After hearing Obama’s announcement to form a presidential exploratory committee, Farouk Olu Aregbe
jumped onto facebook, and created a group: “One Million Strong for Barack”.
In less than five days, the group had 10,000 members. By week three, it boasted 200,000 members. As of now, Dec 12, 2007, the group has 404,136 members. Clinton’s group has similar number.
But it’s not just in the numbers. Howard Dean learned this the hard way. He was an internet fundraising sensation, but all the online buzz and money didn’t materialize into actual votes.
Facebook groups may swell, but to what end?
I’m apt to join many groups, and add many facebook applications, but I physically rally behind few of them.
Facebook offers an identity for the politically lazy.
We can “support” hundreds of causes by simply joining a group or adding an application. After this initial action however, little is generally done. And while I have participated in a multitude of events promoted through facebook, the desire to ignore any superfluous content seems to be the norm.
In order to utilize these groups to their full potential, the candidates need to reach beyond simply aggregating soft-supporter, and excite the politically lazy into taking some action beyond the constraints of facebook itself.
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