The Forrester research survey released a report that 60% of marketers intend to shift from their traditional marketing to a more interactive way of marketing, which can be done online. But it’s not only the marketers, entrepreneurs and celebrities who have realized the great impact of social media, the California governor candidates have seen it as well and are now up to a race to win and win big. Those who have witnessed the effectiveness of online campaigns are now trying to get the hang of this technology religion.

Celebrities, radio station, institutions and individuals who offer services are now moving to online media marketing. And those who know how to do it right, have successfully built a brand online and was able to interact with their fans, customer, consumers and users. Anyone can almost get an immediate feedback about what they offer.

We all have witnessed the power of social media when President Barack Obama took over the White House. And this is clearly a test to all California governor candidates to see if they can repeat what happened in 2008. “Speak and ye shall hear,” these famous words from the The Book of Job are aptly suited to define what Internet social networks are.

The use of technology has completely changed the landscape of political campaigning forever. In the old days, California governor candidates would have produced and mailed campaign brochures, gotten their message printed in newspapers and scheduled speeches. Oftentimes this required months of planning and hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

Today, the use of social networking sites and blogs literally allow you to speak and be heard or “write and be read.” Of course, this strategy depends heavily on having enough friends, fans, and followers to make a difference. This is precisely why celebrities like Oprah, Britney Spears, and Ellen DeGeneres hire experts to make all this magic happen.

There are no slouches either in the field of California governor candidates. And yes, if not all, most of them have reached the so called “celebrity status” already. For example: Gavin Newsom has 1.1 million people following him on Twitter and Jerry Brown has about 900,000. These number of followers put the politicians on the same level of real celebrities such as the ex-America Idol host, Paola Abdul and the singer John Legend.

It’s interesting to note that, at least at this moment, there is an inverse relationship between campaign spend and online marketing “success.” The two Republicans who have spent the most amount of money, Meg Whitman ($900,000) and Steve Poizner ($100,000) have the least number of votes by a factor of several thousand percent! It’s too early to tell what this really means. Is it because they need a new team of technologists or is it just that they have the wrong message?

There’s a big challenge to all California governor candidates. The challenge is not to get the most followers on Twitter or most number of friends on Facebook. America has a budget deficit of $26 Billion, an unemployment rate of 12% an unfavorable business environment, and California’s education tanking, more and more employers and families are moving elsewhere…. these are the challenges. And the challenges cannot be solved by your celebrity status.