This week marks the beginning of our Candidates & Social Media series. As promised in last week’s post, BostInno is sitting down with each of the Massachusetts gubernatorial campaigns to discuss how they are using social media to supplement their campaigns.

If online popularity had a direct correlation to Election Day outcomes, Charlie Baker (R) and Deval Patrick (D) would be in a dogfight to the finish. With over 10,000 Facebook Fans, Baker’s Facebook presence is second only to Patrick’s. The incumbent has over 14,000 Facebook Fans.

Baker however, takes the cake (haha), for overall social media presence, because he’s the only candidate with over 2,000 followers on Twitter. The next-most Twitter followers in this year’s gubernatorial election is Tim Cahill (I), with just over 700.

Amy Goodrich, Communications Director for the Baker campaign, was kind enough to carve out a few minutes to answer our questions. Here’s what she had to say:

BostInnovation: How has social and new media changed the campaign landscape?

Amy Goodrich: Both media forms have enabled our campaign to take the typical political communications model, pushing message out to supporters and hoping it sticks, and then drastically improve it. Instead of just crafting press releases, Emailing reporters and scheduling interviews, we use social media to engage with a broad stakeholder community in a plethora of ways. We also believe that Charlie’s voice is critical to our success and growth online. He posts directly on Facebook and Twitter, alongside the campaign, often responding directly to questions and comments of individuals in the process.

BostInno: How has your campaign used social media to involve constituents? What kind of feedback are you receiving?

Goodrich: We have involved constituents in numerous ways. We have helped coalition groups self-organize on Facebook and Twitter, to drive message and mobilization. We also have launched a unique Team Baker Online Action Center – an internal campaign social network – to enable our supporters to make calls from home, track their performance and engage directly with campaign staff and Charlie. So far the feedback has been largely positive, as we have devoted a large amount of time and energy into pushing social and e-media engagement to the forefront of our campaign’s strategic outreach efforts.

BostInno: Have you encountered any individuals who are “out to get you?” How do you counter that, is it working?

Goodrich: This has not been a major problem, but when it does occur we notice that our user community often responds before we do – self-policing occurs often in the online space. If the comments are constructive and on-point (non-offensive, derogatory, etc.) we often respond to them and encourage a dialogue.

BostInno: Roughly what percentage of your staff is using Twitter for campaign purposes?

Goodrich: Almost 100% of our staff is currently using Twitter.

BostInno: Have you done any online only fundraising campaigns?

Goodrich: Yes we have, we have executed roughly 10-15 of these to date and raised in excess of $200,000 from these campaigns.

BostInno: How are you using the “standard” social media platforms differently that your competitors (Facebook/Twitter/YouTube)? Are you using any platforms in addition to these, how?

Goodrich: We do lots additional custom development [to our website] to enhance the user experience. Our candidate is the ONLY candidate in the current race to use social media directly to engage with supporters (not just campaign staff).

BostInno: Is your campaign Twitter used by the candidate? Does he contribute to it? Dedicated staffer? Team?

Goodrich: Twitter is used primarily by the candidate, with about 50% of traffic from an e-media response team. 50%, on the main account comes directly from the candidate on a daily basis.

BostInno: Has your popularity online translate to “real life.” Have you seen an increased turnout at rallys/events? How about fundraising money?

Goodrich: We have seen consistent trends in “facebook fans and twitter followers” as we have increased our outreach and fundraising efforts.

Now that you know how the Charlie Baker campaign is using social media, go and check out what he and the campaign have to say! You can follow Charlie Baker on Twitter, @BakerforGov, or Fan the campaign on Facebook. You can also follow Amy Goodrich at @Amy_Goodrich

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What do you think of social media’s role in present-day politics? Let us know in the comments section below.