THE VIDEO

CASE STUDY: John Mayer

Few people "get" the internet and the concept of online footprints better than Recording/Sandwich Artist (his words, not mine) John Mayer.

With more than 2 million Twitter followers, 715 thousand Facebook fans, and 466 thousand MySpace friends, Mayer's online footprint is to be envied. Mayer's footprint on these three networks alone gives him instant access to a larger audience than the National Inquirer.

On YouTube, videos from John Mayer's two official channels (MayerMusic and JohnMayer) have been viewed more than 32 million times. That's potentially almost 4 billion minutes or 7.5 thousand years of video watched. That's equivalent to more than 21.5 million 3 hour long concerts. And all of that is just video content posted on his official channels. Those figures do not count the thousands of other John Mayer related videos uploaded to YouTube.

CASE STUDY: Sarah Palin

Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin is someone whose online footprint both Republicans and Democrats should take note of. Palin currently boasts twice the amount of Facebook fans as potential 2012 rivals Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal and Jeb Bush combined. More importantly than posting incredible numbers in the online space (she also boasts 142,000+ Twitter followers) Palin is actually leveraging her massive online footprint to communicate exactly the message she wants her supporters to hear - with no media filter.

Immediately following the announcement of her resignation, mainstream news organizations scrambled to find the first hints of reason behind Palin's decision. Before they could get to the source or anyone close to the Governor, Palin communicated directly to her most loyal supporters - via Facebook. Not an interview on the network nightly news, not a radio segment with Rush Limbaugh, but a Facebook note.

CASE STUDY: Nansen Malin

Prior to joining Twitter in 2008, Nansen Malin was a digitally unknown mother of four.

Today, with more than 120 thousand followers on Twitter, @nansen ranks in the top 0.1% of all Twitter users and is the #4 most followed member of “Top Conservatives on Twitter” (TCOT) behind only Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.

Malin is widely considered a leading conservative blogger for her massive Twitter following as she is one of the pioneers of TCOT's wild success in organizing conservatives on Twitter.