techPresident reports: California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, which is spending seven times as much on web development as her opponent Jerry Brown, last night rolled out a Facebook ad that doubles as a poll.
The Whitman campaign was unapologetic. A spokesperson told the local paper that Whitman's Silicon Valley-based campaign "will use every tool at our disposal" in Whitman's bid to replace the term-limited Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Enter a new tool. Last night at 9pm, the Whitman campaigned rolled out on Facebook what the company calls a "polling ad." Companies like Budweiser, Chase, and CareerBuilder have paid for similar ads, but Facebook says it believes that Whitman's poll ad marks its first use in a political contest.
What makes a "polling ad" unique, at least from Facebook's perspective, is that it marries traditional online advertising with the social tools that make its platform so powerful and popular. Whitman's "A New California" poll-slash-ad, for example, asks users to vote on which California issue is most important to them, in light of the state's high unemployment rate, budget deficit, and school woes. Voters can see not only how the entire universe of Facebook users have responded to the poll ad, but also how their Facebook friends, in particular have voted -- complete with tiny avatar photos of your friends under each polling option. Other ads in Facebook's so-called "Engagement Ads" suite include ads that let users leave comments, send gifts, or "like" a brand directly from the advertisement's interface.
As of this afternoon, some 6,200 people had voted in Whitman's poll/ad. "Creating jobs" is in the lead, with 43% of the vote. "Cutting state spending" and "Fixing education" nearly equally share the rest.
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