In this post I will look at the Maryland Republican candidates running for Governor in 2014. I will examine each by looking at their technology outreach to potential voters.
The candidates: To see the list of candidates that have “Officially filed” click here
David Craig: (Officially filed) – http://www.davidcraig.com/home.php – Lists Facebook and Twitter social media accounts.
Ron George: (Not officially filed) – http://www.voterongeorge.com/ – Lists Facebook, Twitter and YouTube social media accounts.
Charles Lollar: (Not officially filed) – http://www.lollar4governor.com/ – Lists Facebook, Twitter and YouTube social media accounts.
Brian Vaeth: (Officially filed) – http://www.vaeth4gov.com/ – Lists no social media accounts as the website is under construction.
Larry Hogan: (Not officially filed) – http://www.hoganforgovernor.com – Larry Hogan is scheduled to announce officially getting into the race on January 21st. The website is not complete but he does have an active Twitter account.
The Scorecard: (Click the numbers below to view the social media page)
|
Craig |
George |
Lollar |
Vaeth |
Hogan |
|
| Website |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Under Construction |
Not yet complete |
|
N/A |
N/A |
||||
|
N/A |
|||||
| YouTube |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Here are my takeaways from the scorecard above:
It is very early in the campaign season and the outreach is pretty minimal at this point for a state wide race. The Republican candidates seem to be trailing the Democrats in total outreach and followers.
Charles Lollar has a significant edge in followers, I just wish we saw more updates from all of his accounts.
Larry Hogan has not announced yet and we will have to wait and see what his total technology approach will be in the near future.
There are many outlets for outreach and all of the candidate campaigns should look to expand their strategies in this arena.
I guess if I had to pick a technology leader among the candidates I would lean towards Charles Lollar. His numbers are just better than the other candidates. I would give David Craig second and Ron George third. The other candidates just don’t have enough outreach to be ranked right now.
Of course the reality of followers, likes, and subscribers does not mean a lot when it comes down to voting in the end, but it is a fun exercise to do and makes a great resource for following all of these candidates.
Scott E
Why did you discount Hogan’s 75,000+ Facebook group? His active role in promoting awareness of the issues and the supportive base he has built over the last few years puts him ahead of the competition. If the only metric you are using is the number of likes/followers, Hogan blows them all out of the water except Lollar on Twitter… and it seems Hogan is set to break 1,000 soon enough and will certainly be on the way to closing the gap between the two. Additionally, the quality of Hogan’s social media presence far surpasses those of the other candidates.
On the date of the post (the 20th), his website was not complete. There were no links to any social media accounts. I do plan on doing an update to the scorecards in mid February updating all of the information.
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