Look them up. Poke them. Support them.
Some candidates in Michigan's midterm elections received Facebook.com profiles earlier this month to showcase their campaign platforms and reach college students and alumni.
Candidates are already anticipating the possibilities of having the popular connection with young voters.
Phil Novack, spokesman for Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos' campaign, said this election is the first test to see if Facebook means more younger voters.
"I don't think people can question the popularity of Facebook," he said. "It's one of many tools — certainly an effective tool in reaching young people."
"We'll know on Election Day when we see the results."
Facebook is a social network in which individuals can post personal information in profiles, view other profiles and send messages to other users.
People who are not registered with Facebook cannot view profiles.
Campaign staff members have access to their candidate's profile, Novack said.
Since DeVos is usually traveling, staff members monitor the profile and regularly communicate possible changes to the candidate, he said.
Laura Packard, Internet communications director for U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow's campaign, said everything with Stabenow's profile is "so far, so good" and many supporters have been posting messages.
"We're just getting started, so we necessarily haven't figured out everything we're going to do with the site," said Packard. "This is a great way for students to find out more about the campaigns.
"It's important to hear directly from the college students about their issues."
Like other Facebook profiles, candidates can list their activities, interests and other personal information and receive messages from other users. But candidates have "supporters" rather than "friends."
On Monday, Gov. Jennifer Granholm's profile had 29 photos, 21 notes and a mini-feed, which automatically updates, showing her latest supporters. There is not a total number of supporters in any candidate's profile. Users can select the candidates they support, as well as issues, such as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.
A feature called the Election Pulse allows users to see which candidates have the highest number of supporters on Facebook — a sort of real-time popular opinion poll.
Only U.S. Congress and gubernatorial candidates are given election profiles.
Candidates received the accounts from Facebook representatives who contacted midterm election candidates across the nation and offered them profiles to list information about their campaigns. There are about 1,600 candidate profiles.
Facebook representatives could not be reached Monday, but a blog entry on their Web site states, "We wanted to do something to increase the political voice of the people on Facebook, a group that tends to be on the younger side of the electorate and which is often underrepresented in Washington and state capitals."
Other Michigan candidates with profiles include Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Bouchard, U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, and his Democratic challenger Jim Marcinkowski.
MSU College Democrats President Karissa Chabot said it's advantageous for candidates to use something accessed by thousands of college students in Michigan.
"It's such a great way to reach young people and promote the young vote," she said. "If they can see what's going down on the ground level, they'll be more apt to vote."
MSU College Republicans chairman Jeff Wiggins said people shouldn't base their votes on a profile, but it is a way to find out more information.
"It's politicians finding ways to reach students, and seeing a profile on Facebook is a way to reach students," Wiggins said.
