(CNN) -- With little notice, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign has been quietly laying the groundwork for an online social network that could be a crucial weapon in his battle to take the White House. Called MyMitt, the platform is tucked away on MittRomney.com, accessible only if you choose to register on the Action page and unadvertised in any proactive way. There's no button pointing to it from the homepage, and the MyMitt Action Center looks like it's only partially finished. Nevertheless, close to 100,000 Romney supporters have created an account on MyMitt, a substantial number at this stage in the race. Here's why this could be a big deal.
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Mitt Romney's new social media platform may be crucial to his presidential campaign
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MyMitt lets supporters make donations, purchase campaign gear, make volunteer calls
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Close to 100,000 Romney supporters have created an account on MyMitt
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Republicans are taking a page from Barack Obama's 2008 Web platform, myBO
Barack Obama
Known as myBO for short, the platform made it easy for @placeholder supporters to create their own profiles on the campaign website, to write their own blog posts, start or join interest groups, organize their own house parties and, most important, initiate and track their own fundraisers.
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Republicans
She said, "Don't count out the @placeholder campaigns in this area yet.
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Republicans
Several of the @placeholder campaigns show promise of going toe-to-toe or besting the Obama operation by the time they would come out of the primary as the nominee."
MyMitt
MyMitt
MyMitt
MyMitt
Maybe he's suggesting that @placeholder isn't worth paying attention to.