One of the reasons Neil Abercrombie is governor is his early, enthusiastic embrace of social media.

From announcing his campaign via Twitter to posts on Facebook and YouTube, Abercrombie’s campaign was always in the moment.

Much of that is due to L.P. "Neenz" Faleafine, CEO and community developer of Pono Media, who took on the job of knitting togetherthe social networks for Abercrombie.

"She was a very big part of the campaign; she had a very big network. Now every campaign has to have someone like Neenz," said Ed Morita, a blogger, chef and photographer for the 2010 Abercrombie campaign.

Today Faleafine is working for Democratic Sen. David Ige in his attempt to replace Abercrombie.

"We are most honored to have her on our team. Her knowledge, expertise, and especially her heart for Hawaii’s people really make her a perfect fit," said Ige campaign volunteer Lisa Shozuya.

Faleafine now says that she has "no regrets" working in the Abercrombie campaign, but today admits she is disappointed.

"In my non-political expertise, the Abercrombie administration has had some big wins. Unfortunately, their road is littered with human collateral damage.

"There must be more emphasis on the value of people," Faleafine said on her blog.

In an interview she added: "Over the past four years, many people have been hurt and are still hurting. One example is how the relationship between the governor and his administration and our public school teachers played out in the public."

While blogger Burt Lum is running Ige’s social media operation, Faleafine is training grassroots supporters to use social media in the campaign and also working on Councilman Ikaika Anderson’s congressional campaign.

Working for Abercrombie, Faleafine had organized "four individuals that shadowed Neil, capturing and creating content to tell the story of the candidate, supporters, and campaign."

Then a dozen high-profile bloggers and social media users would spread the content of Abercrombie meetings. Finally, Faleafine had a group of 20 volunteers who would shoot out messages, passing along information to support the campaign.

"As the campaign progressed, there were many people that volunteered for the social media team. They were from all across the islands, spanning every demographic," Faleafine said in an email interview.

Late last year, Faleafine says she started to detect a change among the various political social media groups.

"I began seeing a shift in the social media content of the people of Hawaii, much like I did in fall 2009. Once again, the people were seeking leadership," she said.

At the same time, a friend working on the embryonic Ige campaign asked her to meet Ige. After the meeting, she had a call from former Gov. George Ariyoshi, who is also supporting Ige. Faleafine was sold.

"Those conversations combined with the information I had from data mining social media content encouraged me to choose to support Sen. Ige for governor," Faleafine said.

Meanwhile, Abercrombie has moved on with his own sophisticated new web page and a clear plan to link supporters with Facebook, Twitter and other services.

The media may be new, but a grassroots campaign with people talking to people is always powerful. Ige’s challenge is making sure enough of those conversations can occur in the remaining months before the August primary.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.