major party candidates - Obama  ||  Gingrich   |  Karger  |  Paul  |  Roemer  |  Romney  |  Santorum   
third party candidates - Americans Elect  ||  Green: J.Stein  ||  Libertarian: G.Johnson
more - Democratic National Convention  |  Republican National Convention
former candidates - Bachmann  |  Cain  |  Huntsman  |  McCotter  |  Pawlenty  |  Perry   ||  (Palin)

On July 21, 2010 Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg reported, "As of this morning, 500 million people all around the world are actively using Facebook to stay connected with their friends and the people around them."  The social networking site has come a long way since its beginnings in 2004.  A Facebook page can be a useful communication channel for a politician or political candidate and is now almost a required element of a political campaign.  For examples of different ways in which politicians are using Facebook see Facebook's U.S. Politics on Facebook page, launched in June 2010, which "highlights the use of Facebook by politicians, elected officials, and political campaigns."  A political figure's Facebook page often provides a good way to quickly see what he or she is up to.  However, as with Twitter, one cannot tell if the politician himself or herself is actually writing those entries.

Not surprisingly 2012 Republican presidential prospects are using Facebook. Of those mentioned as possible 2012 GOP candidates, none has used Facebook more extensively than former Gov. Sarah Palin.  Her SarahPAC website is little more than a placeholder, while her Facebook page is updated near daily and gets a lot of traffic.  In July 29, 2010 SarahPAC Treasurer Tim Crawford reported that Palin's Facebook page has reached two million friends.  Crawford noted that, "Sarah has used her Facebook account as an outlet to express her hopes and concerns about the direction of the country."  In the background some work is done to protect her image.  Salon did an interesting study of the comments to 10 Palin posts over 12 days and found that "a rough average of 10 percent of total posts were deleted."1  According to Salon this is "far more rigorous" than for other political figures. The independent Conservatives for Palin website pointed out that other '12 prospects fall far short of Palin's level: Romney (468,436), Huckabee (371,959), Paul (239,427) and Gingrich (70,311).  In December 2010 Palin hit the 2.5 million mark.


1. John Dickerson.  "Not Sarah Palin's Friends."  Slate, Aug. 3, 2010. >

Jan. 16, 2011 - 750,000 friends	March 2, 2011 - 800,000 friends	May 16, 2011 - 900,000 friends
		Source: www.facebook.com/mittromney

Number of Likes on Candidates' and Potential
Candidates' Facebook Pages (May 28, 2011)

Barack Obama	21,081,696
Sarah Palin	3,038,533
Mitt Romney	926,600
Ron Paul	375,670
Michele Bachmann	304,623
Newt Gingrich	136,879
Herman Cain	122,099
Gary Johnson	117,971
Tim Pawlenty	96,113
Rick Santorum	17,422
Roy Moore	8,153
Fred Karger	1,554
Buddy Roemer	1,551