The Internet’s social media phenomenon has made the world a smaller place, reconnecting long-lost friends and introducing strangers separated by continents.

And now it is bringing local candidates closer to the voters.

In the wake of President Barack Obama’s incredibly successful social media political campaign, fellow politicians took note, and now those fighting for seats in local races have devoted more of their time to sitting at the computer. One such candidate is Jim Dantona, who is running for County clerk and recorder in Tuesday’s election. Since announcing his candidacy, the small-business man has immersed himself in the burgeoning world of social networking.

With a campaign website, a Facebook page with 345 fans and a Twitter account with 940 followers, as well as a dozen YouTube videos, the longtime Simi resident is a standout in this regard.

“I don’t think anyone in the county has done it like I’ve done it,” said Dantona, president of Governmental Impact, a legislative consulting firm in Simi Valley.

The 61-year-old said social media is no longer just for the youth; he’s communicated with people of all ages online, some in their 70s.

“This has been the new way of communicating with people. It’s no secret to anyone, and I don’t claim to be any expert . . . but I do my best to keep myself abreast of things,” he said.

Dantona spends several hours each day, late at night, checking his pages, and though he does have some volunteers who help him, most messages and tweets— messages sent via Twitter—come from him.

He said his efforts are both fun and time consuming but the advantages for a candidate—high impact at a low cost—can’t be beat.

“I’ve been in campaigns before; I like to think I know how to communicate with voters,” said Dantona, who narrowly lost to County Supervisor Peter Foy in 2006. “But this, you can’t match it. You can get to so many people so quick, get your message out, and they can respond to you.”

Dantona’s campaign drew perhaps the most attention with his YouTube music video-style clip, “This is How Jim Rolls!” The 26- second video shows him cruising in his SUV, which features a fullbody “Vote for Jim Dantona” sticker.

“People sent e-mails telling their friends. It was so popular my opponent had to (attack) it. . . . But it’s not just about talking about the issues, it’s about getting them interested in the race. And I think that is what social networking does.”

The video has been viewed about 350 times on YouTube. All told, his videos have garnered more than 1,500 hits.

Mike Chandler, a software developer and arguably Simi’s own social media expert, commended Dantona on his Internet prowess.

“Jim Dantona, he’s like the poster child of using social media. He’s exploiting every possible medium. He’s got the videos up there . . . and they’re pretty fantastic,” said Chandler, who runs VoteSimiValley.com, is on Facebook and Twitter, and has a YouTube channel called “The Simi Show.”

“He’s definitely doing it right; whether or not it will be effective it will be interesting to see how it turns out,” Chandler said.

Dantona’s opponent for clerkrecorder, Mark Lunn, has also jumped on the social media bandwagon.

“If you want to communicate you have to keep pace. Not using the new social media would be like listening to an old transistor radio or watching a black-andwhite TV,” said the 56-year-old retired California Highway Patrol chief.

Lunn has a website and is on Facebook and Twitter, too. His number of Facebook fans is about even with Dantona, but he has only two videos.

Lunn said filming catchy clips hasn’t been his top priority.

“That’s been the focus of his campaign, and honestly that’s not been the focus of mine. He has a different strategy than me. I guess we’ll see who called it right.”

Still, he said it’s “cool” to be able to put a message out on Facebook and receive instant feedback from residents. He added that social media allows candidates to reach a wider net of people than they may have otherwise.

“I think your outreach is much more effective with social media,” he said.

However, despite the impact social media had on the Obama campaign, Lunn said it is still too soon to tell how much it will sway local election results.

“I think its too early in the phenomenon to know in the lower ticket races the impact of social media,” he said. “I think it’s more important talking with people one-on-one first, and then the social media comes behind that.”

“Webpages do not win elections,” he added.

Social media at city hall

Even though the general municipal election in November is five months away, candidates for Simi Valley City Council have gone viral, too.

Campaign season started early this year, but incumbents and challengers alike have latched on to social media to make their presence known.

Councilmember Steve Sojka, who is running for mayor, is on Facebook and has a website and a couple of YouTube videos.

Sojka, who owns and operates Money Mailer Direct Mail Advertising, said Facebook is a valuable tool in any kind of marketing campaign because it is interactive and engages people on a daily basis.

The 45-year-old added that he has noticed a shift in the use of technology in campaigns since he ran for reelection in 2008.

“I had a website, and when you looked at it, it was primitive . . . and when you looked at the number of hits it was minimal,” he said. “And now, three years later, it’s made a huge impact on the campaign so far. A candidate isn’t a serious candidate if they don’t have a website or Facebook.”

Also running for mayor is attorney and former City Council-member Bob Huber, who is using the same outlets as Sojka plus Twitter.

Huber, 67, said the cornerstone of his campaign is listening to the concerns and desires of the people and bringing residents closer to their elected officials. Facebook and Twitter fit into that goal.

“Other people look at it as a pure campaign tool, but I look at it as a way to communicate with people,” he said. “This gives me an opportunity to really see where they’re coming from.”

While he believes there is no substitute for face-to-face discussion, Huber also noted that someone might not speak up at city hall but they will “tweet at you.”

All those running for the two open City Council seats also have a website and a Facebook page— all except challenger Mitch Green.

His 16-year-old son has put up a “skeletal outline of something on Facebook,” but it is not active, and Green said it likely won’t be until he makes the final call to move forward with his campaign.

He said he’d rather “go viral” through his letters to the editor, which he thinks would be more successful than using Facebook or Twitter.

“I get some high fives and funny looks, so that tells me somebody’s reading it,” the former assistant city attorney said of his letter writing.

Green left Simi City Hall in March to become a partner at a Woodland Hills law firm.

“I really think websites are overblown. . . . I think the average person is going to read the printed word instead.”

But his fellow challengers, LAPD officer Mike Judge and Tutu’s Shave Ice Mobile owner Scott Miller, disagree.

Since they don’t have the same resources or exposure as the incumbents, they view Facebook as a way to get their names and ideas out there without spending a lot of money.

“I think (social media) definitely levels the playing field a little bit more because everybody’s got access to it,” said Judge, 46.

Does it make a difference?

Chandler said social media has become important in this election cycle because people have finally succumbed to the new technology.

Though many resisted Facebook and Twitter at first because they didn’t understand or know how to use them, the sites have now been embraced by the masses. Even the Simi Valley Acorn recently opened a Twitter account (twitter.com/SVAcorn).

“It’s really been widely adopted by most people,” Chandler said. “Sites like Facebook have become the standard, so to tap into that really makes a whole lot of sense.”

Social media is “quick, simple and inexpensive” and allows candidates to deliver their platform “in bite-sized pieces,” he said. And the Obama campaign proved the sites can also be effective at raising campaign funds.

Though he believes a candidate should have a website so that voters can learn more about them, Chandler doesn’t consider social networking a prerequisite.

“I don’t think that having a Facebook is going to determine whether or not you’re a serious candidate,” he said. “I think it is going to determine whether or not you’re smart candidate.”

There are other, more traditional tools that candidates must rely on if they want to win a campaign, he said.

While social networking will help voters develop personal relationships with the candidates and enable those running to better spread their message, Chandler doesn’t think one person’s use of social media will dramatically change local election results—at least not yet.

“I still think it’s going to be the issues and who they know and who they are comfortable with as to what the outcome will be,” he said.