Running Word of Web Campaigns

by Patrick Ruffini :: June 8th, 2007 6:43 pm

Justin Hart is still saying the blogosphere is not all it’s cracked up to be in terms of reaching voters. But again I have to channel Soren on this: that’s a straw man. No one is saying that the average voter is reading blogs. At best, online is their primary news source — but it’s still the early adopters (maybe the top 1-2 million of the primary electorate) who check blogs even occasionally.

It bears repeating: No one is saying you should do the Internet at the expense of events and retail campaigning. Nothing beats the personal touch. What I am saying is: Try moving 10% of your media budget to the Internet. If you’re at saturation, that extra 10% won’t matter. And if you’re going to make tradeoffs, move from impersonal broadcast communications to personalized, targeted communications.

There is also the temptation to think of blogs as being at the center of the online universe. And if that’s the paradigm, it’s easier to discount the Web, because blogs are just one piece of the puzzle. In order of importance, your audiences online are: online supporters (who look A LOT like offline supporters), blogs, and social networks. You need to devise strategies for each.

Sure, if a candidate is sitting in the office blogging all day at the expense of early state travel, that’s a problem. But I don’t think that’s what anyone is suggesting. What I want to see looks a lot more like this:

The candidate talking directly to supporters and passers-by in made-for-the-Web video. That way you can hit all three online audiences at once, not just the blogs. It’s not a huge time suck. And it’s more effective than guest posting on a big conservative blog, because people know it’s you.

The game is not to mobilize every single voter via the Internet. That will fail, just as larding up your campaign with a saturation times two or three TV budget will fail. What it’s about is empowering the grassroots (who will fund 100% of your campaign and make 100% of the volunteer phone calls and door knocks) and generating buzz that filters through blogs to mainstream media to word of mouth.

Tagged: fred thompson online politics

Comments (1) Trackbacks (0) del.icio.us digg it subscribe

This was posted in: Uncategorized

Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Justin @ MMM says:
I suppose it is a strawman. But, quoting Thompson aides: “… he [THOMPSON] will spend less time on the road than his competitors and will instead rely on new forms of communication with voters, including blogs, online videos and other Internet tools.”
If this “reliance” is accurate he will probably fail. This really is the dilemma of the presidential campaign right now:
1) Will Rudy win with the star factor and name recognition
2) Will the late entry Thompson win with the new media approach
3) Will Romney win with the traditional flesh press and the advanced fundraising techniques
We’ll probably know fairly quickly.
# June 9th, 2007 at 9:59 am