politics « The Stratius Blog

Obama on Social Media

October 7, 2008

Barack Obama speaks to a crowd (April, 2008) about how his campaign has benefited from the expanded use of social media. He credits the social media with organizing his volunteers, specifically in Idaho and Kansas.

Supporters gathered together “on whatever social network they were using… they just started organizing.”

He praises the efficiency of social media in saving time and money and its ability to connect people. He even alludes to the fact that government should learn how to better leverage social media tools.

Video by VallyZen.com

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged politics, social media | No Comments »

McCain Wins in Search Ads

October 6, 2008

A presidential campaign is one of the most complex marketing and advertising engines around. They touch every channel of media, every vertical measured in detail, and invest in every part of the country. So decisions to spend in certain niches are very deliberate. The McCain Campaign has clearly made search engine advertising a priority.

Attack ads on both sides fill TV, radio and Youtube, as McCain’s superior use of PPC (pay per click) search advertising flies under the radar. PPC can make or break a lot of online businesses and the McCain camp has been out in front on search ads since early in the primaries.

John McCain is outspending (by 2x) Democrats Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton on issues as well as buying his opponents’ “brand terms” - iReport, April 2008

Both candidates have focused less on issue focused keywords (health care, economy, etc.) and focused more on keywords that deal with the opposing candidate. Within this trend, McCain ads are getting more clicks. On Google Adwords, McCain focused ads get around 250 clicks per day compared to around 150 per day for Obama.

One McCain ad displays when searching for “Obama for president?” It asks the searcher “Why not learn more about John McCain for president?” and links to the McCain website

According to data from the Google AdWords website, advertisements targeted to users searching for “John McCain” on the Internet, cost nearly twice as much as those targeting users searching for “Barack Obama.” - Politico

This presidential race is in new territory when it comes to utilizing the web. I imagine who has used it better will not be a clear picture until after the election is long over. Right now, both campaigns can claim their own wins.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged mccain, politics, ppc, search marketing, seo | No Comments »

McCain Blogette, Web Brand Mascot

August 21, 2008

There is one presidential campaign blog that is more youthful, fun, and entertaining than them all, and it cannot be found on the official McCain or the official Obama campaign websites. It is of course the 22 year old daughter of John McCain, Meghan. Since the middle of 2007, she has been on the campaign trail with her father, documenting everything from her music choice, to the daily diet of the press corps, how much she admires her father and his politics.

While no one can deny the Obama campaign has gotten more attention as the “youth candidate,” the McCain Blogette has defined, in its own way, a new niche in presidential campaign online marketing. The blog is technically unofficial. Meghan and a few of her friends go everywhere he father goes. They snap photos, do interveiws, share videos, and comment on the campaign. But they are anything but strictly political. They choose to mix in the things they care about and undoubtedly what other youth are interested in reading about, such as fashion, pop culture, music, etc.

And while unofficial, the access the McCain Blogette has is unprecedented. The blog in itself documents a presidential campaign in more detail and from a more personal perspective than we have ever Read the rest of this entry ?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blogging, brand, mccain, obama, politics, social media, vlogging | 5 Comments »

Obama to Announce VP by Texts to Supporters

August 10, 2008

The Obama Campaign continues to impress in their utilization of new media in this campaign. Here is the exact twitter announcement from the Obama Twitter bot:

Announcing the VP candidate sometime between now & the Convention by txt msg & email. Text VP to 62262 or visit http://my.barackobama.com/vp

Its pretty genius when you consider the immediate benefit he gains. One of the most valuable, after pieces of information in their campaign right now, will be given straight to their supporters. Its a great way to empower the supporters. Its right down the Obama “change” road. And of course he gets the cell phone number for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of his most fervent supporters (and the entire press corps).

I imagine this will be a great tool in increasing supporter response for calls to donate, which they had already mastered better than any other past campaign. Here is the text from the form on the Obama site to sign up to get your text message about the VP announcement:

Be the First to Know | Barack is about to choose a running mate, and he wants you to know first. You have helped build this movement from the bottom up, and Barack wants you to be part of this important moment.

Sign up today and we’ll send you an email announcing Barack’s running mate.

You can also text VP to 62262 to receive a text message on your mobile phone

Yes, sign me up to receive periodic text updates and send me a text of who Barack’s VP nominee is…