A Small Rant About Mitt Romney’s Terrible Tumblr

Wednesday, October 3 2012

A Small Rant About Mitt Romney’s Terrible Tumblr

Mitt Romney’s Tumblr is so, so bad. I follow it out of morbid curiosity, and it’s clearly run by people who don’t understand what the “social” in social media actually means. Obviously I am biased in favor of my #1 guy President BO, but his digital media staff is savvy and ENGAGED, and his presence online feels like a living, breathing thing. Romney’s web presence is inanimate and dull, and nowhere is this better demonstrated than on his god awful Tumblr. It not only fails in connecting with an audience but it brands him and his campaign as old and dated and dumb.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama’s tumblr recently got into a GIF war with VH1’s tumblr using Darren Criss GIFs. Like, how can you even compare the two?

I will never vote Republican, but I would love to see a Republican candidate (and their staff) who actually gets social media. Does one exist already and I am too blinded by my liberal haze to notice?

Some thoughts:

*Yes, the Romney Tumblr could do more engaging with the Tumblr community, but to be fair, they’re still fairly new to the platform, and are figuring out the best voice for them. I don’t think there’s any single “right” way to use Tumblr, and in fact one of the most successful Tumblrs out there is Vogue, and they don’t engage with anyone. Reblogging, GIF wars, cat postings—these are all part of speaking the Tumblr language natively. But they’re not the only way to talk on Tumblr

*There are some good Republican Tumblrs out there! Heritage Foundation, for one, does a great job engaging with the community. The RNC Research Tumblr is a good and forceful advocate for their candidate. And Eric Cantor’s team really gets social media, which is why I’m particularly distressed they haven’t yet launched a Tumblr (call me!).

*While we wait for them, remember that our first Debate GIF coverage happens tonight. Prepare for the Poli-GIFs!