This week brought yet another dramatic shift in the US Presidential race standings. According to the Gallup polling service, for the first time since the Democratic National Convention Mitt Romney has pulled even with President Obama:
Romney is seeing a dramatic benefit from the Facebook effect. He is leveraging the smartest component of social media marketing that actually drives influence. He is engaging his fan base, not wasting time building it.
For the last seven days the Facebook Audience Rate of Engagement (FARE) scores for the two candidates was:
Obama - 8%
Romney - 29%
This is the number of fans that actively engaged in a conversation - Liked, Commented, Shared. In raw numbers both candidates had just over two million people talking about them. this shows how much better the Romney camp is doing at creating compelling content and driving actions.
This is why the change in the poll from a 4-5 per cent lead last week for Obama to a dead even match. The Romney strategy of gaining after engagement over volume. As I said in my blog for CNBC on Social Media Strategy "Fans are for ego, engagement is for influence." use the lesson in your business.