e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

More Strategery: Use Search Advertising, Engage the Blogs

October 17th, 2006

Two interesting strategy papers from the New Politics Institute that I’ve been meaning to write up for a while: Use Search and Engage the Blogs.

I think they’re on target with their blogger relations advice, particularly their emphasis on working with local blogs. Electoral campaigns and local or regional advocacy campaigns should start connecting with local bloggers as early as possible, both as a channel to reach potential supporters and as a way to begin to shape the public discussion about the political race or issue.

When I surveyed the state and regional political blogs in the BlogAds network a few weeks ago, I was shocked at how few campaigns were bothering to advertise on sites that would seem to be precisely targeting the local activists they’d most want to reach. Ads on many of these sites cost only $50 or $75 per week — the price of a few direct mail pieces and yard signs. Campaigns are missing out on a real opportunity to reach supporters and activists (and also quite likely local political reporters) for cheap.

As for search advertising, I have a lot less experience with it, but it would seem like a good way to catch uncommitted voters at the moment that they were looking for information about a candidate or race. And if you pick your keywords well, search advertising can be quite cheap. Buy your opponent’s name! (And your own, of course.) Time to link to some of your “objective” issue comparisons (i.e., “We Rock, They Suck: Here’s Why”).

– cpd