The 2008 political campaign changed the world of politicians and if you’re not paying attention, you should be (at least if you are a candidate or plan to be one).
Barack Obama’s Internet campaign pushed the ball further down the field in terms of an Internet strategy. To be fair, the first national candidate to really do some something dramatic with a Web site was John McCain during his 2000 presidential primary against Governor Bush…now former President Bush. After McCain won the New Hampshire primary, he raised a crazy amount of money through his Web allowing him to fight on in South Carolina.
But the Obama campaign empowered users to launch their own campaigns through the tools and social networking inherent in a Web 2.0 political Web site. We won’t cover every piece of political magic in the Obama presidential campaign, but here are a few that you should be considering as you develop your Internet strategy:
1. Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace
2. Social communication sites such as Twitter
3. Text Messaging group communications (see www.VictoryText.com for pricing and background information).
4. A campaign products store.
5. A ‘campaign central’ where supporters can organize and reach voters through online organizational tools.
6. A viral recruitment tool that allows supporters to enter email addresses and reach out to friends and family.
7. Sites such as Digg that rank news stories based on ‘votes’
8. A tool to allow online contributions.
9. Various tools that can be downloaded by supporters and distributed to their friends and family.
10. A volunteer tool which measures and rewards those who recruit the most supporters.
These are a few tools that have come into their own in the political campaign world. It’s unlikely that a competitive statewide or national campaign will ever again undertake an effort without at least a few of them in their political toolbox.
So what do you think? Are there tools I should have mentioned? Have a question? Use the comment box to post your own thoughts.