Obama did not just win the Presidential election in 2008, he dominated it. One of the biggest factors as to how he was able to do that, was that he is the first President in history to really nail down the proper way to use social media as a campaign tool. Not only does it reach the masses way faster than any other form of traditional advertising, but it is in most occasions completely free.

Today the Republican party has finally started to get on board with this idea that social media is a viable option for voter connection and they have released the Social Victory Center App for Facebook. The app, which is brought to you by the Republican National Committee, features a lot of ways for either potential, or existing Republican voters to get a little more involved in things.

The social media app features 4 main sections:

News

The news section gives you a one stop place for all the news that the GOP feels you need to know. Kind of pigeon holes you into one set of ideas, but i’m pretty sure you won’t be at this site unless you are a fairly ardent conservative. You have the option of choosing national or local news stories. There is also a videos section, which at this time is populated by political campaign ads.

Events

The events section is where you can find all the national or local events to participate during the upcoming campaign. There are listings that you can RSVP to such as phone banks and county meetups. They also organize door to door and get togethers on election days.

Volunteer

The volunteer tab is an interesting one. There are 2 distinct parts to this section. One part just gives you the names and addresses of the Republican Party offices in each state. The second part allows you to call potential voters and poll them on things that are important right now. All you do is enter your number and you get a phone call from a New York City number that immediately redirects you to the potential voter you are polling.

This is a very cool option, but it also has the potential to backfire, as anyone can do this if they want to.

Discussions

The discussions tab is basically the forum of the site. The big problem is that you cannot submit your own topics for discussion, which is probably done to keep out the extremists. There are a wide range of topics to discuss with people from Obamanomics to Solyndra to the Fast and Furious scandal.

It is obviously way to early to tell if something like this will have the ability to sway voters, or even reassure voters. This election will be one of the hardest and nastiest elections since the early 1800’s when candidates use to accuse each other of having sex with farm animals and cross dressing. It looks like the Republicans are in for the long haul and are ready for the challenge.