Frustrated Voters Take Action

Guest on the podcast this week is Summer Nemeth, founder and CEO of Imagine Election, a non-partisan online voter guide.  We talk about another dimension of the unofficial campaign phenomenon from a state and local view.  Summer points out that political campaigns change when they become voter centric instead of candidate centric.

Check out this refreshing interview.

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Virtual Book Parties

Recorded in mid-December 2009, these virtual book parties for About Face: The Dramatic Impact of the Internet on Politics and Advocacy (E-Voter Institute Press, 2009) make for interesting listening and might even make you want to buy the book.  These bi-partisan discussions with many of the contributors to the book add an update and further reality check for strategists, candidates, and campaign managers.

Go to the E-Voter Store for details on how to get the About Face book in print or eBook format.

First Virtual Book Party

Topics include targeting, voter expectations, mobile, search and online ads.

Participants

Karen Jagoda, Shaun Dakin, Kathie Legg, Tony Winders, Colin Delany, Jason Krebs, Porter Bayne, Cyrus Krohn

Second Virtual Book Party

Topics include the new face of political and advocacy campaigns, trends to watch for in 2010 and 2012, and reaching the loyal base as well as swing and Independent voters.

Participants

Karen Jagoda, Michael Bassik, Tony Winders, Rich Berke, Ben Katz, Dan Schnur, Mark Davis

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Motivating Voters

Guests on the Digital Politics podcast this week are Rich Berke, HCD Research and Chris Borick, Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion talking about the E-Voter Institute’s 4th Annual Survey of Voter Expectations–Persuading and Motivating Voters:  What Will It Take in 2010?

We all agreed that there are remarkably similar attitudes between people along the political spectrum, and across gender, ages and ethnic groups.  The study shows how pervasive the web has become in our everyday lives as well as how it has changed the expectations of voters.  Provocative indications in the study point to the need for new ways to motivate voters to contribute, show support for candidates, and turn out to vote in order to break through the media clutter.

The study reveals that people find debates informative but the high percentage of people who say this makes me wonder if they are all watching the full debates, selections on cable news shows, downloading YouTube excerpts or reading about them online or in the newspapers.

Download the study and check out this interview for more insights:

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Email Strategy

Digital Politics podcast this week features Ben Katz, CTO, Aristotle talking about best practices for email campaigns and how to maximize the impact of messages. Ben provides insights about SPAM filters, subject lines, and building email lists. He also emphasizes the importance of mixing up the kinds of emails sent —long form, short form, embedded video of the candidate– and the need to test messages to increase the likelihood that the target constituents will respond.

Listen to this interview with an industry insider.

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Political Strategists

In the Digital Politics podcast this week with Patrick Ruffini, partner in Engage, the topic was how political strategists need to adapt to take advantage of web tools.  In addition to Patrick’s general reaction to the Personal Democracy Forum held in NY this week, he also describes how campaigns need to embrace the creativity of constituents to build momentum and develop relationships.  Tips on what might go viral in social media and the use of humor are also covered in this conversation with a genuine industry leader

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Civic Engagement

Topic of the Digital Politics podcast last week was how the web is being used to energize state and local government.  Guests were Jason Kiesel and Kurt Daradics from Freedom Speaks, a site that aims to transform civic engagement.  This site lets people find their elected officials at all levels and enables them to communicate quickly about issues and concerns.  In addition to being useful to citizens, there are applications for advocacy groups to help mobilize constituents.  Check out the interview.

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Your Opinion Counts

If you are a political consultant, media strategist, fundraiser, grassroots organizer, public relations professional, pollster, campaign manager, direct mail guru, television ad expert, phone bank provider or interested academic take the 8th Annual E-Voter Institute Survey of Political and Advocacy Communications Leaders

Click here to take this short, confidential survey:

https://www.hcdsurveys.com/go/J7392

OR

Put on your voter’s hat and take the 4th Annual E-Voter Institute Survey of Voter Expectations

Click here to take this short, confidential survey.

https://www.hcdsurveys.com/go/J7391

Once again our partner is HCD Research.  All responses are anonymous and no identifying information is retained.

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Voter Engagement

The Digital Politics podcast this week with Colin Delany, founder and editor of  e.politics, explores uses for Twitter and the hilarious spoof from Slate about the next Twitter…Colin has it posted on his site. We also discussed a report Nielsen released in April which shows that time spent on social networks surpassed time spent on email in February and the explosive growth of time spent viewing online video.  Politican and advocacy clients are asking about how to use all these tools to engage voters and supporters but there is still great uncertainty about who they might influence.  We say now is the time to experiment.

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New Administration Proves to Be Connected to Digital World

Watch the 10 NEWS January 22, 2008 report by Bob Lawrence on how the Obama campaign used the Internet and what that means for future campaigns.  Includes an interview with Karen Jagoda.  A Closer Look

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Future Campaigns Must be More Interactive and Voter-Driven

Washington, DC, January 22, 2009 – Results of a new national study among  3536 Americans revealed that there has been a permanent move from passive communications in political campaigns to on-demand information and relationships with candidates.

The E-Voter Institute surveys conducted by HCD Research revealed that in May 2008, 40% of potential voters viewed on-line videos about candidates. Results from a recent, post election survey released today indicated that 52% of respondents reported that they viewed on-line videos. In addition, there was a 35% increase in the number of women who reported that they watched the candidates’ videos.

Two-thirds of voters reported that they expected candidates to use email communications as part of their campaigns. Particularly striking is the growth of the unofficial campaign, with 45% of respondents reporting that they forwarded links or email about political issues to friends and family.

Furthermore, more than half of the respondents indicated that they received an email from friends or family about politics. For those who voted early, the official web site was almost as attention getting as a television or cable advertisement.

Download the report The Rise of On-Demand Political Campaigns: E-Voter Institute 2008 Post-Election Findings. E-Voter Institute Post-Election-Findings-01-22-09

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