In The News

Here’s something we haven’t seen done with Facebook Timeline before: political opposition research.

Newt Gingrich launched a new Timeline page called the “Romney Record” Wednesday morning, fresh off the heels of Super Tuesday. The idea? To use Timeline’s chronological layout to highlight Mitt Romney’s decisions that some conservative voters may find off-putting.

Many conservatives, Gingrich included, have accused Romney of failing to be “conservative enough” to win the support of Republican voters. Facebook Timeline has given the Gingrich campaign a unique way to make that argument in an easy-to-consume digital format.

The page’s cover photo labels Romney an “out-of-touch liberal.” The “about” section highlights a Romney quote about not wanting a return to the years President Reagan, who is idolized by many conservative voters.

The Romney Record Timeline specifically calls attention to Romney quotes that make him appear a too-liberal moderate Republican whose wealth prevents him from understanding the lives of average Americans.

Posts about recent Romney gaffes include a quote about his being “unemployed,” as he left the Massachusetts governorship in 2007. Romney intended the line to connect with Americans unable to find work in a tough economy, but many found it insincere because Romney enjoys considerable personal wealth.

Click to read the full article on Mashable.

The “Romney Record” page uses the new feature to highlight Romney’s most embarrassing and contradictory moments, from liberal issue positions to the dog on the roof of his car. It’s courtesy of his good friends at the Gingrich campaign.

The Newt Gingrich campaign shifted its online advertising away from his homestate of Georgia yesterday to focus on Tennessee and Oklahoma. Meanwhile, pro-Gingrich Super PAC Winning Our Future bought around $190,000 in online ads recently, aimed at voters in Super Tuesday primary states including Oklahoma, Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, North Dakota, Massachusetts, and Alaska. The group has spent millions online since January to slam Mitt Romney and help Gingrich.
On this important primary day, GOP presidential candidates and their Super PAC proxies are pointing web ads at voters reminding them who to vote for, and in some cases where to vote.
“We are running an aggressive online effort today including paid online ads in Tennessee and Oklahoma on Google and Facebook,” said Vincent Harris, digital consultant for the Gingrich campaign. “We were running ads in Georgia but shifted resources as of yesterday into Tennessee and Oklahoma,” he added. Gingrich has emphasized winning Georgia, which he represented in Congress and has the most delegates of any of today’s primary states.
The former House Speaker’s team also features a Super Tuesday tab on his Facebook page, which pushes a “Newt surging in super Tuesday states” message. Facebook users can click their state on a U.S. map to find polling places and download regional support buttons to post on their walls. Some images feature local sports teams such as one that cheers, “Georgia Bulldogs with Newt.”
States voting today are Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia.

“Newt surging into first place…Every vote counts,” declare ads aimed at primary voters today. Ads targeting Oklahoma voters on Facebook use space usually reserved for an image to tout endorsements of Gingrich from JC Watts, Fred Thompson, Herman Cain, and Rick Perry. Watts is a former congressman from Oklahoma. “Today’s election day in Oklahoma and polls show Newt surging. Help ensure he wins!” say the ads.

Life inside successful Web startups—especially the really successful ones—can be nasty, brutish, and short. As companies grow exponentially, egos clash, investors jockey for control, and business complexities rapidly exceed the managerial abilities of the founders.

Venture capitalist Peter Fenton calls this phenomenon “the violence of a startup.” And nowhere has the violence been fiercer, or more public, than at a company Fenton invested in and has helped to guide: Twitter.

Throughout its first five years of existence, Twitter always seemed on the verge of committing some excruciating form of startup seppuku. There were constant service outages (epitomized by the ubiquitous “fail whale” cartoon message), an embarrassing security breach in 2009 that released a torrent of internal documents, and nonstop departures of key employees. The pièce de résistance was the turmoil at the top: Twitter had three chief executive officers in as many years. That drama culminated with the promotion of serial entrepreneur and former Google executive Dick Costolo as CEO in 2010 and the return last year of one of Twitter’s founders, Jack Dorsey, as executive chairman and product chief.

Click HERE to read more from Bloomberg Businessweek

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are breaking ground with new mobile payment technology for campaign fundraising.

Square is a credit card reader about the size of a bottle cap that attaches to an iPhone, iPad or Android phone. It allows food trucks, cab drivers, and now campaign staffers to process payments with the swipe of a card.

“This allows more people to be empowered to collect donations,” said Zac Moffatt, digital director for Romney’s campaign. “It’s like taking a check, but in a secure and immediate action.”

Romney’s campaign decided to use Square last summer, and became the first to test drive it the evening of the Florida primary last month.

Read the full story on Dailycaller.com

According to Vincent Harris, who runs Gingrich’s new media efforts, the team switched to Timeline because it allows the campaign to showcase Gingrich’s “long record of fighting for conservative values” as well as the candidate’s personal side. What are Harris’ plans for Gingrich’s Facebook presence? Even with this new Timeline page up, his old “public figure” page is still running.

The fantastic visual nature of Timeline will allow Speaker Gingrich’s campaign to showcase important events, endorsements, and victories,” said Harris. “We plan on utilizing both the page and Timeline in a parallel nature, at least until pages potentially update to Timeline.

Click HERE to read the full story on Mashable.com

In a January debate, Newt Gingrich said he wished his campaign had been more Internet-based since it launched. A new online ad effort from Gingrich signals a shift in that direction. The ads, aimed at second amendment supporters in upcoming primary states, have Mitt Romney in the crosshairs for waffling on gun rights.
Meanwhile, today the campaign ran ads prompting people to support the former House Speaker in today’s Colorado and Minnesota caucuses and Missouri primary.

“You’re going to see a lot out of the Gingrich campaign online moving forward,” said Gingrich’s digital consultant Vincent Harris, noting the campaign is “willing to put the time and resources into making that occur.”

A new video ad from Gingrich uses past footage of Romney to paint him as too moderate on gun rights. To help drive hunters and gun owners to the video, the campaign is running YouTube pre-roll video ads, display ads in Google’s network and Facebook ads targeting self-identified hunting enthusiasts and supporters of the right to bear arms.

“The ads are all being targeted in accordance with the primary calendar,” said Harris. Some ads are running in states where Gingrich is holding upcoming speaking events.

Click HERE to read the full article on Clickz.com

“Spending on mobile ads by political campaigns this election cycle will take up only a fraction of candidates’ war chests, but the digital teams of GOP presidential hopefuls are busily experimenting with mobile, using it to target specific locations and interest groups.”

Mobile also offers opportunities for targeting more creatively. Before Texas Gov. Rick Perry dropped out of the race last week, his digital strategist, Vincent Harris, was targeting mobile ads within a two- to five-mile radius of the center of campus at the University of South Carolina as well as nine Christian colleges in the state, including Furman and Bob Jones University. The ads were uniquely branded with each college’s color schemes and mascots and directed people to a landing page where they were urged to sign up as precinct captains or take other actions to assist the campaign.

Mr. Harris is also currently running mobile ads for another client, GOP Senate hopeful Linda McMahon, to University of Connecticut students in her home state, and he intends to target New York-bound train commuters. Though he wouldn’t ordinarily think of exceeding 20% of his digital budget on mobile, he anticipates spending as much as a third in that particular race, since Connecticut is densely populated and mass-transit-oriented, making people a captive audience of their phones while in transit.

“I think that it’s smart for campaigns to engage in mobile as the cost is lower and engagement rates are higher than with display ads,” he said.”

Click HERE to read the full story on AdAge.com

“As GOP presidential contenders stump for votes from Iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina, Google, Facebook and Twitter are in a race of their own — for millions of dollars in political ads.

The tech giants are offering candidates new ways to advertise — Mitt Romney has spots on YouTube and Rick Perry’s Facebook ads target Christian college kids in South Carolina — and hiring political consultants, sponsoring debates and poaching from each other’s ad sales teams to jockey for the top spot in political social media circles.

Last week, Perry’s campaign launched a new ad targeting students at Furman University, a Baptist college in South Carolina, according to Vincent Harris of Harris Media, who manages Perry’s digital strategy.”

Read the FULL article on Politico.com

“Dan Liljenquist stepped up his campaign efforts, even flooding popular sites and mobile apps such as Pandora with “Dan for Utah” ads. Rep. Holly Richardson, who resigned from the legislature last week to assist Liljenquist’s campaign, has been pushing the campaign on social media sites. Her resignation was even reported on national Fox News. Richardson was named campaign chair for Liljenquist.”

“Today, Liljenquist’s campaign office announced that Rusty Cannon had resigned Tuesday from his seat as chair of the Davis County Republican Party to aide Liljenquist. Cannon was named as the finance chairman for Liljenquist. ‘It is exciting to have someone of Rusty’s caliber join us. He is both well-connected and well-regarded throughout the state,’ said Liljenquist in a press release. ‘Running an effective campaign means having enough money to get our message out, and Rusty is key to that. He has spent his career in the financial sector and brings the determination and enthusiasm we need.’”

Click HERE to read the full article at The Davis Clipper