Can Obama Turn Friends into Voters?

If online "friends" were a proxy for voters, Barack Obama could accept the Presidency, and not just the Democratic nomination, on Aug. 28. With more than 1.8 million supporters on Facebook and MySpace (NWS), Obama's base on the leading U.S. social networks is nearly seven times that of John McCain. But history hasn't shown that online supporters turn out in November. If anything, it's proved the opposite. Remember the Deaniacs? Howard Dean's supporters were all over social networks such as Meetup.com in 2004, making the current Democratic National Committee chairman the presumptive nominee that year. But Dean's overwhelming Web support didn't translate into dominance in the primaries. Already, some of Obama's highest-profile online supporters have proved fair-weather friends at the polls. The famed "Obama Girl," whose video about having a crush on the politician has been watched nearly 9.3 million times on YouTube, reportedly didn't vote in February's primary in New Jersey, where she is registered. Obama's campaign and the social networks themselves are determined to make sure this election will be different. They're employing a variety of techniques unique to social networks, such as leveraging users' friend connections, to try to ensure that supporters turn out in November. "There is a huge difference between 2004 and 2008 because of social media," maintains Andrew Rasiej, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum.