Pretty comprehensive and worth checking out. Nice Phil Noble quote — his second today, since he was also in the earlier Boston Herald story. The CNN version: Political candidates court MySpace voters. (Note: I originally credited the article to CNN, not realizing it was from the AP.)
– cpd
1 comment August 18th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
Besides shooting off his or her mouth, it looks like the easiest way for a political candidate to get in deep macaca is to have “inappropriate” photos posted online. The Boston Herald has an example, though this one seems pretty ridiculous to me.
But, digital photos and digital video are easy to shoot and easy to post, and politicians are going to have to live with the fact that images they can’t control are going to end up online. At the rate things are going, pretty soon no human being with an actual life is going to be able to run for office.
– cpd
Add comment August 18th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
Yep, today is the one-month anniversary of the launch of everyone’s favorite online advocacy how-to site, e.politics. Woo hoo! In honor of the occasion, let’s bust out some numbahs, Harper’s Index-style:
Add comment August 17th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
[Click here for more about political microtargeting.]
If you’re a regular e.politics reader, you know I’m crazy for microtargeting and niche marketing. The Washington Post turns out to have some frankly amazing tools for zeroing in your message on particular categories of readers.
You want to reach Hill staff? Boom, the Post can put your ads in front of every person coming from the house.gov and senate.gov domains. How’s THAT for targeting? But wait, there’s more…
1 comment August 17th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
Hey kids, e.politics is now using FeedBurner to manage its RSS feed. If you’re an RSS subscriber and have any problems (i.e., the feed is inaccessible or doesn’t seem to be updating), let me know.
FeedBurner is useful because it lets you track how many people are subscribing to your feed and which items are getting clicked on. It’s a good supplement to your normal site traffic statistics — yay, one more thing for site stats nerds like me to obsess over. Also, it makes the subscription process a little easier for newbies.
Finally, sorry for yesterday’s publishing hiatus. I was working on a big super-secret writing project — all will be revealed soon…
– cpd
Add comment August 16th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
Marketing Sherpa has a great piece on the results Sierra Club got from an email newsletter redesign — they found that improving the way the layout looked and functioned in the preview pane of Outlook and other email programs dramatically improved the click rate for individual articles.
– cpd
Add comment August 14th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
The revolution is upon us, and you have nothing to lose but your clothes. According to the LA Times, French fashion brand Shai is using porn in online video ads — and layering links to purchasing info directly into the video.
Now, I don’t really see American political campaigns paying people to get it on (though I do have a friend who got nekkid in public repeatedly for an anti-fur campaign a few years ago), but this idea of inserting links into video, called hotspotting, shows real promise. It’s apparently been around longer than I think (when I Googled it, I found articles dating back to early last year), but it seems to be expensive. Still, it’d be great to be able to insert Donate, Take Action or Join links directly into viral video bits or online campaign ads.
– cpd
Add comment August 14th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
Well, maybe not exactly famous, but certainly featured: e.politics was highlighted yesterday over at PoliticsOnline — look for the Hot Sites section under Mike Krempasky’s Very Serious Guy photograph (Mike and I argued politics in jovial fashion at South by Southwest this year — nice article, man).
Anyway, the Hot Site mention clearly derives from this press release that I sent out on Tuesday and is an excellent example of the kind of niche publication pickup that a good press release can generate.
1 comment August 12th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
Two guest columns in as many days! Let’s spread some e.politics love and hear from my old friend Phil Lepanto over at Connections Media, who has some excellent tips for making sure that your advocacy messages don’t get caught in a spam filter:
1 comment August 11th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
This just in: Water is wet! The sky is blue! Snakes on a Plane is the most awesomest movie title ever! And Blogs Offer Arena for Political Attacks…film at 11!
Despite its overall air of smacking you in the face with the blatantly obvious, the article does have good quotes from actual smart people and a roundup of various political blog-related hijinks. Thanks to a somewhat bemused Burt Edwards (yesterday’s illustrious guest columnist) for the tip.
– cpd
Add comment August 11th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
Guest article! My colleaugue Burt Edwards sees the Lieberman/Lamont blog controversy as a cautionary tale for political commentators and communicators — bloggers and media relations folks alike.
A wise man once commented that, “Any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a good carpenter to build one.” That man? None other than Sam Rayburn, the legendary Texas politician who not only mentored a young Lyndon B. Johnson but served as speaker of the U.S. of House of Representatives from 1940-61. And while a lot of things have changed since then, Rayburn’s words of wisdom are something that today’s public affairs professionals would do well to heed.
For public affairs professionals today, there’s a premium on being able to master the art of rapid response. And the Internet and email provide a powerful tool to get your message out far and fast. But this only increases the importance that you think before you click.
Add comment August 10th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
Thinking more about William Saletan’s piece today, it does strike me how often ‘net politics seems to be a force “whose moment has come.” Remember when Bob Dole mentioned his campaign site’s URL in a 1996 presidential debate? Or when a significant number of Americans started getting political news online in 1996 and AGAIN in 1998? Or when a certain commentator (i.e., me) led off an article about online politics using Jesse Ventura’s 1999 website as a hook? Skip ahead five years: Howard Dean uses blogs, organizes meet-ups and raises a shit-ton of money online, only to be eclipsed by John Kerry’s general election web/email fundraising juggernaut.
In all of these cases, outside observers were blown away by the internet’s ability to transcend traditional geographic divisions and organize (or inform or persuade) people regardless of where they live. Maybe, just maybe, this train has long since arrived at the station. Blogs and social media are neat and groovy, but they’re just new cars hitched to a very long and established line of tactics.
Not to take anything away from Saletan’s piece, since I think it’s excellent, but we need to stop talking about online politics as a “new” force. The locomotive pulled up to the platform a long time ago, and only the losers and the also-rans have ignored the whistle.
– cpd
Add comment August 10th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
Slate’s William Saletan argues that the Lieberman/Lamont race demonstrates that the ‘net is indisputably vital to modern politics. The proof? Not that Lamont used internet politics well (which he did), but that Lieberman’s people treated a last-minute site crash as A Very Big Deal and possibly the result of dirty tricks.
1 comment August 9th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
The Washington Post has an excellent article analyzing how Lamont pulled it off: moving from essentially no name recognition in March to victory yesterday. Some takeaways for online political professionals which apply both to electoral and advocacy campaigns:
Add comment August 9th, 2006 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
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