It's working: Primary in Maryland Won Using Social Networking
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| Photo by Justin Perkins |
Silly as it may sound, I was right. If you want to figure out how to run a grassroots campaign online, hire a rock band. Jacob Colker, a 23-year-old musician in Maryland working for the Peter Franchot for comptroller campaign, mobilized 80% of their volunteer support from youth on social networking sites. Translation: 15,000 phone calls and 50,000 pieces of campaign literature were dropped from this young army of liberal political science majors mobilized via social networking sites. Franchot won against a "well-organized, two term incumbent." And DC's own John Hlinko was asked to comment in this Chigaco Tribune article, which goes on to describe the word of mouth phenomenon and potential of tapping social networks.
"If I tell someone on my list of 100,000 to do something, that's one thing. But if they're hearing it from their sister or mother or neighbor, it's much more effective," said John Hlinko, a founder of the Web-focused Draft Wesley Clark campaign and now a vice president with Grassroots Enterprise, a political consultant group.
"I'm waiting for the day when someone runs down the street saying, `Wow. Look at this junk mail. It's really interesting,'" Hlinko said. "That kind of stuff happens on e-mail everyday."
Justin Perkins
in Social Networking
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Source: Web's role widens in campaigns -
Response: Did MySpace Win a Maryland Election?A good article slipped by while I was on vacation: Mike Dorning at the Chicago Tribune has an excellent overview of the current state of online electioneering, hitting everything from viral campaigns to microtargeting to good old-fashioned email lists....
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