SF Chronicle: For Brown and Newsom, Age Is Just a Number (of Facebook friends)

A line of differentiation is appearing in the California Gubernatorial Primary.

It’s a generational line.

Emboldened by the hip young cat who brushed off claims of inexperience and won the White House, the exploratory campaign of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (Born: 1967) is making no bones about casting their main opponent – Attorney General Jerry Brown (Born: Before the Earth cooled) – as old…

“This will no doubt be the first governor’s race in California history – if not nationally – where one candidate sat on the other candidate’s lap as a little kid,” crows Newsom political consultant Garry South…  (San Francisco Chronicle)

…or out of touch:

“The question that I think Californians will have to come to grips with is, does California need the same governor in 2011 that it had in 1975?” said Newsom strategist Garry South.  (Los Angeles Times)

Oh, that Garry South.  Such a trouble maker.

Who knows if this line of attack works?  We’re not talking about John McCain here.  This is Jerry Brown – a very different opponent to label as old or out of touch.

That didn’t stop the Chronicle from looking for age spots on Brown’s campaign techniques:

Example: the dramatic disparity between Brown and Newsom on the social networking site, Facebook, a spectacularly successful fundraising and networking tool for President Obama’s campaign.

Newsom has launched an effort to raise “30,000 supporters in 30 days,” already amassing more than 25,000 contacts on his Facebook site, with 300-400 more signing up daily. Brown, son of the late Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, has less than 700 Facebook contacts.

The San Francisco mayor has used Facebook, Twitter, his Web site and blogs (on Daily Kos and Huffington Post) – all tools that appeal to younger voters – to attract hundreds of people around the state to town hall meetings in the past month.  (San Francisco Chronicle)

Here are a few bones I have to pick with this analysis…

First, recent Pew findings deflate the “internet is for young folks” myth:

Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the “Net Generation,” internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people).  (Pew Internet and American Life Project)

Next, all of the candidates; Newsom, Brown, Garamendi and Villaraigosa are on Facebook.  You can also find Antonio, John, Jerry and Gavin on Twitter.  I’ve seen several of them as authors on prominent blogs, and all are tapping their respective email lists.

Finally, victory isn’t as simple as merely using the tools, or amassing high friend-counts on the SocNets.  It’s about establishing bi-directional communication, speaking in the language of the web (which changes daily), and showing something authentic to the online community’s magnificently well-honed bullshit detector.

Take the Facebook numbers cited in the Chronicle…

When his campaign launched this friendraiser, Newsom already had about 23,000 supporters banked.  In the two weeks since – with active outreach on Facebook and multiple blasts to their email lists – they’ve climbed to just over 27,000.  Growth of 4,000 (about 17%) over two weeks.  Not too shabby.

On the other hand, Jerry Brown had only 400 friends and change when he dropped his 25 Random Things list at the end of last week.  In the week since, Jerry has shot up to over 1,500 friends (over 350% growth) with little extra effort.  His novelty and authenticity also earned several earned media hits in meatspace.

The raw numbers are still very much on Newsom’s side, but Brown’s tapping of the meme-of-the-moment had a dramatic effect on the reach of his online community.  For that instant, it was Brown who was more fluent in the language of the web.

Online Organizing is not unlike Field Organizing; The Grind does matter.  But catching that imaginative spark – riding that wave of the internet zeitgeist – can supercharge you in bursts.

Staying open to those memes and turning those bursts into your Grind is how you dominate.