'Net Features : obama

The Digital Election for U.S. President

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:30:00 GMT

Election time has finally come to the U.S. and for many it’s none too soon. After nearly one year of seemingly non-stop participatory democracy, by tonight we’ll know just who will be the leader of the free world for the next four years.

But whether you’re Democrat or Republication (or Green or Libertarian), the role the Web and the broader digital world plays in these candidates success can’t be overstated. But if U.S. Presidents were elected by proficiency in search engine optimization, social media and web design and development, who would win?

Barack Obama

Social media is clearly where Obama shines and the sitting president’s social media profiles are, as a result, outrageously high.

Facebook fans total 32 million and Twitter followers total nearly 22 million, leaving Obama with a whopper of a Klout score at 99. What’s interesting about Obama’s social prowess is that it extends to BarackObama.com which includes the Google Plus One snippet and Twitter Cards in addition to some deep Facebook integration.

Obama may have social media all wrapped up, but when it comes to on-site SEO, several mistakes were made which may ultimately cost the 44th president his job. The president’s official reelection site does have an XML sitemap but no HTML sitemap and (gasp) no robots.txt file either. BarackObama.com does have 3.3 million pages indexed by Google however, with nearly 14 million inbound links from nearly 9 million sites. All those links are clearly important but the Obama campaign’s mistakes are the result of more fundamentally poor SEO choices – namely using duplicate descriptions within internal pages. The Obama campaign does have a blog but it’s nearly impossible to locate much less understand when new posts were published. There are some bright spots however including the use of microdata.

Much like Romney (as you’ll see in the next section) this election was apparently all about analytics for the savvy candidate: in addition to Google Analytics, the Obama campaign also uses New Relic and Chartbeat. When it comes to mobile, Obama got it done with a mobile version of his site, and even using the meta viewport tag (which tells a device how to orient a site on the screen).

Mitt Romney

Search is one area where Romney could threaten Obama’s run for reelection.

But even though the benefits of on-site optimization are so well documented, Romney’s election site has made as many wins as fails. Most notably, the official campaign site does provide unique titles (and within the recommended 75 character limit) but in some – if not most - cases the page descriptions (the value of which is hotly debated) are completely absent. Romney didn’t fare well when it comes to alt tags either – of the 22 images found on the homepage, just one had a defined alt tag. Romney’s digital election team does do a few things very well including regular posting (although the blog is exceedingly difficult to find). The Romney campaign has published an XML sitemap (no HTML sitemaps though) and provides a robots.txt file (unlike Obama).

Technical elements aside of course, popularity when it comes to search is determined in great part by the number of links and Romney came up short in comparison to Obama – only 187,000 pages on MittRomney.com were indexed with 3.4 million inbound links from just 62,000 referring domains. Social media isn’t a bright spot for Romney as it is for Obama (just 1.7 million Twitter Followers and 12 million Facebook fans) but the former governor of Massachusetts has done some impressive work on his site in relation to SEO best practices. Mobile is a brightspot for Romney however. A mobile version is available and like Obama does include the meta viewport tag.

Other noteworthy elements of Romney’s SEO strategy include a heavy focus on all things analytics (using such services as New Relic, Optimizely, Lotame and Search Discovery in unison. Romney’s site is hosted at Amazon (also using its CloudFront CDN) and uses the Drupal content management system.

Government Getting More Social

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:52:00 GMT

A study by the Human Capital Institute and “people management” software provider SABA released today details the use of social networking within local, state and federal government and looks at its effectiveness in conducting government work.

It’s not just Obama embracing social media. The study found that federal agencies lead in using social networking tools for project planning and collaboration. And 66 percent of all government agencies currently use some form of social networking – from blogs and wikis to instant messaging and discussion boards. The most significant barriers to future implementation of social networking tools within government are security restrictions.

“This study looks at the challenges and opportunities faced by government agencies, particularly at a time when private enterprise is adopting multiple forms of social networking to help them retain talent, improve service, and meet competitive challenges,” said Mike DeMarco, HCI’s Senior Research Analyst. “We were pleased to see that sixty-six percent of government workplaces surveyed reported using at least one social networking tool.”

Additional results from the report, "Social Networking in Government: Opportunities & Challenges," can be read at www.saba.com/socialgov.

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Linguistic Analysis of Obama/McCain Websites

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

7 Billion People, a company that provides insight and behavioral analysis for websites, announced results from a linguistic analysis of the websites of Senators Obama and McCain. The analysis reveals that the candidates’ websites take very different approaches in communicating their messages to voters. Analysis of the language, messaging, and information presentation on both candidates' websites yielded telling information about the mindsets of the political strategists behind the communications and how the candidates wish to be perceived during the race.

Are candidates potentially missing the opportunity to communicate effectively to those with different communication preferences?

From the release: Obama’s website uses language that appeals to visitors that are typically goal-driven, optimistic and feel affinity with others as members of a group. It encourages social interaction and works best for those looking for peer discussions and references. The behavior of the website encourages access to many choices and options. In contrast, the McCain website is geared towards visitors that are driven by risk and problem avoidance and who primarily make decisions as individuals based upon “gut feel” and personal choice. McCain’s site speaks best to those voters that are comfortable with process and orderly information presentation.

Mark Nagaitis, CEO of 7 Billion People, said “This analysis demonstrates how the design of a website and the use of language can influence the effectiveness of that site in communicating the desired message. Too many web designers underestimate the power of language in reaching the complete audience, not just their base.” Key findings from the analysis include:

The McCain website uses language that emphasizes risk and problem avoidance - such as the section on the Homeownership Resurgence Plan featured prominently on the home page during mid-October 2008 in the final weeks before the presidential election.
By comparison, the Obama website offers voters key language on hope and opportunity as the primary focus, with risk items still present but secondary in nature.
Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s website is designed to appeal to people that use peer opinions and other references in their decision-making process. Obama’s website speaks to those that see themselves as part of a group. (For example, the Obama Everywhere section on the home page includes links to popular social networking sites).
Conversely, rival John McCain’s website appeals to those people who make decisions based on gut-feeling, information and personal choice. McCain’s website primarily speaks to the individual, not the group.
Senator McCain’s website presents information in a procedural, step-by-step fashion that appeals to analytical voters that feel comfortable with process and order – there is a clear path from the initial landing page that features Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin to the center panel of the website home page presenting topical videos denouncing his competitor. McCain’s website may feel constrictive to some voters.
By contrast, Senator Obama’s website appeals to voters that prefer choice and exploration of all of the options available to them. The website contains a wide array of menu items and clickable section headings representing numerous choices for visitors that need to feel that they have explored all the options - including a Learn menu section providing backgrounds on the wives of Senators Obama and Biden, texting for campaign updates, Obama Mobile for ringtones and an official iPhone application for the Obama campaign. Obama may be missing the opportunity to talk to voters that prefer order and process on the site.