Report: Obama campaign more wired than Romney’s

WASHINGTON — Four years ago, then-Sen. Barack Obama got a head start on Arizona Sen. John McCain when it came to reaching voters online, on their mobile phones and on social media. Young voters, the group most likely to tune in digitally to the presidential campaign, broke overwhelmingly for Obama, giving him the biggest margin of victory among that age group ever recorded.

This year, Obama again holds an advantage over his Republican opponent on the digital front, said a report released today by the Pew Research Center. The group’s Project for Excellent in Journalism analyzed both campaigns’ efforts between June 4 and 17 and found Obama far outpacing Mitt Romney.

Obama’s team posted almost four times as much content during the period, the report said, and maintained an active presence on almost twice as many platforms.

On Twitter, Romney’s campaign tweeted about once a day, while Obama’s campaign averaged 29 daily tweets. Obama also posted about twice as many YouTube videos and blog entries.

Obama’s campaign kept public accounts on Flickr, Google+, Instagram and other social media platforms — nine in all. Romney was active on just five, although his campaign more recently added two more.

“I don’t believe that posting more is better,” Zac Moffatt, Romney’s digital director, said. “Where I really look at it from an engagement standpoint is a site like Facebook where people are really having a back-and-forth.”