Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Panelists: Seeds Of Next Election Are In E-Mail

How will Barack Obama's new-media operation shape the next round of campaigns? E-mail, e-mail, e-mail, experts concurred at today's Politics Online Conference. And make sure the new-media components are integrated throughout the rest of the campaign.

Sam Graham-Felsen, who ran the Obama campaign's blog, told nearly 100 Hill staffers, Internet consultants and new-media types that while e-mail may be the "least sexy" part of any new-media operation, it is the "single most powerful driver online and offline."

Nick Schaper, new-media director for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, predicted that the one of the biggest changes moving forward will be for all levels of the campaign, including senior staff, to become more knowledgeable about how the Internet team operates. Everyone on a campaign should know how to operate their Web site's content management system, Schaper said.

Looking around the corner to the 2010 midterm elections and over the horizon to the next presidential election, the panelists speculated that the use of search engine advertising would increase, considering how narrowly targeted campaigns and issue groups can get as technology becomes more advanced. "I'm fascinated by the advances of analytics and targeting," Schaper said.

Don Seymour, communications director for the right-leaning Freedom Project, added that online supporters will rally around issues more than candidates in the next election cycle. He cited the April 15 tea parties as an example. The protests weren't centered around a single person or party, he said, and predicted that the passion on display toward a specific issue will carry over to election season.

The audience members, who packed into a meeting room at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, were certainly plugged in themselves. Various attendees were tweeting, watching talked-about YouTube videos, and checking out the sites of consulting firms the panelists mentioned.