Facebook Wants To Even Out – Recruits Republicans

With election season on a roll, it’s time to look at strategy — and President Obama’s Facebook page has over 22 million “likes.” The Atlantic reports that Facebook hired five GOP strategists to join their outreach team in an effort to amplify their Republican presence, and not seem so disconnected to the Democratic party.

As of now, Republican candidates aren’t quite keeping up. Mitt Romney’s page has one million likes, and Michelle Bachman’s page doesn’t have a picture.

Obama attracted a lot of young voters for the 2008 election with his social media savvy. Studies have shown that college students who are politically vocal on Facebook are likely to be involved in other forms of political activity, and in general, the Pew Research Center writes that Facebook users are generally more politically engaged than most people.

But Facebook is not just young people any more. According to a study by the Pew Research Center called, “Social Networking and Our Lives,” over half of Facebook’s users are over the age of 35. We have seen Facebook take an active role in journalism with the creation of Facebook for Journalists; now Facebook is owning its role in politics by reaching out to these GOP strategists to help their party “get in the game.”