Looking into factors that made a difference in Scott Brown’s upset victory in this week’s Massachusetts Senatorial election reveals that Scott Brown’s campaign was effective at using social media to successfully promote his candidacy.  Scott Brown, a Republican state senator was able garner 52 percent of the vote, versus 47 percent Democratic opponent Attorney General Martha Coakley.   Brown’s campaign used social media to build legitimacy and make a personal connection with voters.   His campaign received 10.6 times more Facebook fan-page interactions along with YouTube video uploads than his opponent, based on a study from Emerging Media Research Council as published in the Wall Street Journal.

The numbers were very strong for Brown over Coakley when looking at Facebook with 70, 800 Facebook Brown fans with only 13,529 Coakley fans.    The You Tube video views were even more overwhelmingly in Brown’s favor with 528, 271 Brown views and only 51, 173 Coakley views.   According to Jeff Gulati, a social media expert and associate professor of government at Bentley University in Massachusetts, Scott Brown’s campaign would not have been nearly as successful had he depended solely upon traditional media sources.  Gulati pointed out that social medial was important in building enthusiasm for this candidacy.   “Social media was a way for him to communicate with his supporters because you generally do not use this to persuade people,” Gulati stated. “These are people that have opted in; they are predisposed to like him. So when you have this long-shot bid it helps demonstrate this is a serious and legitimate campaign.”

Related Link:

http://fcw.com/articles/2010/01/20/social-media-senate-race.aspx