Revised: Grassley Grabs Top Spot in Iowa New Media Rankings

Friday, March 12, 2010, 4:30
Iowa, News Center, Top Story
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21 comments

What kind of barometer are social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to a candidate’s effectiveness in a primary or general election? Social media is obviously a tool to reach constituents where they already hang out online, but does the popularity of candidates social networking sites translate to votes on Election Day like it did for Obama?

By researching the social media statistics of notable politicians either running or holding an office here in Iowa, the totals seem to paint a picture of how well they are engaging with voters right now. Also evaluating the significance of the social site’s viral reach we can gauge how well they leverage the internet for their office and or campaigns.

I graded each politician’s presence in social media with a gut level opinion of how well I felt they are using social media in comparison to their opponents. I also considered the size of office the candidates are seeking. In other words, I expect a larger following for a statewide office than I would a congressional seat.

This report card is not meant to hand out discouraging grades, but rather serve as a wakeup call to encourage republicans to upgrade their online strategy and to boost both campaign message appeal and effectiveness.

The one thing all candidates have in common is that there is room for improvement in growing social networks. Ultimately amassing votes are what campaigns want on election day, but to get to victory part of a well balanced breakfast game plan is engaging, informing and equipping prospective voters.

Make no mistake it does take time and tenacious work to build and maintain social sites. Even with a few short cuts it must still be given attention regularly. So enjoy these figures as they do tell an emerging story. And FYI with full disclosure I do work on social media for Vander Plaats, but I believe the grade still fits the bill.

First off, Grassley has the best Twitter follower count. Grassley also works YouTube better than any other politician in the state.

United States Senate

Senator Chuck Grassley
Grade: A+
Official Website: http://www.grassleyworks.com/
Twitter: 18,173 followers
Facebook: Friend Total Turned Off
YouTube: 42,938 views, 124 videos

Senator Tom Harkin
Grade: C
Official Website: http://www.tomharkin.com/
Twitter: 171 followers
Facebook: 909 fans (non official fan page 3,479 fans)
YouTube: 12,226 views, 47 videos

Roxanne Conlin
Grade: C-
Official Website: http://www.roxanneforiowa.com/
Twitter: 733 followers
Facebook: 2,294 fans
YouTube: 220 views, 2 videos

United States House of Representatives

Congressman Bruce Braley
Grade: C-
Official Website: http://www.brucebraley.com/
Twitter: 286 followers
Facebook: 1,120 fans
YouTube: 1,421 views, 43 videos

Congressman Tom Latham
Grade: B-
Official Website: http://www.tomlatham.house.gov/
Twitter: 2,679 followers
Facebook: 2,497 fans
YouTube: 2,107 views, 7 videos

Congressman Steve King
Grade: C
Official Website: http://www.kingforcongress.com/
Twitter: 1,695 followers
Facebook: 1,495 friends
YouTube: 14,405 views, 159 videos

Governor

Governor Chet Culver
Grade: B
Official Website: http://www.chetculver.com
Twitter: 1,321 followers http://twitter.com/GovChetCulver
Facebook: 2,562 fans
YouTube: 601 views, 1 video

Bob Vander Plaats
Grade: A
Official Website: http://www.BobVP.com
Twitter: 10,062 followers
Facebook: 2,155 fans
YouTube:19,823 views, 400+ videos
(Note: Video selection inventory is currently undergoing new construction)

Terry Branstad
Grade: B
Official Website:http://www.governorbranstad2010.com
Twitter: 657 followers
Facebook: 1,771 friends
YouTube: 1,672 views, 2 videos

Rod Roberts
Grade: C
Official Website – http://www.robertsforgov.com/
Twitter – 287 followers
Facebook – 394 fans / 546 friends
YouTube – 96 views, 3 videos

Third District

While Dave Funk needs to step it up with Twitter, his near 3,000 Facebook fan base catapults him to best grade in Iowa’s 3rd district race. He is also actively on Facebook engaging his base. My challenge to all these 3rd district candidates is to at least match Boswell’s social media web presence and do it in the near future. Zaun is off to a decent start and has the basics covered so far to get the ball rolling, but Gibbons, Rees and Bertroche need to be more active.

If you run for congress you should stand out enough to have more fans on Facebook than the followers total of an average housewife or small business owner. Gibbons has a decent friend total so far, but fans are always better on Facebook. Rees has the basics started, but his very low numbers are less than a shy teenager. Bertroche needs to switch to a fan page fan base on Facebook and start a YouTube channel. For social media in politics it’s a no-brainer to have a YouTube channel.

Congressman Leonard Boswell
Grade: B-
Official Website: http://www.boswellforcongress.com/
Twitter: 1,348 followers
Facebook: 1,106 fans
YouTube: 1,915 views, 31 videos

Dave Funk
Grade: B
Official Website: http://www.funkforcongress.com/
Twitter: 22 followers
Facebook: 2,899 fans
YouTube: 778 views, 7 videos

Brad Zaun
Grade: B-
Official Website: http://www.bradzaun.com
Twitter: 143 followers
Facebook: 866 friends / 1359 fans – (Sorry to Zaun campaign for not locating fan page at first.)
YouTube: 1,124 views, 12 videos

Jim Gibbons
Grade: D+
Official Website: http://www.gibbonsforcongress.com
Twitter: 74 followers
Facebook: 431 fans/ 1,636 friends
YouTube: No Page Found

Mark Rees
Grade: D
Official Website: http://www.markrees4congress.com/
Twitter: 54 followers
Facebook: 161 fans
YouTube: 175 views, 6 videos

Pat Bertroche
Grade: F+
Official Website: http://www.bertroche4congress.com/
Twitter: 65 followers
Facebook: 350 fans

Second District

Is it grassroots leverage and spirit that allows Christopher Reed to best leverage social media in Iowa’s 2nd district so far? Despite being lowest on the totem pole for fundraising, Reed’s crew is working the internet. His staff and devoted followers are passionate when it comes to passing on news via Facebook wall posts.

By looking at the sheer numbers of Facebook friends it would seems Rathje has the impressive advantage and he does at first glance, but Rathje has friend followers and Reed has fan followers. What is the difference? Well for one, Rathje is now experiencing the no man’s land downside of a profile page. He has hit his 5,000 friend maximum. Unintentionally he has now alienated any new Facebook voter after number 5,000 and flipping his dynasty to all fans will be awkward at this point. It’s a good problem to have, but he will certainly have to retool his Facebook strategy now.

One advantage for politicians to have a Facebook fan page is you guessed it… No max follower count. There are more advantages, but that one will suffice for now. Reed needs to consider merging all his friends into his fan account until it get to far out of hand. We had to do this with Bob Vander Plaats. It wasn’t fun, but the streamline effectiveness is now all worth it.

Miller Meeks is off to a basic start, but she should want to devote time to building her social media sites. Newly announced Gettemy loses a letter grade automatically for having no YouTube and his social media numbers are not making a huge impact yet. Not that quality isn’t important, but this is a race for Congress. If you want to be like Latham and Grassley then take running social media seriously. Reach your base better than your opponent.

Congressman Dave Loebsack
Grade: C
Official Website: http://www.loebsackforcongress.org/
Twitter: 286 followers
Facebook: 1,347 fans
YouTube: 684 views, 8 videos

Christopher Reed
Grade: B
Official Website: http://www.reedforiowa.com/
Twitter: 683 followers
Facebook: 1,161 friends / 2,124 fans
Youtube: 828 views, 16 videos

Steve Rathje
Grade: B-
Official Website: http://www.steverathje.com/
Twitter: 421 followers
Facebook: 4,995 friends
Youtube: 879 views, 2 videos

Mariannette Miller-Meeks
Grade: C-
Official Website: http://millermeeks.com
Twitter: 391 followers
Facebook: 586 friends
Youtube: 2,413 views, 12 videos

Rob Gettemy
Grade: F+
Official Website: http://www.robgettemy.org
Twitter: 252 followers
Facebook: 287 friends
Youtube: No Channel Found

Written by Dave Davidson

Revised version

Tags: Boswell, Braley, Facebook, Funk, Gettemy, Gibbons, Grassley, Iowa, King, latham, Loebsack, Miller-Meeks, Rathje, Reed, Rees, Social media, Social network, Social network service, Twitter, Website, youtube, Zaun

About the Author

TEApublican has written 123 stories on this site.

An artjournalism storyteller with 1/3 smart alec tea party angst, 2/3's creative artist republican, Dave Davidson is the TIR photographer and author of 2 dozen books including "Huckisms". His latest book, "You May Be A TEApublican" is available at TEApublican.com as a free ebook. In full disclosure: Dave is a Huckabee & Ron Paul fan, Vander Plaats supporter, social media expert and a die hard Cub fan.

21 Comments on “Revised: Grassley Grabs Top Spot in Iowa New Media Rankings”

mirage wrote on 12 March, 2010, 6:09
Craig, are you sure you got your numbers right? It seems after a quick check this morning that the Zaun campaign facebook page has 1349 supporters, nearly triple the Funk campaign facebook supporters at only 534.
http://www.facebook.com/FunkForCongress

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zaun-for-Congress/212088454972?v=wall&ref=ts
Congress Needs Funk wrote on 12 March, 2010, 6:21
The Dave Funk campaign Official Twitter account is @FunkforCongress and has almost 600 people following it, with several tweets per day.

Great article, but we just want to set the record straight.

Congress Needs Funk!
cutnupdust wrote on 12 March, 2010, 8:02
The Steve Rathje campaign Official Facebook Fan Page count is 1299 fans and growing.

Agree, this is a great article but the facts do need to be relayed better to the readers.

Congress & the 2nd district need Steve Rathje!
cutnupdust wrote on 12 March, 2010, 8:13
Steve Rathje facebook fan page link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Steve-Rathje/50447663733?ref=ts
Tom Schultz wrote on 12 March, 2010, 8:24
Your analysis is a good start, but the next step is finding out how many of those Facebook fans and Twitter followers (especially this one) are actually Iowans. I’m curious to see how well micro-targeted each of these politicians accounts are. It’s really easy to run up follower counts on Twitter. The hard part is actually getting all the Iowans to follow you back.

By the way, it’s very easy to micro-target Iowans on Twitter. There are several different applications that can help one do this. But I highly doubt most are actually utilizing these tools.
ICareeGuns wrote on 12 March, 2010, 9:08
Way to go REED, the common sense and Principled Conservative of D2 who’s message is always consistent about his convictions, not just positions. Christopher always makes his campaign about the people, not about himself.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Christopher-Reed/157679371856?ref=search&sid=645789451.3193352890..1
Iowans Rock wrote on 12 March, 2010, 9:22
The grassroots are very versed in social media. Believe me. And as far as Grassley goes, I just think he enjoys it. He tweets girls state basketball scores.
desmoinesdem wrote on 12 March, 2010, 9:59
I don’t think Dave Loebsack is on Twitter. Your link goes to @BruceBraley.

I’m surprised Branstad doesn’t have more followers/fans.
Michael Corleone wrote on 12 March, 2010, 10:04
I was impressed with BVP’s twitter number until I clicked on his followers. In the 3 pages I scrolled through, there was only one Iowan! He has lots of support in Vegas, Phillipines, Onawa, Argentina, Australia, UK, South Africa, Belgium and maybe even a few exotic dancers. I think it’s cool to have a lot of facebook friends and twitter followers but I still screen them. Maybe BVP should do the same?
Tom Schultz wrote on 12 March, 2010, 10:30
Exactly Michael,

I’ve actually gone through and counted before and I noticed that once these guys start getting up to the high numbers BVP is at about 10% of them are Iowans (give or take). That was just my observation, not necessarily a solid fact. They are Iowa heavy if you see their first few hundred followers but then the locations get more diverse after that. So the difference between BVP and the other candidates isn’t as large as it might initially seem. However, filling your account with conservative activists from around the country in addition to Iowans isn’t necessarily a bad strategy. You never know, you might just get a donation from outside the state because of it.

And yes, they need to screen the exotic dancers from their accounts. However, that can be challenging given the frequency they follow people on Twitter.
Matt Green wrote on 12 March, 2010, 12:16
And you can have a zillion followers, it doesn’t translate to votes or money any more than it does if you put a commercial on 5 television stations and your opponent 1.

What you say and how you use social media is what wins people over. I follow some of those people above and if anything they turn people off with the way they communicate with their followers.

It’s not a bad thing to have people outside your district, like Tom said you might get some extra $$$. But in the end the only people who count are the people who can vote for you. Not wise to fool yourself thinking you have alot of friends when you are actually communicating your message to only a small minority who can vote for you.
Russ from Winterset wrote on 12 March, 2010, 13:03
Not to quibble about your observation, Mr. Corleone……..but I believe that the last time I checked, Onawa IS located in Iowa.

Please don’t make me go fishing with Fredo for pointing out this mistake.
Late Night Polk wrote on 12 March, 2010, 14:22
Well, I’m no social media expert, but:

- Grassley’s official twitter has 18k + followers, but his campaign twitter (http://twitter.com/grassleyworks) has 22 followers. By your logic, why not give him an F?

- a congressional candidate who has more followers (264) than a sitting Senator (185) gets an F+, but the Senator gets a C. Huh. (The candidate , Rob Gettemy actually follows people too — 206+. Tom Harkin doesn’t follow a single person. Sounds like a solid C to me!)

- BVP has 10k twitter followers and 400 YouTube videos (and an A in social media!), but trails TB anywhere from 20-45 points and has no money. That A grade will give a lot of comfort in July.

- Rathje has 5000 friends on Facebook — more friends than anyone else listed (save Grassley?). And he communicates with them … ALL THE TIME. He gets a B-. Hmm. OK.

My favorite line of the piece: “If you want to be like Latham and Grassley then take running social media seriously. Reach your base better than your opponent.” Latham has 6 tweets in 2010. Somehow I think he’s going to hang on in November.
HawkCR1 wrote on 12 March, 2010, 14:27
Mr. Green sums up my views on this issue precisely. Its very apparently that some of the campaigns right now are trying to use social media in the place of basic grassroots campaign structure, trying to claim “support” for their campaign..that isn’t there.

You can have all the followers in the world on Twitter, Facebook, etc…doesn’t mean they’re going to get out and vote. Doesn’t mean they’re going to get the checkbook out to make a donation.

Social media has its place now in the modern political campaign…however, you still have to do the old fashioned, tried and true things that every winning campaign has to have.
Tom Schultz wrote on 12 March, 2010, 14:33
One thing I think is worth noting is how many Twitter followers one has versus how many people they are following on Twitter. For example, if you follow 10 people and have 100 people following you, that probably says more than the person that is following 110 people and has 100 following them. The one that only follows 10 people probably has more people that actually care about listening to him/her whereas the other has followers that are a product of following those people instead of actually offering interesting content that people want to listen to.
Silence Dogood wrote on 12 March, 2010, 15:56
while candidates need to seriously use these new technologies to help get their messages across, I feel it is hard to use them as an accurate barometer for voters since they are dominanted by younger people who are notoriously unreliable at the polls.

silence
mirage wrote on 12 March, 2010, 16:00
Late night…..you are making some great points….
Justyn wrote on 12 March, 2010, 17:00
lol late night polk! and yes, it is shocking the vander plaats supporter gives his candidate an A. didn’t see that one coming.
Barry Egan wrote on 13 March, 2010, 18:59
There needs to be some disclosure here, TEA… You do new media work for BVP. I’ve seen you and him tweet the exact same thing verbatim within seconds of each other.

No way can Chris Reed have anything above an F. There is no engagement and a lot of the time it’s links to whatever picture-less and venue-less event post he just made to Facebook. A quick scan of his feed shows he hasn’t responded to a tweet in 6 months. He’s like that guy at a cocktail party who just hands out his business card and doesn’t have a real conversation with you. Just waits for his turn to talk.
OxfordHeights wrote on 14 March, 2010, 14:16
Hence why Reed’s campaign has only raised 2,000 dollars. That’s pretty much a joke for a candidate running for federal office. Is it any surprise that the Linn County GOP chair contacted Chris Reed and told him that his campaign was going nowhere and why Rob Gettemy was being recruited to join the race.

Pretty embarrassing if you ask me.
Iowa Business wrote on 21 March, 2010, 14:18
Gettemy announced less than 3 weeks ago & now has 1358 facebook fans! That sounds like an A+ to me.