Geoff Livingston has an interesting post on mashable about the social media efforts of the Republican and Democratic parties for the upcoming election. Link: http://mashable.com/2010/09/23/congress-battle-social-media/
According to Livingston, the GOP strategy has focused on community listening, crowdsourcing and targeting "influencers" and bloggers who will advocate positions held by the Republican Party or other conservative positions.
Livingston says the social media strategy of the Democrats is focused on trying to facilitate peer-to-peer connections and to drive voter turnout for the upcoming election. He also points out that while the Republicans are catching up, the Democrats have the advantage of the considerable social media presence of President Obama that was built during the '08 election. (The Obama and national Democratic efforts are coordinated under the umbrella of "Organizing for America.")
A couple of things stood out to me about the article. The first was the effort by the GOP to use social media to connect with women voters and activists. Connecting with female voters is an area where the GOP has struggled in the past (or at least according to conventional wisdom), so it will be interesting to see what impact the "RNC Women" website and social media campaign has on the upcoming election.
The second thing that stood out was the iPhone application developed and implemented by Organizing for America. The app helps supporters find people who live nearby that the supporters can visit to talk about politics. Here, you have interpersonal interaction and influence driven by social media and technology--the online leads to the offline.
When I step back and think about how both parties are using social media, I am fascinated, and I applaud the Republicans and Democrats for using social media to encourage and enact the democratic process. Social media is helping supporters of both parties can become more engaged politically and that social media helps them find others to engage in the political process.
At another level, though, I sometimes find myself frustrated by how these social media campaigns spill over and influence my own social media use--without my permission. My Facebook and Twitter feeds are increasingly cluttered with calls to action from my friends on the left and the right--so cluttered that it is easy for me to miss video links posted by nonpartisan friends. Links like this: http://tiny.cc/gbyyj
I mean who doesn't want to see Justin Bieber get hit on the head with a water bottle?
I think the efforts by the Republicans and Democrats to use social media is going to be a great advantage in both campaigns. I believe that the "RNC Website" will turn out to be a great website that will allow these parties to connect more with the women voters and ultimately i think this strategy could be a huge difference in the upcoming election.
ReplyDeleteI think that it will be interesting to see how these strategies work out for each party. I see advantages for both parties in what they are planning to do and they could both make a big impact on the results of the election. I do not know how well the iPhone application will work, but I think the "RNC Women" website will be very effective.
ReplyDeleteThe increased presence of social media is really interesting to me. It is amazing how even political parties are using it and it really shows how progressive our nation is. However, I do agree with your point on how we receive mixed signals from our peers on the actions we should take part in.
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