Romney campaign gunning for more Facebook fans

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign wants to add a million fans next month on Facebook.

Achieving that number would still put Romney, who currently has 2,006,468 “likes,” or fans, well behind President Obama, who has 27,073,939 “likes” on the social network.

But SocialBakers, a social media analytics firm, found in a study last week that Romney has gained 11.8 percent more fans on the popular social networking site in the past 30 days.

Shortly after that study came out, Romney updated his Facebook cover photo to a family snapshot of Romney, years younger, reading to his now-adult five sons, one a toddler in the picture.

Romney has grown increasingly personal on Facebook, posting lots of photos and videos from the campaign trail, and fewer canned statements.

On Wednesday, Romney’s team posted a request for help reaching 2 million “likes” on Facebook, and achieved that goal by Thursday.

“Thank you for the continued support — this is only the beginning,” the campaign posted. “Let's add one million more next month and start with 50,000 likes!”

Romney’s campaign has bet big on Facebook in its online advertising strategy so far this cycle, according to an April 2012 study by comScore. The study found that 58 percent of Romney’s online ads went to the network between September 2011 and February 2012.

---