At 7am this morning, Mitt Romney announced his running mate Paul Ryan via app:

{from MittRomney.com}

Around 7:45 am EST, Mitt Romney announced his running mate via Promoted Tweet on Twitter:

{from Twitter}

3 Reasons why I think this strategy wins:

1. It makes you want to download the app.

Even people who aren’t Romney fans want to know who he picks. Announcing it via app forces everyone to download it. As soon as the app loads, it prompts for a login via MyMitt (an account you can register for on his website) or you can simply login via Facebook. I will admit that I downloaded. Just to see what it looked like. I say well done! The app allows you to login, give donations and Like/Follow Mitt across other social media platforms.

2. Romney will dominate the social media sphere all weekend

The campaign hashtag, #RomneyRyan2012 and Paul Ryan’s name both happen to be trending already. Terms like “America’s Comeback Team”, “Mitt VP”, “Joe Biden” and “Medicare” are floating near the top as well. For a Saturday morning, those are pretty deep topics.

3. Romney will dominate the news on Monday

Of course, since this announcement has been anticipated for a while, Romney will dominate the news Monday. By not announcing the running mate Friday, he has guaranteed himself prime Monday morning news mentions and print editions.

Early this week, Mashable posted an article about how Wikipedia pages are a key indicator in the selection for VP. Mashable states that last minute edits happen before the big announcement so that individuals searching for information can find credible relevant facts via Wikipedia. Being a Wikipedia editor, I checked the last few edits of Paul Ryan’s page to see.

Over the last few days, his page has seen over 200 edits from different contributors. Each contributor must be a registered member because his page is protected by Wikipedia. That means, experienced Wikipedia editors have been updating his page to reflect accurate and factual info. Some could be affiliated with the campaign. Some may not. Edits are still rapidly happening because this is a current event.

Ironically, Mitt Romney hasn’t updated his Facebook page about the announcement at all:

{From Facebook}

He hasn’t updated his Facebook since August 5th. I wonder when his Facebook fans will find out the news? Monday morning or later today? Interesting how he posted it on Twitter, but not Facebook. I believe that the campaign recognizes how the information will spread via Twitter, but it can’t go anywhere that can be monitored on Facebook. Interesting strategy?

Do you have the Mitt Romney app? It’s actually pretty cool.

Are you following the presidential campaigns?