member?

Sign in Not a member? Sign up today Member Free 5 free articles per month, $6.95/article thereafter, free newsletter. Subscribe $75/Year. Obama, Romney Take Over the Web With Advertisements. Television has long been considered the dominant medium for political advertising, and that's mostly still true — spending on TV ads by campaigns and Super PACs this year alone is expected to reach $2.9 billion.

However, campaigns are increasingly putting more of their advertising budget into the web — to the tune of seven times more than they spent online in 2008. It's a trend that was evident across the Internet during the Republican and Democratic National Convention. Over the past two weeks, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney's campaigns waged digital warfare to get more eyeballs on their content — and their message. The cyber war: Deus ex machina. How Romney, Obama Camps Use Google Search Ads to Target Voters. JEFFREY BROWN: Now we continue out regular look at the campaign as it plays out in social media and on the Web.

For that, we’re joined again by two journalists from the new website Daily Download. Lauren Ashburn is the site’s editor in chief and is formerly with USA Today Live and Gannett Broadcasting. Howard Kurtz is Newsweek’s Washington bureau chief and host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” And welcome back. HOWARD KURTZ: Thank you. LAUREN ASHBURN: Thank you. Tumblr assembles a team to create live animated GIFs from the 2012 presidential debates. In a move sure to cause unprecedented levels of excitement among editors of The Verge, Tumblr has announced plans to pump out live GIF animations from the 2012 presidential debates.

Tumblr says it's hired a "crack team of GIF artists" that will provide "instant animations of the best debate moments, from zingers, to gaffes, to awkward silences. " To broadcast the GIFs to the world, Tumblr has built a special page called "Gifwich," and warns that following the page will flood user Dashboards with animations "on a minute-to-minute basis. " "Instant animations of the best debate moments, from zingers, to gaffes, to awkward silences. " Vote for me: How data will change the 2012 elections. As TV Viewing Habits Change, Political Ads Adapt. How Social Will Win the Election Ad Wars. HootSuite - 2012 Election Tracker. Predicting the 2012 President. Four years ago a little known senator, Barack Obama, became the forty-fourth President of the United States of America. Experts suggest that one of the most influential factors for President Obama’s win in the previous election was his engagement on social media channels.

Social media marketing is an often misunderstood and underutilized tool for politicians and even businesses. These channels have the ability to reach out to millions of users. It is now another election year and there are plenty of opportunities for the presidential candidates to utilize social media. If we take a look at who has the most Facebook fans and Twitter followers, we can take an educated guess at who will win the 2012 presidential election. Brought to you by prmarketing.com. Brought to you by prmarketing.com. Social media and the election: Any impact? When President Obama used Twitter as his first communication medium to claim re-election Tuesday, the tweet became the most amplified message the service had ever seen.

It was the culminating moment in an election in which the role of the Internet was a constant, sometimes deafening, presence. CNN broadcast with on-screen hashtags - a way of linking tweets. Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney boasted 33 million and 12 million Facebook fans, respectively. Countless election "memes" - digital snippets of pop culture - propagated on media sites like YouTube and Tumblr. US Elections 2012. Une campagne présidentielle américaine sur le web sous le signe du tracking. Les campagnes présidentielles sont souvent l’occasion d’innover et de déployer de nouveaux outils en matières de communication.

Ceci est vrai dans tous les pays mais plus particulièrement aux États-Unis qui nous ont habitué à une utilisation importante de la communication et des nouvelles tendances. On se rappelle ainsi de l’importance des médias sociaux dans la dernière campagne et de son utilisation par Barack Obama et son équipe dans un dispositif de communication intégré. Cette année, comme le souligne le Financial Times dans son article Tracking technology catches US voters dont je reprends une partie du contenu ici, l’accent est mis sur les technologies pour suivre les électeurs sur Internet même si les américains ne sont pas à l’aise avec cette pratique. Sites de campagne des candidats : plus de tracking que sur des sites de e-commerce « Les campagnes présidentielles doivent creuser plus en profondeur, ou tout au moins jeter un filet plus large, qu’un site classique. Keeping up with the 2012 U.S. election with Google.com/Elections.

Assessing the digital campaign: Obama vs. Romney. Assessing the digital campaign: Obama vs.

Romney Aug 30, 2012 “A July redesign of the Obama page emphasized the centrality of the campaign website further,” according to the report. “Rather than sending users to the campaign's YouTube channel, the video link now embeds the campaign videos directly into the website, where the only videos are the ones Obama wants you to see.” Campaigns Use Social Media to Lure In Younger Voters. Election 2012 campaigns are all over Facebook  WASHINGTON — As more presidential candidates ask us to “like” them on Facebook, some campaign consultants argue that targeted Facebook political advertising will change the coming year’s election map, from the presidential race to local elections.

This election cycle, campaigns are making much larger staff and financial investments in social media marketing, said Michael Beach, a co-founder of the Republican digital-strategy firm Targeted Victory. “It’s night and day different” from 2008, Beach said in explaining the importance of Facebook now. Beach estimated that the average campaign spends about 25 percent of its budget on online strategy, and while he thinks the amount will increase as it gets closer to Election Day next November, the percentage will not.

The online strategies will be strong supplements to traditional outreach such as get-out-the-vote campaigns and TV spots, but won’t replace them, according to Pew Research Center researcher Aaron Smith. Obama, Romney Campaigns Embrace Twitter-Fueled News Cycle. NEW YORK -- When Pierre Prosper, a foreign policy adviser to presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, accused President Barack Obama Thursday of abandoning a missile defense site in Czechoslovakia, a country that broke apart nearly two decades earlier, political reporters quickly tweeted the latest 2012 election gaffe, as Team Obama joined in to mock the other side.

"Hearing next @MittRomney foreign policy call will deal with threat posed by Grenada," tweeted Lis Smith, the director of rapid response for Obama's re-election campaign, along with the hashtag #backtothefuture. " Ben LaBolt, press secretary for the Obama campaign, retweeted her swipe. Another day, another flap. Politics & Elections. Politics Transformed: The High Tech Battle for Your Vote: Mashable: Amazon.com. How Are Apps Shaping the 2012 Election? [INFOGRAPHIC]

If 2008's presidential race was the social media election, then this year's is certainly the mobile election.

EngineYard.com created an infographic that breaks down how the U.S. has used mobile apps, in both sending and consuming information, during the 2012 election season so far. SEE ALSO: Presidential Debate Most-Tweeted Event in U.S. Political History Some notable stats from the graphic: 70% of the most active iPhone states (New York, California, Illinois) tend to vote Democrat, while 70% of the most active Android states (Colorado, Arizona, Georgia) tend to vote Republican. These three fact-checkers keep candidates in line. Google: Voters increasingly move toward online, mobile and away from TV. Google's Politics & Elections blog will release some new data this morning on the types of information voters are paying attention to -- and their findings show the extent to which Americans have moved toward online and mobile media and away from traditional TV. From their post, which will go up later this morning: Access to political information no longer comes from one place - or one screen.

Opinion: Will 2012 be shaped by social media or super PACs? - Maria Teresa Kumar. Will the 2012 elections be super or social? The answer could not only determine the outcome but also define our political landscape far into the future. Continue Reading Campaign teams, political insiders and journalists have focused on Citizens United-fueled super PACs as the compelling new dynamic of 2012.

Social Media and Presidential Candidates - A History. The 2008 presidential race could be characterized as the first instance in which social media was used as a primary form of voter outreach—at least, for one of the candidates. Barack Obama’s “Vote for Change,” a slogan that essentially evolved into a full-fledged social media campaign, incorporated Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Then there was his “Yes We Can” poster, which inspired a popular meme among the wired public. GOP candidate John McCain, on the other hand, largely avoided web-based tactics, especially after his running mate, Sarah Palin, became the subject of nationwide media ridicule. Inside Facebook’s war room - Steve Friess. When President Barack Obama's campaign wants to put out a new message on Facebook, it often calls up a Democratic strategist who sits two feet away from a Republican who does the same for Mitt Romney.

It's not the world's most impressive war room — just two people in Facebook's F Street office with graffiti and exposed wires. But it is the place where any candidate, many far less savvy than the presidential campaigns, are trying to harness the power of this whole "social networking" thing they hear so much about. Continue Reading. Obama, Romney: Who has the most online clout? Romney v Obama on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Obama Tweets More Than Romney, Wins Social Media Smackdown CIO. As the presidential campaign heads into high gear, the candidates and their supporters are blanketing the airwaves with a barrage of ads, particularly in states considered battle grounds in November.

But on the Web, which commands an increasing share of Americans' media consumption, President Obama's team has made a far greater effort to engage directly with voters than his opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.