Hopefully better late than never, I loved this article in Campaign and Elections magazine called Playbook: Here's Your Real Online Advantage...And No, Its Not Viral Videos. It was written by my friend for a number years and currently the head of Yahoo Political sales Richard Kosinski. Some of my favorite points from the article include:
- Lincoln's 4 essential campaign activities of a) make a list of issues b) ascertain supporters with certainty c) have undecides be talked to by people they trust and d) make certain every voter gets to the polls
- Social networks and video websites do provide an excellent opportunity for candidates to be heard, but they are largely media strategies based on hope: I hope someone will join my network, I hope someone will watch my video, I hope my video will go viral.
- The main problem is that most campaigns see social networks and video-sharing sites as a cheap alternative to paid media. In fact, these sites are "participation media" that rely on users to keep them fresh and relevant. But they are not an alternative to paid media, which guarantees your political message will be delivered to specific audiences at a specific time.
- Our studies indicate that a targeted ad based on geography or demographics can increase response rates by 50 percent. And when ads are targeted based on behavior, those rates increase to 66 percent.
I love social networks. YouTube if done correctly, can turn out millions of people who can view your ad for virtually no media cost. Social networks like Facebook provide CRM opportunities for again little cost, plus with widgets, applications, and other interactive tools can help your message spread quickly in a fun way. Given enough time these truly become grassroots and organizing tools. And, if you are a rock star perhaps you can embrace a more open source strategy and turn part of your marketing over to your followers.
However, none of these replace pushing your message out to targeted voters and if you neglect that you are missing out on part of your audience. If you are going down the direct mail and TV route, how can you not push those message in online ads? Unless of course you don't understand how to do it. Let me help...
You can identify Republicans versus Democrats, age, gender, income, race, and web surfing behaviors. You can serve TV ads in small banner units where you can see actual play and interaction rates and understand where these viewers go on your website. This is the kind of data not available on TV. You can register voters, generate donations and emails, plus turn your voters out. Plus many other combinations for a fraction of a TV spot.
Richard is right and even though it is a little self-serving (he sells ads for Yahoo) he makes a great point. Social networks should be part of your internet arsenal, but if that's all you think of your internet advertising you really are missing a critical piece of the political marketing puzzle.
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
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