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Engaging your supporters through technology

by: Jason Springer

Tue May 13, 2008 at 07:24:19 PM EDT

I'm a big fan of campaigns embracing new technologies to help perform traditional campaign functions. In today's campaign world, it's about more than just putting up a website. A contest for an ad is nothing new, but getting notified of a blogad contest by email through the Adler campaign's facebook group is certainly a concept that can be successfully replicated...

Do you ever see ads on websites, and think that you would do a better job at designing them? If so, enter the contest to design the first BlogAd for the Adler for Congress team!

To me, this is a great idea. As a campaign, you engage your supporters, support the netroots and encourage people to focus on how they can better elect the candidate to office without making the reader suffer through a press release to do it. It doesn't just have to be this idea with this platform. Campaigns can capitalize on other social networking platforms to reinforce the general campaign message in front of a different potential audience.

It's important to note that while technology will not replace traditional campaign tactics such as door knocking and phone calls, it certainly can assist and enhance those efforts. Technology can amplify the campaigns message across many mediums before numerous audiences. It's another tool at your disposal to help get the job done.

In the recent diaries, you can see a video blog diary by candidate Tom Wyka utilizing the youtube platform so that people who are lazy like me and don't want to read a complete message all of the time can click play to watch a video of him giving a clear explanation of money in politics.

The Stender for Congress campaign has a facebook group.

The Andrews for senate campaign has capitalized on the skills of Jay Lassiter and a handy dandy youtube account to incorporate videoblogging giving us a behind the scenes look at a campaign for Senate along with having a facebook group. I've gotten emails about their latest videos and last week I got a message through the facebook group inviting supporters to the filming of a TV commercial. The Lautenberg re-election campaign also utilizes a facebook page allowing people to join and show their support.

The Shulman and Abate campaigns in NJ-5 are utilizing their You Tube accounts to post ads. Shulman went on the air with his 1st TV ad which is also loaded on their Youtube page and the Abate campaign was able to post an ad from their Youtube page in the same thread.

Many candidates have attempted to engage the netroots through posts here on BlueJersey and other national blogs. We thank them for that and encourage them to come back frequently to continue the conversation. BlueJersey is also engaging people with technology, so feel free to follow us on Twittter and join our myspace or facebook groups.

I hope more campaigns will follow the lead of these candidates and Blue Jersey by continuing to engage technology as a tool to help enhance the great work they are already doing.

Jason Springer :: Engaging your supporters through technology

Tags: featured, twitter, myspace, flickr, youtube, facebook, technology, US Senate, Rob Andrews, John Adler, Dennis Schulman, Camille Abate, Linda Stender, Tom Wyka, NJ-11, nj-5, nj-3, (All Tags)

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Engaging your supporters through technology | 7 comments

E-tips for campaigning in the new millenium n/t (4.00 / 5)

by: Jason Springer @ Tue May 13, 2008 at 18:26:20 PM CDT

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here's my contribution...... (4.00 / 3)

A short 3m day on the stump with the Andrews campaign:

my governor supports equality.

by: Jay Lassiter @ Tue May 13, 2008 at 18:50:24 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I gotta hand it to Adler (0.00 / 0)

it isn't easy for a candidate to let go of control like that - but when it happens, things tend to take off.

Will commit political science for food.

by: Thurman Hart @ Tue May 13, 2008 at 18:28:47 PM CDT

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twitter (0.00 / 0)

i am clueless at TWITTER. anyone wanna school an old head with a little twitter 101?

Bring it!

my governor supports equality.

by: Jay Lassiter @ Tue May 13, 2008 at 19:04:47 PM CDT

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Are you all a twitter over it ? :-) (0.00 / 0)

Check out my 3 paragraph primer on Polywell Fusion.

by: FogerRox @ Tue May 13, 2008 at 19:18:12 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Note to Candidates: (4.00 / 2)

Do not, repeat, DO NOT rely on just those canned campaign websites if you afford the small outlay for a real website. The canned campaign websites are words and pictures only and really don't cut the ice in today's "Web 2.0"(Are we tired of that one yet?) world.

I work in Joomla. There are others out there but Joomla I know. It is incredibly complete and has so much of what you need for free. Seyret Video Component for Joomla, so you can host your own videos, is $40.00. Community Builder, a great social web component is free. Blogging components, great layout components, Templates, and on, either free or nominally priced. Even groupware, mass emailing and so much more.You CAN afford this.

Decent hosting plans, with Apache 2.0, MySQL, Php, Ruby on Rails(If you are adventurous), thousands of email boxes, lots of storage and easy administration can be had for as little as $7.95/mo on a shared hosting plan. If the traffic picks up, "virtual server" hosting plans are out there that give you many of the advantages of your own server without the resultant hardware costs and they are reasonably priced. The price goes up, of course, if you get so much traffic that you have to move to a dedicated managed server, but there are deals out there that can make sense for a very well-funded campaign. Or not so well-funded. It a matter of priorities and honest answers from your tech consultants.

When I was webmaster for a congressional campaign, I heard some of the prices that campaigns were being charged for websites. I almost swallowed my tongue. Huge amounts, just amazing amounts were being charged by some of these companies. It doesn't have to be this way. There are incredibly capable alternative ways of doing things, you just need to learn about them.

The website I did for the congressional campaign was very capable and successful and cost, for all the software I used, $0.00. The template(look and feel) cost $900 from a professional graphic artist and was well worth the money. A couple of years later, a participant on this website said that it was still the best congressional website he had seen in any NJ race, ever. It was done on a shoestring, a hell of a lot less than one of those dedicated campaign website shops.

You can afford a great website that does what you want and even what you think you cannot afford. You just need straight answers on what is out there.

Good luck.

The nom de plume has a long and distinguished history.

by: Tandalayo Scheisskopf @ Tue May 13, 2008 at 19:49:08 PM CDT

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.. (3.00 / 1)

In the 24/7 news cycle, new media has become another tool we have as not just the staffer but the common activist has to act as the town crier's once did.

One of the things that attracted me to the presidential campaign I ended up with was their use of new media as an engagement tool. The candidate frequent use of Youtube etc as another method to get the message out when the media almost fully ignored the campaign. You would have almost instant reaction from his or the new media staff on any given issue. It was talked about how the campaign was much more "interactive and hands on" for everyone from the activist to the casual reader.

Though we were out caucus night, I find it amazing how a great deal of what our team pioneered has become standard thus far. Its awesome to think about.

by: thenerd0584 @ Wed May 14, 2008 at 02:10:30 AM CDT

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