It was a great pleasure to speak on a panel last night sponsored by the Medill Alumni Club and Google’s Chicago office (held at Google). The topic was Politics 2.0: Exploring the Impact of Digital Media on the Presidential Election.
The presenters, Peter Greenberger from Google and Lee Brenner of MySpace Impact, gave some great insight into how their companies’ products are enagaging the electorate and changing political races.
Given the expertise and national stature of these presenters, I decided to focus on the local angle. I gave an overview and somewhat of an analysis of my experience as a digital strategist for Daniel Biss‘ Illinois State Assembly campaign.
I recently posted about the difficulty in planning for a video to go viral. Sarah Silverman’s the Great Schlep is possibly one of the best viral efforts in recent public affairs memory NOT just because the video has been seen over 925,000 in three weeks, but because the video was part of a call to action that resulted in actually moving people to act.
Cute and comical…yes. But this effort is also a great example of how mixing Web 2.0 tools (web video, blogging and social network sites) and “boots on the ground” can play out in a major battleground state.
Let’s not forgot the slim 500+ vote margin of victory that propelled George W. Bush to victory over Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. That vote margin again could be the difference in 2008. And, the effort made possible by the Web 2.0 tools could actually be the difference for Obama in Florida.
The lesson here is the formula. Web 2.0 is best when coupled with a way to connect ideas to people and then people to people. Most importantly, if the people to people connection can be brought to real life, then the public affairs effort is a winner. It’s worked in local campaigns and now in this subset of the presidential campaign.
I’ve previously advocated the need for candidates to get blogging in a local election. The case is simple. Traditional media that many candidates target to deliver their message and their supporters, happens very little…or not at all. So why continue to look to traditional media to make the case?
Everybody is a publisher now and blogging is so pervasive and persuasive, that according to a new Technorati-sponsored poll, the “lines between blogging and mainstream media have disappeared.”
“Blogs are now mainstream media. We’ve certainly seen that with the number of professional, semiprofessional and passion/enthusiast bloggers who are creating real media experiences. At the same time, you’re also seeing mainstream media come the other direction to add blog content.”
For local candidates, or any local public affairs issue, this means that we have to look past traditional media as the ONLY medium to cover our story. Instead, blog. Make connections. Comment on other blogs. And have fun.
This is the way to build an audience using Web 2.0 technologies. And just watch, traditional media will come to you to cover your story.
It’s a phenomenon we’ve seen throughout 2008 – online success has translated into traditional media hits.
