It's not about the technology, it's about communications, field, fundraising and gotv

In a recent conversation with a Congressman's campaign team, I realized we were talking about two very different things when we discussed technology. This (old-school and very effective) campaign manager saw his candidate's web site as another campaign check-off item--on the same list as yard signs, direct mail, walk pieces, etc. If the campaign was a car, he saw technology as a windshield wiper--important, but not integral.

I see the campaign web site as a way to make (almost) every campaign effort less expensive, more effective, and more widely available.

In the car analogy, I'd see technology as more like fuel injectors -- something that improves overall performance. (Did I just reveal my mechanical ignorance? Even if fuel injectors don't do what I think they do, I trust you understand the underlying point.) It's a song I've been singing for decades: back in the late 80's I started volunteering at elementary schools to help integrate computers into their curricula--to use the computer as a way to quiz second graders on their spelling words rather than just as a way to teach them how to use a mouse. I believed then (and now) that the computer was a means to an end, rather than an end in itself--and that having a computer teacher was like having a pencil teacher. Now, it's certainly true that a computer is much more complicated and powerful than a pencil--and that there's great value in combining the struggles and objectives of the teacher with the understanding and solutions of someone who knows how to use the computer to make teaching easier.

So too with campaign web sites. You can certainly hire a director of Internet outreach (or whatever you want to call it), but if you put this person in charge of your web site without integrating the web site into all facets of your campaign, you're more or less hiring yourself a pencil teacher.

If you really want to exploit the knowledge and understanding of your internet/technology person, make sure they understand (and can communicate) how to harness technology to make all campaign efforts better, cheaper and more visible.

--Louella Pizzuti

Treating your web site as an ATM is like using your computer as a typewriter

Let me say that again: Treating your web site as an ATM is like using your computer as a typewriter. Sure, your computer makes an excellent replacement for yesterday's typewriter, but you're missing more than you're getting. Think video, audio, email, spreadsheets, databases... and of course the list goes on and on. So too the possibilities for your campaign web site.

Is your walk piece on the web? Ready for supporters to email to friends? Prepped to print and distribute to their neighbors? Complete with room for their personal endorsement?

Can supporters easily add their names to your endorsers list? Upload their photos and a line or two about why they're voting for you?

Do you have a way to manage and track letter to the editor campaigns?

Are you creating and posting video clips of your candidate's compelling appearances and pithy quotes?

Are you engaging and inspiring visitors? Giving them ways to support you with more than just cash?

Some political web sites are nothing more than static billboards with a donate button or robust collections of online tools. But the very best use the web as a campaign controlled multi-media publication--complete with an editorial focus and peppered with ways to engage and inspire supporters--both online and off.

Typewriter or computer? ATM or robust web presence? Your choice may be the margin between winning and losing.

--Louella Pizzuti

Using your site to reach voters who are more interested in issues than candidates

I know I'm not going to burst any bubbles when I say not all Americans care about who's running for what; voter turnout stats make that clear.

But if you use your web site well--filling it with detailed information and updating it frequently so it shows up high in search results--people who are searching for information about renewable energy in California (for example) will find your site when they search. Just ask Jerry McNerney, who used the web exceptionally well and upset a seven-term incumbent in California's 11th CD.

In fact, nearly half of the people who find Colorado Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff's blog find it by searching for topics like energy independence, Colorado schools, and health care concerns. That means his blog not only educates and informs people who come by specifically to see what the Speaker is up to, but it also lets people who are interested in specific issues know that he's on the job and getting things done.

Among the many beauties of the web is the fact that you've got virtually unlimited space; you don't have to choose whether to include detailed policy papers, you just need to think carefully about organization and packaging.

Details shouldn't drown out your top-line messages, they should illustrate it. And sound bites should not stand alone; they should be a nicely packaged entry point to richer information.

--Louella Pizzuti

Choose your web site's Editor in Chief with care

If we're to judge based on their use of the web, most politicians learned the wrong lesson from the Dean campaign's use of the web. Just like it's not the reply envelope in your fundraising letter that nets a donation, it was not the donate button that made people donate to Dean on his web site.

A Dean staffer told me the issues pages got more hits than any other part of Dean's web site. I'm not surprised, but I'm guessing candidates with info-light web sites would be.

Your web site is a publication--even if you're only using it as a virtual campaign brochure. (Of course, if your site is nothing more than an electronic brochure, it's not a particularly good publication, but it's a publication just the same.)

Your site's Editor in Chief can mean the difference between a static, stale site that discusses the past as if it's in the future and a lively, informative, inspirational site that collects and packages the great things you've done, the best quips and quotes from stump speeches and supporters, and transforms inquisitive researchers into vocal supporters.

Choose wisely.

--Louella Pizzuti

Marketing Matters

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?

If a candidate is stupendous but no one knows it, does it matter that they're wonderful?

I'll leave answering the first question to the philosophical types and pounce on the second: no. If voters don't know who a candidate is and how they'll make things better, they will not get elected.

This is where marketing comes in.

And, although you may not call it marketing, it's what campaigns are all about: crafting and delivering stump speeches, writing op-eds, sending direct mail, calling voters, running ads, etc. So how does this relate to online campaigning? Well, campaigns with meaningful web strategies use the web to extend the reach and amplify the message of everything they do offline.

The really good campaigns make sure their online offerings not only repackage offline experiences, but also make them easy for supporters to share. In fact, the December issue of the Journal of Advertising Research says that common word-of-mouth advertising by regular folks is more powerful than “key influencers.” (Article summary here.) If you're not making it easy and compelling for people to tell each other about your candidate or campaign, you're making your job harder.

--Louella Pizzuti

Senator Dick Durbin's experiment very impressive so far

I'm way behind on reporting on Senator Dick Durbin's collaboration with Open Left to gather input on broadband legislation from the folks on the internet. Sorry about that; I'll try to make up for tardiness with a detailed discussion.

First off, it's quite clear that the Senator and his staff are taking this self-professed experiment quite seriously. They have devoted staff time and the Senator's time to live blogging, to lining up experts to launch and participate in the discussions and they even recorded videos with the Senator to set context.

It's somewhat difficult to follow the Senator's posts on Open Left, so I'll outline them here:

Sun Jul 22, 2007 What should be America's national broadband strategy?
Tue Jul 24 Senator Durbin Live Thread
Weds Jul 25 Legislation 2.0, Part 2: Open networks, privacy, and beyond
Thurs Jul 26 Legislation 2.0, Part 3: Universal broadband access and the public airwaves
Fri Jul 27 Legislation 2.0, Part 4: Building a universal system

I don't want this post to be about America's broadband strategy--you can read that discussion in much more detail at Open Left. Instead, I want to focus on what the Senator's team is doing right with this series.

They start the series with posts that make it clear they've done their homework--they're not having this online discussion as a substitute for traditional research, they're having it to supplement the research they've already done. This is important because it lets prospective participants know the Senator's serious about the topic and the venue. And it allows the Senator's team to set a framework for the discussion. A+

As the discussion unfolds, the Senator, members of his staff and subject-matter experts actively participate by responding directly to comments and by summarizing previous discussions. Again showing that they're taking the whole process seriously and that they respect the time and expertise of the commenters. A+

I'm not clear what their next steps will be (and this could very well be because of Open Left's organization rather than because the Senator didn't articulate them), but this process was a big win for participatory democracy, for the Senator's reputation among web users and, in the end, for the legislation.

My only recommendation for the Senator's team would be to incorporate (or at least link to) this discussion on Senator Durbin's web site; right now the only mention of this ground-breaking online town hall is a news article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

I look forward to seeing where this conversation goes next.

--Louella Pizzuti

Blogger outreach and the Tom Allen campaign

The Tom Allen for Senate campaign gets blogger outreach. Almost. [Updated two hours after the original post: Yep, they get it; see below.]

The part where they get it: they have a "Blogger Connection" on the campaign web site. Click through and you see:

Thank you for your interest in my campaign for Senate. As a leader in the online community, your voice has power and we want to provide you with the information and resources you need to cover this race. In 2006 we saw the power and influence of the netroots community during the Jim Webb race in Virginia.

We want to build a relationship with the online community going into 2008 and beyond. Signing up to be a member of the Blogger Connection is easy. Simply fill out the form below and we will get back to you shortly.

Members of the Connection are an important part of my campaign. As a member of the Connection you will receive press releases from the campaign as well as other information that will to make [sic] your jobs easier.

Looks good--they understand the influence bloggers can exert on a race (even if they don't proof their copy very well).

But when I filled out the "Blogger Connection" form to join, I got a file-not-found error. Whoops.

I'm (sadly) used to political web sites that aren't well tested (see #6 on my top-ten most embarrassing mistakes list), so I shot the campaign an email alerting them to the problem. And I heard back from them within minutes of publishing this post; they're clearly keeping a sharp eye on blog coverage of their candidate.

[updated to add: Not only is the campaign keeping a sharp eye on blog coverage, they're also moving quickly to address problems. I just received an email from the Allen campaign's Director of Internet Communications alerting me to the fix. If you follow their lead and thank the people who point out problems and then address them right away, the story becomes about your responsiveness rather than your mistake.]

--Louella Pizzuti

McNerney team uses headlines to tell the story

The folks who are running Congressman Jerry McNerney's blog understand marketing and writing for the web. Take a look at the picture above and glance at the headlines in the right column (recent posts).

[Well, until I can get Blogger to display the image properly, I'll repeat the headlines here so you can actually read them. They are: McNerney votes for Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act, McNerney helps prevent cuts to lab worker retirement benefits, Contra Costa Times: "McNerney comes through...", Did you know Richard Pombo's "longtime friend" is running against me?, What you want: "Give 'em hell, Jerry!", and McNerney on releasing earmark requests: "I came to Washington on a campaign of openness and ethics".]

Headlines that stand on their own to tell your story are marketing 101, but too many campaign blogs choose cute or clever over compelling. Informative headlines are even more important on the web because people may be subscribing to your feed and only ever seeing the headline. When you can't be sure people are getting the whole article, you better be sure to use the headline to get your top-line message across.

--Louella Pizzuti

Related posts

Congressman Jerry McNerney informs, inspires and raises funds online

Integrating the web wins elections

John Edwards uses technology to determine campaign stop

If you've read very many posts here, you already know I believe campaigns should use technology to serve/amplify their messages. But, because the strategy for each campaign is different, I haven't written much about using the web to inspire/facilitate offline activity. Until now.

The John Edwards campaign is using Eventful (a web site that lets users "demand" a visit/performance/whatever) to let supporters demand a visit from John Edwards himself. That's reasonably interesting in a use-of-technology way.

But whether by design or by great good fortune, the town that's currently in the lead (by a very wide margin) is Columbus Kentucky, population 229. The organizer's pitch for his town:

Columbus, Kentucky is a small town in Western Kentucky that boasts a population of 229 people and is about a 50 minute drive from the closest McDonalds. Like many rural communities across the south, job loss in the face of rising healthcare costs and education costs have crippled the economy. We want to see John Edwards come to real rural America and address the problems we face and hear his plan for revitalizing small American communities like ours!

Does this plea fit into the Edwards campaign playbook or what? From the comments:

Politicians hardly ever get to see how small town and rural Americans actually live. This would be a great experience for not only John Edwards, but for the many Democrats who live in Kentucky and are interested in the future of our country.

If Columbus wins, the trip to Columbus will provide lasting value to the Edwards campaign. My guess is that this visit will get plenty of media coverage, that the campaign will (quite visibly) hear from oft-ignored voters, that the people who see Edwards in Columbus will enthusiastically report to their friends, and that the event will provide a great deal of fodder for the Edwards web site. Value? Extremely high. Downside? I don't see one.

--Louella Pizzuti

Congressman Jerry McNerney informs, inspires and raises funds online

Jerry McNerney's team exploited the web to pull off an odds-against win in California's 11th CD and they continue to set themselves apart by updating their web presence regularly while the Congressman serves.

What's unusual about this? Well, most campaigns completely ignore their web presence after the election. Many (if not most) don't even change their site to reflect the fact that the election's over. This is a big mistake. If someone seeks you out in person do you ignore them until you need their endorsement, cash or vote? Of course not. Consider applying the same courtesy to the folks who seek you out online.

McNerney's campaign does this elegantly and reliably. They focus their updates on their blog, where a quick glance reveals:

--excerpts from local papers lauding the Congressman
--fundraising pitches
--insight into Congressman McNerney's votes or actions
--invitations to in-district events

Is McNerney's blog devouring lots of staff resources? Highly unlikely. It looks like most of what they're posting is repurposed content: letters, clips and fundraising requests.

Is the lack of comments an indication that no one's reading his blog? Hardly. On May 25th, when they posted McNerney's explanation of his vote against giving President Bush another blank check to wage the war in Iraq, there were a whopping 183 comments. In May.

McNerney himself responded to the comments (at comment 164) and the campaign wisely created a new post to spotlight his comment.

This, I am happy to report, fits solidly in the "best practices" category: An elected official who invests in communicating with voters throughout the session, who leverages work done elsewhere by posting it on the web, and who publicly responds to constituent concerns. Who wouldn't vote for this guy?

Jerry McNerney's making sure that any constituent who wants to know what he's doing on his or her behalf has resources galore at their fingertips; are you?

--Louella Pizzuti

Related posts

Integrating the web wins elections

McCain team uses web for targeting

There's a lot to like about John McCain's web presence but I'll restrict myself to discussing how they're using the dynamic nature of the web to discern and deliver what visitors want.

When you hit McCain's home page you can't help but notice his message (excellent), but what's really interesting is how they're using petitions, polls and free offers to deliver info of interest to visitors.

They've got a petition against pork barrel spending (that nicely conveys McCain's position on pork even if you don't click through). If you click to "sign" the petition, you're thanked and given links to more info on pork spending. They're probably also adding your email address to their list. If they're really clever (and it looks like they are), they'll be targeting messages to these petition signers.

Same idea, different implementation on their poll asking "What percentage of the world's oil reserves do you think resides here in the United States?" Presumably they took the poll approach because they knew that the results would surprise most Americans (and because people enjoy testing their knowledge this way). When you get the poll results you also get lots more energy info. I'd be curious to see if they customize the info they display depending on whether or not the answer was correct (or close). Whether or not they do, it's something your campaign could do. Again with the email address harvesting along the way.

Both the petition and the poll are much more respectful ways to get email addresses than an email splash screen before visitors get to the heart of your site.

And finally, they have a navigation tab called "Undecided?" Brilliant. They've taken info from other parts of the site and packaged it for folks who have not yet declared an allegiance. Most sites end up looking like they're designed exclusively for supporters; the McCain campaign's approach not only acknowledges the existence of the curious, but makes it easy for the searchers to find the info they seek. When designing your site, keep in mind the many different categories of people who will be visiting and figure out how to satisfy them quickly and completely.

--Louella Pizzuti

Integrating the web wins elections

Just ask (now Congressman) Jerry McNerney's campaign in California's 11th congressional district.

The numbers were grim, voter registration in the district favored the incumbent who'd already served 14 years in office:

44.39% Republican
36.98% Democrat
1.88% American Indendent
.42% Green
16.33% Unaffiliated

But the McNerney team used the web to take the campaign to the people--and to bring the people to the campaign. Fully integrating the web into their campaign helped every aspect of the race.

Said Congressman McNerney,

Winning a Congressional seat is an incredible undertaking. It certainly takes money and lots of it. But anyone who thinks it’s all about money is sadly mistaken. What it really takes is the heart, passion, commitment and dedication of hundreds of supporters.

In our incredible 2006 victory, these ingredients created the people power that overcame a 2-to-1 disadvantage in fundraising, shocking the pundits and power-brokers. I may have initially stood up and decided "enough was enough," but it was the tidal wave of people -- who decided to make a real difference and step up with time, energy, and love of country -- that created the real change.

To be sure, McNerney was a compelling candiate with the heart and guts for a tough fight, but we've all seen such candidates lose when confronted with the fundraising power and name recognition of a long-time incumbent.

McNerney won and the web was a crucial part of his success. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be analyzing McNerney's web presence as an example of online approaches that work. Check out Jerry McNerney's site for yourself and see what you and your campaign can learn from it.

--Louella Pizzuti

Which matters more: what happened or what people believe happened?

As I watched last night's Democratic debate I saw no clear winner, but comparing candidate web site coverage, I declare Richardson's campaign the hands-down winners.

Candidates with debate coverage on their home page

The good
Bill Richardson, debate photo with caption: "Strong Debate Performance" followed by "Governor Richardson showed once again that he is the candidate with the boldest vision and strongest record to lead America forward." [This was not at all my take on the debate, which makes front paging this an even smarter move; the Richardson campaign clearly understands the value of spin and the reach of the web.] Blog: video clips (no clip transcript or recap).

Dennis Kucinich, excerpts from press release, positive remarks from Donna Brazile, and a link to a transcript (text only). [Excerpts from his blog are the bulk of his home page; not recommended, but it does keep his front page up-to-the-minute.]

Joe Biden, good one-liner overshadowed by photo/spin of previous debate.

The bad
John Edwards and Mike Gravel both refer to the debate as if it hasn't happened yet. Whoops.

[edited 7/2 to add: most of the home pages noted above have changed by now.]

How'd the others do with their blogs?

Chris Dodd was the clear winner. His campaign posted a video (with transcript) of his best answer.

Hillary Clinton: encouraged supporters to chat/cheer during the debate then wisely edited the original post to excerpt positive press quotes.

John Edwards: lively group commenting during debate; no campaign perspective.

Barack Obama: one post buried in fundraising pitches.

The ugly truth
This kind of web coverage is not the best money can buy, but it's the best money is buying. Politcal use of the web has become much more prevalent since 2004, but the message is still mostly lost in a tangle of technology.

--Louella Pizzuti