Romney's silence 'unliked' on Facebook

(LIN) — Just as quickly as GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney came into our lives, he’s starting to fade away.

Soon after the election, Romney’s social status started to plummet. With more than 12.2 million likes before Election Day, his Facebook page was at its peak of people who liked the candidate. Now with just more than 12 million likes, the page’s following is dwindling at a steady pace.

In the past 10 minutes, Romney’s Facebook page has already been unliked by 215, and the number continues to grow.

To add insult to injury, Obama’s “Four more years” tweet posted on election night was the most re-tweeted tweet in Twitter history. In just two hours, the tweet gained more than 414,520 RTs, according to mediabistro.com.

Four more years. twitter.com/BarackObama/st…

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 7, 2012

It would seem obvious that people may not want to keep updated with someone no longer running for president. Someone once thought to be a great potential leader of the country doesn’t have much to say after he wasn’t elected for office.

His last post was Saturday, and says “From the bottom of our hearts, Ann and I thank you for your support, prayers, efforts, and vote. We are forever grateful to every one of you.”

Since then, he’s been quiet.

However, other past White House hopefuls still maintain a healthy Facebook following, and boast more recent activity than Romney’s page:

• Sen. John McCain has posted on his Facebook page after Election Day more times than Romney.
• Sarah Palin still maintains nearly 3.5 million followers, and her post Sunday has more than 160,000 likes.
• Newt Gingrich’s page is filled with recent conversations about speaking engagements and his new book.
• Rep. Ron Paul’s Facebook page is still 1.1 million followers strong.
• Rep. Michele Bachmann posts to her page nearly every day, sometimes more than once.

Other Facebook pages of politicians past are growing scarce. Jon Huntsman and Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s pages may as well have virtual tumbleweeds as the like count is low, and the posts infrequent.

It isn’t fair to say those who lose an election automatically lose their social following. Those who want to keep up with their constituents will continue to do so, whether they remain in office, remain passionate about a cause or plan to run again.

What will come of Romney’s Facebook page? While the initial blow may have worn off in the week following the election, his numbers will continue to fall if he doesn’t continue the conversation. Now is the time to rebuild and reach out to his audience if he intends on running again for office or sourcing a group of 12 million strong people.

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Social Agenda is biweekly feature following politicians on social media sites and across the Internet. Follow @onPolitix on Twitter or like onPolitix on Facebook.