How to win the 2012 social media election

By Rachel Weiner

Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and others are fighting hard on social networks for 2012 votes, dollars and volunteers. Tell us what they’re doing that’s working well or falling flat – and what they should be doing to use social networks and technology effectively.

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In 2008, Barack Obama was the undisputed king of campaign social media. He announced his vice presidential nominee by text message. He raised half a billion dollars online. With Facebook founder Chris Hughes, he created his own social network.

This cycle, Republicans say they are catching up. Mitt Romney announced his exploratory committee on Facebook and asks supporters to downloads signs from an iPhone app. Republican politicians use Twitter aggressively, turning every White House attempt at a call-out a joke. They post critiques of the president on Tumblr. Campaigns reach out to conservative blogs to amplify their messages. The Republican National Committee launched its own Facebook app, the Social Victory Center, aiming to compete with Obama in data mining and online engagement.

Meanwhile, Obama's campaign is investing in new, visually-arresting infographics designed to draw supporters towards deeply involvement.

And other groups are developing their own new technology – for example, the AFL-CIO is using online ads to recruit non-union members who will then reach out to more non-union members, through Facebook. Many of the staffers working on that project worked for Barack Obama in 2008.

But we know there are more ideas out there. And we know that having a lot of Twitter followers does not make a winning campaign. So we want to hear from you.

Which candidates or campaigns are using social media most effectively, and how are they using it? As a voter, what kind of social media campaign would make you want to interact with a campaign? Is there anything politicians could learn from the business world about how to use social media? Who could be using it better — and how?

Please be specific, and please focus on ONE report or idea in each post. That makes it easier for other readers to vote for their favorites or offer thoughtful responses.

You have until Aug. 31 to tell Washington Post readers (and reporters) what’s really happening in the social campaign, and offer your advice to the campaigns. We will weigh in during the month and after this Crowd Sourced round has closed to highlight and critique interesting posts – including those you’ve voted to the top of the heap.