e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Can’t Give Money to a Campaign? Donate Your Facebook Status — Automatically

September 23rd, 2010

Here’s one of the more interesting applications that’s come across the e.politics desktop this week — a company called AktNow.com is promoting technology that allows people to donate their Facebook status and Twitter feed to a political campaign. Of course, plenty of people have been “donating” their social media accounts for years, in that they’ve used them to promote campaigns they support (we certainly saw plenty of that in the 2008 race, and not just from Obama supporters). The kicker in this case, according to the company’s press release: “Once a user gives permission, the application automatically posts updates to their profiles on their behalf during the course of the campaign.” The cost? Just a hair under $500 per campaign.

Of course, it requires people to trust a campaign with what amounts to their public face — not something I’d do, thanks. But plenty of people might, so perhaps its worth a look.

– cpd