At the Democratic convention in Denver last year, 70,000 people waited for Barack Obama to speak when a campaign staffer walked out on stage and asked everyone to hold up their cell phone and dial a text message number. BAM! The Obama campaign had 70,000 new cell phone numbers.
Why is that important? Because the campaign could now communicate with those people, raise money from them, and form them into a fighting force on behalf of their candidate.
This texting tool is just one of many ways in which Obama used emerging digital technologies to win. Whether its Twitter, Facebook, texting, email or whatever, these new media tools are critical to the success of any venture. Whether you are selling a candidate or soap, digital media has become an essential tool that all campaigns MUST use.
In Vermont, the marriage equality campaign for gay and lesbian couples used new media tools to great organizing advantage. But thus far, political candidates have not yet used these tools to their full extent.
That’s about to change.
For the first time, we will see a gubernatorial campaign in 2010 that will make serious use of Twitter, Facebook and the other tools to identify their supporters, educate them and turn them out to vote. Supporters will make videos and put them on YouTube. They will organize house parties and raise lots of money. Why spend tens of thousands on WCAX when you can do it virtually for free on the web?
Candidates for governor have used the tools in the past. But they were either too under-funded or behind Gov. Jim Douglas for it to count. The governor never really had to use these tools because of his popularity and superior organization.
These candidates face a far different electoral landscape than they did just two years ago. FAR different. It is a landscape changed forever by the new media that Obama mastered.
Some numbers:
Facebook users in Vermont: 176,000 (Thats double from two years ago) Facebook users between ages of 20-30: 53,000 Facebook users between ages of 30-40: 33,000 Facebook users between ages of 40-50: 27,000 (That’s right kids your parents) Facebook users between ages of 50-64: 24,000 (some grandparents)
There are 10,000 people on Facebook in Vermont who say they have an interest in Democratic issues, Barack Obama or Ted Kennedy. Thats about the same number it takes to win a Democratic primary for governor in Vermont in 2010.
Of course the campaigns will do the traditional stuff: fundraising, press, field organization, television and radio advertising. But in every case, digital tools like Twitter and Facebook turbocharge those tactics for cheap.
The campaign that best uses digital media and the Internet to identify, contact and organize the 10,000 voters you need to win a primary, could be the next governor. You might even go out on a limb and say any candidate should hire a web strategist before they hire a campaign manager.
Example: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Doug Racine just hired a web strategist BEFORE hiring a campaign manager.
