With multiple news agencies reporting that Republican nominee candidate Newt Gingrich will be ending his bid for the White House in the next few days, I thought it timely to mention one particular aspect of his campaign I thought really succeeded: his Facebook Page. Regardless of what you think about his policies or positions, this is one area that Newt’s team really excelled.
Particularly, the use of custom imagery on the Page’s timeline is something many campaigns – on both sides of the isle – would be well advised to emulate. Rather than merely posting photos and links as many campaigns are doing, Newt’s team went about creating custom imagery (see above) that often included a specific campaign message and a call to action. They were very well done and served a few key purposes:
[itemlist]
- Communicated in a much more emotive, visceral way to his Facebook community;
- Provided an excellent campaign messaging piece that can be readily shared;
- Created a direct link to the wider visual themes used on other properties, specifically his website;
- Benefits from better Edgerank score for posting photos/images rather than links;
[/itemlist]
Facebook Timeline was specifically designed to encourage visual imagery over text. Newt’s digital team on Facebook worked that to their advantage to create smart, shareable images to better communicate key messages and to drive action. Even his cover photo is better (or more original) than most.
If the Romney team is looking for talented refugees from other campaigns, I would suggest they pick up web designers from Gingrich’s crew. They understand the Facebook platform and how to communicate within it. If you couple that with a popular message, the positive will be that much greater.