MySpace has more registered members than Mexico has people. If it was a country it would be the 11th largest in the world. So while it may be a major marketing event for MySpace to say it’s holding a presidential primary next January, you can be sure the candidates will take it seriously.
The MySpace primary will be held on January 1 & 2, 2008, before any of the official state primaries. Every user will be asked to vote for their favorite candidate.
Most of the candidates already have MySpace pages. See, for example, Hillary Clinton (7,468 friends), John Edwards (16,921 friends), Rudy Guiliani (private profile), John McCain (3,596 friends) and Barack Obama (89,465 friends). See all of the candidates here.
We recently covered an enhancement to John McCain’s MySpace page.
I actually think it would be much more interesting for Facebook to do this than MySpace. Facebook’s user accounts are each tied to an email address or cell phone, resulting in far fewer fake or duplicate accounts. Given the low quality of the MySpace user base (multiple accounts, no identity check, etc.) it would be relatively easy for a campaign to create a significant number of fake accounts to stuff the ballot box in their favor. Facebook can also tie their users to U.S. residency much easier than MySpace. The results would actually be interesting.
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Thankfully, this was NOT released on April 1st :p
But, could the results actually sway the public opionion, and even affect the elections.
The nonmainstream, web savy candidates could potentially benefit the most
that is just an amazing statistic - that myspace could be the 11th largest country in the world. It does make coporate responsibilty take on a different angle doesnt it.
There should be a 1 to 1 detailed match between the candidates. Like this
http://www.mymuv.com/muv/details/335
And obviously Obama’s voters are more web savy.
Wow intesting! Its weird to think how much power that ‘president’ will have…
It’s so simple to reach more people in such addictive networks, then in other medium.
Completely agree on facebook vs myspace. Facebook’s data is incredibly valuable but that said, MySpace has enough critical mass that duplicates would be a small % and thus result still statistically valid.
More and more people are switching towards Facebook. Its cleaner and more mature interface is definitely a plus. Myspace is just becoming a playground for kids.
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Registered members can be residents as well as tourists who left already only to come back every now and then (like me), so if you compare with countries, you need to add the number of tourists as well
Interesting stats.
what’s funny to me is that a huge number of MySpace users *aren’t* actually eligable to vote. teens and non-US residents are a major userbase for social networking sites.
so, re: the Facebook point, for any social networking site that represents such a huge population (i.e. let’s say Facebook also became a small e-country), even if you could verify that people aren’t doubling up on votes, would it be an accurate representation of voting power?
i think probably not.
votes by friends? I can vote for every candidate in my party then right?
a marketing gimmick for the canadates and Myspace ; This has no signifigance -
- Politics suck anyways; anytime the future president of the united states has to raise Millions of dollars; to get elected … we must know that since it cost so much - he has to payback so much ..
Some of the metrics mentioned are really interested that the number of users exceed the population of mexico.
i would look forward to the results.. and wonder if it will go the extent of affecting the opinions of the people ..before the elections
How many “registered members” does the country of Mexico have? Grammar rules!
Mike you forgot libertarian Ron Paul (who’s running as a republican. He currently leads the R’s with 5,081 friends
http://www.myspace.com/congressmanronpaul
MySpace profiles are “tied” to an e-mail address as well, aren’t they? With Gmail it’s easy enough to create nearly unlimited fake profiles, if you’re industrious enough.
I actually don’t think that campaigns will take this all that seriously. The media won’t take it that seriously, and neither will the public. In the heated rush up the big early primaries this is a mini-story, a factoid, at best.
Facebook would definitely get my vote!
@Clint (#10)… What’s your point? More people voted for Bush in the 2004 election than have voted for any president in history.
I agree with Eric (#18) on this one. This is a non-story. The only way for this type of “primary” to be even remotely legitimate would be to tie each vote to the voter’s personal identification, such as a valid driver’s license or even a social security number. This is nothing more than a marketing/publicity stunt.
Take a look at Obama’s site: http://www.barackobama.com. Clearly he has seemlessly integrated the digital space into the message of his campaign, mainly, that ‘08 is all about YOU. So, it’s no wonder that he leads the pack in MySpace friends… but it’s funny, he does not promote his MySpace page on his site but does include a link to his Facebook profile…
I agree with Mike in that the Facebook stats are much more powerful.
The “candidate pages” on Facebook are slightly altered so that you cannot actually befriend a candidate, you can support them (and you can still poke them!). That said, you also cannot view a list of all of a candidate’s supporters.
That being said, here’s what we can gather from their pages alone:
Guiliani does not have a Facebook page… hmm
John McCain: 155 wall posts, no gifts
Edwards: 1,120 wall posts, 2 gifts
Clinton: 2792 wall posts, 13 gifts
Obama: 4,713 wall posts, 183 gifts
And here’s a surprise
Romney, perhaps the most conservative of them all: a whopping 1,064 wall posts, (but no gifts)
All candidates also have numerous supporter groups with slightly different agendas (by university, location, common interest, etc). I am a member of one of them.
Does this concern anyone especially after the way News Corp/FOX/Rupert Murdoch (which now owns MySpace) rigged the election for Bush in 2000? Omg, it’s going to happen again I know it!!! If we somehow end up with another right-wing Republican crony for President for another 8 years I will either have to kill myself in protest or move to Canada - what is the world coming to???
I think campaigns can and should take this seriously. This really is a giant focus group for campaigns on their position with the social networking crowd, arguable one of the most influential blocs of voters. Sure, it can be gamed in a varity of ways, and no one should imagine that the outcome will accurately reflect all of America. But it might somewhat accuratelly reflect who understands Web 2.0, and that’s a pretty important criteria for the Presidency, in my opinion. Check out my blog on “engagism” my blog on engagism for more thoughts in this area.
cory (#20) re: Bush….your statement is hardly factual. If anything the 2004 election was the closest election in history plagued by the most reports of voter fraud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.....gularities
Not looking for a flame war, just saying, your assertion is contentious.
Whats not debatable, and more Republicans than ever will agree;
Bush = worst President ever.
Two thoughts:
1. I don’t care how 160M 14 year olds would vote.
2. Seems to me this might be a way to get MySpace to diversify their demographics - if they can get more adults and people of voting age to get accounts and participate (to make the results more meaningful) perhaps that will increase the value of MySpace (keeping them as users will be the issue).
Jason Alba
CEO - JibberJobber.com
Facebook might be working on something similar actually
thesubjective (#24): Actually, my statement was factual, and can be backed up by hard data. No presidential candidate in history has ever received more votes in one election than Bush received in 2004. It’s public record. You can look it up for yourself. This is not a matter of opinion. I see nothing contentious about my statement, as I was just stating fact.
Interesting, though, that you called my verifiable, factual statement contentious and followed it with a statement that was actually very contentious. Your statement that “Bush = worst President ever.” was actually very debatable because it is your opinion. There may be millions of people that agree with your opinion, but it is still just an opinion.
I will not get into a debate with you over whether or not Bush is the worst President ever because a) you clearly have strong beliefs on the subject and no amount of reasonable arguments will sway your opinion, and b) it is a purely subjective assessment.
Mike,
You’re saying that campaigns might try and “rig” this primary. Campaigns aren’t even going to pay attention to this by next January. Their only concern is going to be Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Not what some MySpace geeks think, with something that might only get a 5 second spot on a middle of the day show on Fox News.
This is pure crap that will be spun as voter base support for a candidate.
With a web community such as MySpace, that isn’t tied to a countries borders or a viable “voting age” limit you simply CANNOT hold an open “primary” and expect anyone to take those results as viable polling data.
Sure each member would get their say, but what good is election data when it was pulled from internation and underage sources as well as valid ones?
PURE political pandering…
“If it was a country it would be the 11th largest in the world.”
But no. 1 in fake ids and machine entities!
“Bush = worst President ever.”
Impossible, that would imply that he tops a category and we all know W is mediocre in all things.
The “Bush sucks” posts are boring. Nobody really cares that you have an irrational hate for him.
Like many people, I used to think MySpace is “beneath me”. My attitude quickly changed after I registered for an account in November/2006. MySpace is massive and entirely relevant, and a perfect electoral lab for 2008 presidential election. The proof can be found in the fact that all Democratic candidates have their pages there, and it can be fairly assumed that they are no fans of Rupert Murdoch who owns MySpace.
2008 is shaping up to be a very exciting election year. Arch-conservative, Pat Buchanan, who is no fan of Democrats, has said on many occasions that Hillary Clinton is the one to beat. Dick Morris, who never hides his dislike for Hillary (calling her a “lesbian”), all but conceded that Hillary Clinton will be the 44th president of the U. S. Of course, you can be sure that Hillary-haters (and there are many) who will work very hard to make sure that scenario never happens.
#24 I disagree with your statement that “Bush = worst President ever”. That title belongs to Richard Nixon. “Tricky Dick” deceived this nation on a level that is far worse than Bush, and Bush is bad enough.
This is smart business move by MySpace. Their user base should increase sharply leading into this momentous online event. It will be an interesting exercise in online voting.
What’s MySpace campaigning like?
Message Board-
“Hey, wuts up-;) this is barack, i’m just using my frenz profile to check out voterz–:)) you seem cute- do u want 2 chat l8r? chek out my page!!!c u there!”
I’m sending Obama a cupcake gift.
And hopefully he’ll enjoy the glitter image: “I’m gonna vote 4 u” I’ll leave on over at his myspace comments.
I am not sure why they would hold a primary, unless 14 years old voting rights is a bill before Congress
hellooooo, anyone there ? how about a new post already
Only so much left wing wacko, right wing nutjob bashing I can take !
Comscore shows that 84% of MySpace’s users are over 18. I think those numbers are probably off somewhat, but it suggests that the large percentage of MySpace users are of voting age. (Contrary to what many posters have suggested.) MySpace is easy to dismiss, but that’s mostly because its us old farts squawking about things they we understand and associate with ‘teenagers’.
This should be enertaining at the least, although:
1] MySpace “voters” will have to unplug to vote.
2] This will show the true political relevence that MySpace has once the real primary election is compared with the MySpace primary. They are risking quite a lot in taking this step. Unfortunately MTV made a similar mistake with their “Vote or Die” campaign.
My guess is that MySpace and facebook would have pretty similar results in the primary as young people, whether college grads or not, tend to vote very similarly.
I’m voting for Sanjaya.
I think the power of each vote should be determined by the number of “friends” a user has. Because, clearly, in popularity contests, the already popular people wield more power. Right?
@Isaac (#38): Interesting comparison to MTV’s “Vote or Die” campaign. I think the MySpace campaign is a little different. It is basically just a user survey to see how MySpace members would vote. It is not directly “encouraging” its members to get out and vote on the real election day, although this sort of exercise might be the type of thing that actually gets people involved.
One important reason why this is being held on Myspace and not Facebook:
Facebook is not tied to the absurd political propaganda factory known as Fox News (where as Myspace is owned by News Corp). I foresee this as a marketing attempt for the Republican candidate du jour.
If my favorite candidate wins the MySpace election, I’ll have to switch my vote.
I personally have 37 Myspace accounts. I know several people - including artists, bands, musicians and other public people that have far more than me. I think Michael is right. Facebook would be a much better forum for real numbers than Myspace. Myspace is good for what it is - a place for bands to get the word out to their fans. That’s it.
But how many my-spacers will actually vote?
Some of you folks are funny. I’m French and I could vote five times for Hillary (a friend of mine) or whoever is candidate. Georgeous idea! I’m so excited to start voting in the USA. Sorry but French election sucks.
Back to serious, great blog Michael! Thanks.
Next year, when MySpace puts up the mock election page, it’s not hard for them to build in an algorithm that allows only those who are based in the U. S. and over 18 to vote.
Vote frauds usually cancel each other out. If one Hillary supporter casts 5 votes, it is likely to be balanced by an anti-Hillary voter who votes for his candidate 5 times. Let’s face it, vote frauds happen on all sides.
According to ComScore, 65 million MySpace users visit the site regularly. If only 1% of those users bother to cast votes in this mock election, you get 650,000 votes, which is a significant data.
In my lifetime, the presidency of the US has become a joke. A mass media joke full of parties, wings and sides… For a lot of people I know, this is not a race to the white house… its a race to get someone out of the white house…
I am so excited to see how the candidates leverage the web for the election. I’ve been waiting a long time for this! Very cool!
I hope they don’t just focus on MySpace - I think it’s a very good, very big and very successful site, but it’s not the only place people hang out. I’d love to see them realize this and hit TagWorld, Nextcat, etc., too.
I think one of the big stories about the election will be how the Internet and online communities shapes the race. What is funny about MySpace is most of its “citizens” aren’t old enough to vote. And yet in some ways they will actually get a vote in this election since this MySpace election will certainly affect the real race via PR and the blogosphere.
In addition, the democrats are way outpacing the republicans online - here is a story with some of the details behind the Internet marketing stats for the different candidates: http://www.smallbusinesshub.co.....cCain.aspx