Should political candidates bother to pay for Facebook profiles when they can set one up for free on MySpace or create their own YouTube groups for free?
According to a brief Time story, the student-only social networking site will let them “buy ad space on networking site Facebook.com, allowing them to create profiles viewable to 8 million members.”
As featured in the news blurb, MySpace “plans a similar initiative.” Also noted, Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos thinks it’s a good place for candidates to reach out to young people.
Kari Chisholm of political consulting firm Mandate Media wrote in his Politics and Technology blog that, “This is big news for campaigns – especially since it sounds like there will be steep discounts. Time to dive in, folks.”
Well, the fact is momentum is getting easier for candidates to build online. That doesn’t necessarily translate into votes, though. There were plenty of young, seemingly engaged people who passed around Flash animations, and IM-ed and blogged and e-mailed about how much they wanted Bush outta the White House in ’04 who didn’t bother to go to the polls much less register to vote.
So, we shall see….
