Dem Candidates Leverage the Debate to Draw Supporters, Build Online Community

Some quick highlights from the candidates’ strategies to leverage the debates to build their supporter bases, connect with voters and foster online community:

• Kucinich wins for best use of his own video clip: Text “P-E-A-C-E.” SMS list-building exercise, anyone? The kids’ll love it. Bob Dole bonus moment: repeating it twice in person.
• Hillary Clinton embraces social media in quite public fashion: her video clip was supporter-created — and much better than a Celine Dion song.
• Obama and Edwards solicited comments from their SMS (cell phone text message) subscribers in the afternoon before the debate, with the candidates pledging to respond to some of them either via video or on a blog. At techPresident, Lynne Johnson was a big fan of Edwards’s SMS strategy.. Update: Extra leverage points to Obama, whose video interlude kept his URL and SMS calls to action on-screen for extended periods of time. Not so good for TV (hey CNN — next time, more viewing space and less branding), but great for post-debate viewers.
• Chris Dodd unveiled a comprehensive debate exploitation strategy, also soliciting questions via video and offering some behind-the-scenes footage. And, he promises answers to some of the top-rated debate questions that DIDN’T get asked.

Picking up fans during a July debate is nice. Building your list of potential donors? That’s golden.

– cpd