Mfarhanonline Social Media News: Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania, has dropped out of the 2012 presidential race, but his campaign’s impact on the social web lives on. Follow along as Mfarhanonline highlights the videos, memes and viral content brought on by Rick Santorum for president. The “Google Problem” Who could ever forget Rick Santorum’s infamous “ Google problem “? Gay rights activist Dan Savage put up a satirical site, SpreadingSantorum.com, in 2003 in response to Santorum’s stance against gay marriage. Savage’s goal? Redefine the word “Santorum” to an explicit term describing the after-effects of a certain type of sexual activity. The site quickly went viral, getting so many links and shares that it shot to the top of Google searches for “Santorum” — and it stuck. Santorum petitioned Google to change the results, but the company refused because the results were a product of organic Search Engine Optimization, not illicit tampering. “We do not remove content from our search results, except in very limited cases such as illegal content and violations of our webmaster guidelines,” said a Google spokesperson at the time. BREAKING: Rick Santorum announcesend of the most elaborate SEO effort ever. — Julian Sanchez (@normative) April 10, 2012 Last month, Santorum announced he’d finally beaten his “Google problem.” Thanks to his presidential campaign, he said, his own site now sat above “SpreadingSantorum” in a search for “Santorum.” However, a Wikipedia article about the incident still ranked in the top spot. The Sweater Vest At a campaign event, Santorum appeared clad in his now-iconic sweater vest . Before long, the vest spawned a parody Twitter account — @FearRicksVest . Santorum even gave a nod t! o “ ;the Twitterverse” for giving wings to the sweater vest meme as he announced his concession Tuesday afternoon. “I’m @RickSantorum’s sweater vest,” reads the parody account. “I’ve heard Rick say ‘sleeves just slow me down!’ Fear me…and….hear me! I’m ready to relocate to the White House.” Don’t mess with the sweater vest! ht.ly/8sAVZ via @ hotairblog #Santorum @ RickSantorum #fearricksvest — Rick’s Sweater Vest (@FearRicksVest) January 13, 2012 YouTube account “WePickRick” also uploaded a like-minded video entitled “Sleeves Slow Me Down:” Santorum’s campaign cashed in on the social attention brought to his sweater vest by giving a Santorum-branded vest to anyone who donated more than $100. By the latter half of last month, the campaign sold 3,000 vests — netting at least $300,000 in donations. Game On Finally, there was “Game On,” a Santorum-inspired music video made by two girls from Tulsa, Okla. The video was tweeted out by Santorum’s campaign and it quickly gained more than 1 million views. The two girls in the video, Camille and Haley Harris, became mini-stars in the campaign and attended Santorum events across the country. As Santorum dropped out of the race Tuesday, he gave the Harris girls credit for writing a “catchy tune” and putting it on YouTube, saying he was impressed that it reached a million views. What were your favorite Santorum social media moments or memes? Post them in the comments below. Images courtesy of Flickr , Social Media reviews series maintain by Mayya
0 comments :
Post a Comment