Obama Online: Facebook Vs. MySpace
By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Americans are clearly eager to network with the new Obama administration online, but they're split over which site the new president's team should use. In the new Washington Whispers poll conducted by Synovate eNation, Facebook was slightly ahead of MySpace as the favored networking site. Two others, Twitter and the picture-post Flickr, barely registered.
The polling data showed that the division over Facebook and MySpace deepened in different age groups. Those ages 18 to 24 preferred Facebook 53 percent to 34 percent. And the 35-to-44 crowd did too, 55 percent to 34 percent. Also, the more post-high school education the poll participant had, the more Facebook was the choice.
The Whispers Poll
Barack Obama and his new team promise to be the first online administration. Which networking site do you hope he communicates most through?
| 45% | |
|---|---|
| MySpace | 42% |
| 8% | |
| Flickr | 5% |
Source: The Synovate eNation Internet poll was conducted January 7-9 among 1,000 nationally representative households by global market research firm Synovate.
Tags: Barack Obama | Facebook | MySpace
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Reader Comments
Facebook is Better
MySpace is cumbersome and full of trashy ads.
Facebook is fresh, new, and not nearly as creepy. It's easier to block pedophiles and drooling old men. (I do wish BOTH sites would notice that I am happily married and not interested in "sexy singles want to meet you!" So many foolish married folks jump ship with lines like that one. Divorce isn't good for the country, or its families.)
I network best on Facebook. I connect with old friends, new friends, business associates, my husband and children, and their friends. The photo features and music capabilities are fabulous.
I also prefer gmail to any other email. It just works better.
Yes, I'm a 55 year old grandma.
I've heard Obama will have to dump his Blackberry; I can't imagine he'll be allowed to keep his Facebook page.
Obama 50-state strategy on MySpace
MySpace was the only place where Obama brought his 50-state strategy online--I read somewhere that Obama had almost 60 official MySpace pages during the campaign. There are definitely different demographics on the two sites, but the reason that most in DC use Facebook is b/c they are not paying attention to what the rest of the country is doing (shocking that would happen in DC, I know!). Facebook is growing more overseas than in the US...plus its only about connecting to people you already know.
If you want to reach the middle of America, the west coast, the south, the cultural, ethnic groups, etc (and not just the "northeast-type," already-engaged, highly-educated constituents), you would use MySpace, too.
And if 42% of people want leaders on Myspace...how come they aren't there?
Obama and facebook
Apart from activity it is important to realize that facebook is much more sophisticated and easy to use in this context. Hence there simply is no comparison.
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