Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and long-shot Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas may not be leading in national polls, but their use of social networking Web sites tops their presidential rivals.

Obama has more Facebook and MySpace "friends" -- a feature that lists supporters of the candidates -- than the other presidential contenders, including about 100,000 more than his main Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, N.Y., who leads in traditional voter polls.

Almost every major Democratic and Republican candidate has built Facebook and MySpace profiles, venturing into territory once reserved for college students and young adults looking to connect with their friends online. Candidates have personalized their profiles, adding information ranging from lists of their favorite books to campaign promises. And most have welcomed thousands of online friends -- in Obama's case, nearly 250,000 supporters between the two networks.

While gauging a candidate's success in online fund raising is possible, with Obama again leading the pack, predicting whether having the most online "friends" will translate into support next year is a new phenomenon in the 2008 presidential race.

"The Holy Grail in politics currently is how to convert online enthusiasm into off-line action which results in votes," said Andrew Rasiej, a political analyst who runs the Web site techPresident.com, a site that tracks how candidates use the Web and how Internet users are affecting the elections. "There's no demonstrative data that proves that online fervor is precipitous in any way."

Despite the unknown significance of the social networks, Rasiej said almost every campaign has staff members monitoring their Facebook and MySpace pages, and the major candidates "have one or two staff members paying attention to [their profiles] full time."

Rasiej said there is little difference between Facebook and MySpace to the candidates, although Facebook recently added a feature allowing users to build applications, or new features, on their profiles, potentially expanding candidates' ability to contact supporters.

But the campaigns appear to be approaching social networking differently with a variety of expectations.

Joe Rospars, Obama's director of new media, recently posted on the campaign's Web site that the senator is taking the new medium seriously, using it to attract and organize volunteers.

"We decided to make the attempt to combine the organic support and community-building of [an online] grassroots effort with the official campaign outreach efforts," Rospars wrote on the Web site. He added that the campaign is hoping to reply to every person who sends a message via the social networks.

Ron Paul, who has become known for his strong online support, takes a more laissez-faire approach.

According to Jesse Benton, Paul's communications director, the congressman's profiles are maintained by his grandchildren, which he said adds a personal touch. Benton said the campaign also tries to respond to each message but does not attempt to organize volunteers, target a specific audience, or use the number of friends as an indicator of voting patterns.

"We're not really trying to tightly manage how these social networks are used," Benton said. "We're kind of letting these tools shape as the Internet and our supporters demand. We're just putting it out there and whoever is attracted [by] our message and wants to network and talk about Ron Paul is welcome."

Paul leads his fellow Republican candidates in both Facebook and MySpace friends.

Meanwhile, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, one of the leading Republican candidates, is looking to Facebook and MySpace for help with fund raising.

Stephen Smith, director of online communications for Romney, said in a June 8 NewsHour report that the campaign is banking on users learning about the former governor and then making a donation through the social networks.

Smith said users who may be visiting Romney's site for the first time "have the means right here, from that very moment, of connecting with him, either learning more about his message, or MySpace has a donation which it builds in right into the page so they can start the contribution process with one click."

Rasiej, however, said he does not believe most campaigns have recognized the full potential of social networking.

"Campaigns are spending some time, but not a lot of time," he said. "Campaigns, in general, want proof of concept, and since there's no proof that these will turn into votes, they haven't devoted a whole lot of energy."

But Rasiej said he believes social networking will likely work similarly to word-of-mouth endorsements, which often do result in votes. "I think we can pretty clearly surmise that Facebook and MySpace offer a new way to endorsements," he said.

Rasiej also said social networking has the ability to generate significant revenue for campaigns but not just by adding a donation button to their Facebook or MySpace pages.

"Online fundraising is a complete misnomer. Money is a byproduct of online communities, not the product, and social networks are representative of the online communities," he said. "If you want to raise money online by tapping into the fervor of these online communities, then you should do everything you can to bolster or nurture the community. It's so ludicrous that campaigns are not paying more attention to the social networks.

-- By Brian Mason, Online NewsHour