Week 3B: Evaluation of Online Presence
For the second blog post this week I am evaluating five different professional websites and online presence. Being that my background is in politics (I am currently contracting on a Net Neutrality Campaign) and I would like to continue my career as a digital asset on campaigns, I decided to use several midterm campaigns as my examples. I would also like to note this assignment does not any personal political views. This is simply objective analysis of media in the battle for California's 49th, and a popular candidate in the Gubernatorial race for a fifth example.
Kerr's Twitter feed looks great. He is properly using the hashtags and quipyness of the platform. Kerr's Facebook posts are abundant and really shows he is trying to stay relevant in this three man race. However, a lot of Kerr's Facebook posts while professional, seem to drone on and could easily lose readers attention.
Doug Applegate for Congress
There are no links for social media on this website. However, I see this campaign is active on Facebook (last post 9/10 early AM), Instagram (last post 9/10), Twitter (last post 9/9), and LinkedIn.
Compared with other campaigns I've worked on Applegate doesn't seem to post as frequently. I was also surprised there were NO links to social media on the Applegate website. As far as content, the Facebook posts seem a little sloppy with poor punctuation (and not in a hip way.) However, I think both Instagram and Twitter posts look great, perhaps that is where the media team focuses their time. Although, they definitely need to be taking better advantage of hashtags given the size of the campaign and the district.
Tinkering with the website, I notice several problems. Just looking at the links, I that most of the links on the homepage are cutoff or misleading. I also noticed in the top navigation bar when scrolling over "Meet Doug" there is a drop-down menu that does not actually add extra options. This singular, useless, drop down menu is redundant and looks sloppy. I'm not a fan of the home page. Not only are the event links disorganized, but the headline looks gimmicky with the ellipses and explanation point.
Paul Kerr for Congress
The campaign site links to its Facebook and Twitter. Kerr's last tweet is yesterday and most recent Facebook post was 5 hours ago. This activity is displayed on the website's homepage, as well as on individual social media sites. Links to Facebook and Twitter activity are abundant on Kerr's website.
Kerr's Twitter feed looks great. He is properly using the hashtags and quipyness of the platform. Kerr's Facebook posts are abundant and really shows he is trying to stay relevant in this three man race. However, a lot of Kerr's Facebook posts while professional, seem to drone on and could easily lose readers attention.
Mike Levin for Congress
The campaign site successfully links to Instagram (last post 8/17) and Twitter (last post this AM) the homepage. The third social media link on the homepage should go to Levin's Facebook, but the link is broken. A quick web search reveals Levin's campaign posted on Facebook within the last hour.
The content on Levin's Twitter and Facebook is concise, its good content and gets his point across on the issues. However, Levin needs to update that corrupted Facebook link from his homepage can should still up the hashtag uses. Levin should also clean up the Instagram and maybe make a hard decision if the account is essential to the campaign. Despite some of the issues Levin has excellent content and more followers and likes than the two other primary opponents candidates combined.
Darrel Issa for Congress
The website links to Issa's Facebook (last post 8/31), Twitter (last post 8/28), and Instagram. Issa has never posted on Instagram. I am perplexed by the fact that not only is there a prominent link on the website for this post-less Instagram, but also on Issa's Facebook.
Issa's website looks great, this is probably the strongest component of his digital strategy. Issa should be posting more, and I am of the opinion that his Twitter posts look like Facebook posts and his Facebook posts look more like press releases. However, Issa also has over 100,000 followers on Facebook, so he must be doing something right. Perhaps the voting public likes long, winding Facebook content these days.
Gavin Newsom for Governor
The website links to Newsom's Twitter (last post 3 hours ago), Facebook (last post 9/12), Instagram (last post 9/11). The links look good and are displayed prominently on Newsom's homepage. The only issue is that every time one social media linked is clicked on it replaces the previous site in the same tab. This may be intentional by design, but I think it's strange.
All of Newsom's social media accounts seem spot on and he has over 500k followers on Facebook, and over 1 million twitter followers. If his digital footprint is any indication, its no wonder Newsom has stayed at the top of the pack for the Governors's Mansion.
The biggest thing I have gained from this assignment is that money is an important factor in organizing a digital presence. Specifically, the distribution of resources is important to study. With some of the candidates in the CD49 Democratic primary, perhaps they should be spending less time and money on their giant, complicated websites and more time focusing on social media content. I also learned from Darrel Issa's media that less money shouldn't mean less quality. Issa's website was just one giant page, but it still looked profesional. His website is well organized and chic with good navigation. This is a common layout amongst Republican national campaign sites, and might be a good lesson for the DCCC piggy bank.
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