I got the following email from Frank Chi, a college senior and the communications director for a new organization called Students for Barack Obama.

“Hi Todd, my name is Frank Chi and I am a college senior and communications director for a newly formed national grassroots campaign, Students for Barack Obama, a political organization born out of Facebook.com….With over 24,000 members online, we just launched our website and held a rally outside the New Hampshire hotel where Sen. Obama was last Sunday. When we first started this Facebook group it was intended for a bunch of students at Bowdoin College in Maine, nothing big, and 3 months later 24,000 Facebook members are part of it and it is growing by the hundreds everyday. After organizing for weeks, we’ve translated online activism and support from a social network like Facebook into a real, political structure urging Sen. Obama to run for president.”

Politicians are sticking their toes in the shallow end of the pool and setting up their own Facebook profiles. But I tend to think organic efforts like this will have more of an impact than any candidate-driven initiative.