Oklahoma's gubernatorial candidates battle for online 'friends'

This Monday marks 50 weeks, nearly a year still, until we elect our next governor of Oklahoma. Yet, online there is already a huge battle underway, not necessarily for votes but for 'friends'! All four Oklahoma gubernatorial candidates are now using websites and social networking tools. How do they stack up online so far?

Oklahoma's democratic contenders, Attorney General Drew Edmondson and Lt. Governor Jari Askins, have an interesting battle underway. Edmondson is currently the leader when it comes to campaign dollars thus far, but on social networking sites rival Askins has the most online followers.

On Facebook, Edmondson currently has nearly 1700 fans or friends and on Twitter the Attorney General has nearly 800. On the other hand, Askins is very popular and active online. According to her website, the Lt. Governor uses 5 social networking sites.  On Facebook, Askins has nearly 1300 friends and on Twitter another 1600 which totals to several hundreds more friends or followers than her democratic rival.

When it comes to the republicans online, there is a stark contrast between the number of followers tracking State Senator Randy Brogdon versus rival Representative Mary Fallin.  Brogdon trails with thousands fewer 'friends' than Fallin.  On Facebook, Brogdon has only approximately 1400 'friends' and on Twitter less than 900.  Meantime, on Facebook, rival Fallin has more than 300 'friends' plus on Twitter the congresswoman has more than 4400 followers.

Here's how it breaks down online when you total each candidate's friends or followers on Facebook AND Twitter:

MARY FALLIN (R) 7758 friends/followers

JARI ASKINS (D) 2934 friends/followers

DREW EDMONSON (D) 2437 friends/followers

RANDY BROGDON (R) 2148 friends/followers

[last tallied 11/13/09]

What do the candidates post about online? At last check, Fallin posted about a vote on the House floor at the nation's capitol, Edmondson updated about a friend's recent roast, Askins discussed a veterans event she attended and Brogdon plugged an upcoming discussion on the 2nd amendment.  The candidates also typically tweet or update about upcoming campaign events.

Granted, a glimpse at the candidates' online following is only a partial benchmark at how the race is going as not everyone uses social networking sites. The average age for users is approximately 31...but the fastest growing demographic is 55+.