Palin's massive online footprint

As I was sitting in the doctor's office yesterday, I decided it was time to clean through some of the people I was following on Twitter. As I scrolled through the bios of numerous TCOT (Top Conservatives on Twitter - the most significant conservative organization on Twitter) members I was following, three themes appeared again and again:

Christian, mom, homeschool

And right then it hit me - with Sarah Palin's most recent TIME magazine cover staring me in the face in the doctor's office waiting room - regardless of what she does in the future, Sarah Palin is building an incredible online grassroots organization that should be marveled and replicated by politicians across the country.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Palin's circumvention of the mainstream media following the announcement of her resignation. Weeks after her announcement, Palin has not let up. TechPresident noted this morning that "Here in these doggiest of August days, Sarah Palin's Facebook page has accumulated roughly the same number of brand new supporters in the last week as Mitt Romney and Bobby Jindal each have in total."

Now, Inside Facebook has taken a deeper look into the incredible organization Palin is building online:

The Republican Party may not have made the best use of Facebook in last fall’s elections, but If you’re looking to keep tabs on the latest Sarah Palin news these days, your best bet is to become a fan of her on Facebook.

The former Alaska governor’s Facebook Page has experienced rapid growth since her resignation a few weeks ago, as fans rely more and more on her posts to get information about her political views and future plans.

Palin made no secret of her distaste for the media during her final speech as Alaska’s governor, and it appears she’s decided to speak directly to her followers rather than through television and newspaper reports that she claims distort her words.

Palin has amassed a base of almost 800,000 Facebook fans, and it’s obvious that her message is reaching much farther than that. In her critical post on the current debates involving the future of healthcare, Palin struck a nerve by accusing President Obama of creating a system that would involve “death panels.” The phrase quickly caught on with people on both sides of the argument, and the White House even responded to the post through their own online avenues.

This isn’t the first time a politician has turned to Facebook and social media to further his or her message. President Obama was very successful using both Facebook and Twitter to garner support. But unlike her predecessors that have used social media to reach constituents, Palin is not hitting the political trail or appearing on many television shows. Instead, she is currently relying largely on social media to reach out to the public, and so far she’s succeeding.