Mobile Campaign Technology
Authored by John Burnley, IT Specialist and ORS Contributor
I love my HTC Android phone. Not only does it combine the basic features of most phone hardware offerings, but it also has a variety of applications that I can use while I’m away from home, instead of waiting until I return to use my desktop computer. My life has become a lot easier, especially in keeping connected with friends, family, business and information.
America as a nation has become more mobile! Over the last few years, we have seen the commercial offerings of intelligent devices like the iPhone, Blackberry and the ‘Droid’ introduced into the consumer market. With each offering, the platforms become more sophisticated and capable of running applications previously reserved to the ball and chain of the desktop computing environment. Over the holidays, I did some of my shopping as well as magazine renewals while on vacation in Florida with my Android phone. We are now seeing more industries making attempts to add mobility to their marketing strategies. However, there are features and capabilities that may also benefit grassroots political campaigns.
Mobility adds yet another technological platform for candidates to spread their message, organize volunteers and solicit funding. John Edwards used text messaging in 2007 to solicit funds from supporters. With the video playback and internet browsing capability of most smart phones, mobile platforms can be used in conjunction with other social media offerings to connect with supporters, volunteers and donors. Barack Obama’s campaign video on YouTube that told volunteers how to use tools on the campaigns website is easily viewed from my mobile phone. Scott Brown’s video he used in raising over 1 million dollars in one day using a money bomb strategy to solicit donations is also easily viewed. Imagine combining SMS text messaging, Email and video into a strategy for fundraising targeting an existing following from Facebook or Twitter, who voluntarily opted to receive such solicitations. As Scott Brown’s successful fundraising effort showed, a large group of small donations can add a significant amount to a campaign’s war chest.
The use of mobile phone technology in political campaigns is, in my opinion, only getting started. However, we are starting to see applications specifically targeting political markets. There is even an iPhone application for former President Ronald Reagan speeches and information.
Verafirma is a small Silicon Valley technology company that specializes in electronic signatures. Their Democracy Project immediately caught my attention with their iPhone petition signing application. At times, signature gathering may be difficult, cumbersome or expensive. Instead of mobilizing volunteers to go door-to-door or paying $2 – $10 per signature, why not mobile-ize the process, tapping an existing audience from social media sources or even online internal campaign communities? Of course, the candidate or campaign representative would need to confirm that electronic signatures would be accepted.
Not all applications may be available or compatible for the various smart phone devices yet, but that problem should be reduced over time as mobile campaigning becomes a more mainstream strategy with developers and vendors expanding their development and support offerings. However, do not be surprised by the level of importance that mobile technology plays in the upcoming national mid-term and local elections.
How To Make Good Video In Politics
Filed under: Campaign Technology, Red Alert Dossier
Here’s a very comprehensive post by the good folks at ReelSEO, called “5 Tips for Successful & Professional Online Video Projects”. In our work with clients, we typically do all for the client except for #2 (practice does make perfect and too many of us don’t appreciate the effect of a camera and lighting on our brain waves and memory). Heed these tips if you’re creating your own video for your campaign (you should be!).
You don’t need to become a master editor and buy thousands of bucks worth of equipment. But you do need to put your best effort forward to not look like “an un-made bed” on camera.
Get filming. If you need help, membership is still open…and remember “When in doubt…use duct tape.”
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Stay Tuned! New Weekly Ecampaign Do’s and Dont’s Webisode and “How To” Video Tip Series Unleashed in 2010
Filed under: Campaign Technology, News, Red Alert Dossier
If you’re not subscribed to ORS’s email updates and newsletter, you’re going to miss out on some incredibly informative electronic campaigning, multimedia production, content creation, content distribution, blogging, micro-bloggin, new media marketing, and campaign communication/collaboration tips that are incredibly useful. The ORS elves have been vigorously shooting video content and editing using the same tools we’ll talk about in our tips.
We’re doing a redesign on the home page and provide a nicely laid out archive of these tips as they hit every 2 weeks (They will alternate with the ORS Red Alert Dossier). I’d say we’re delivering a whole lot of awesomeness for a small investment of your time and email address. Of course, we’re capitalists and believe that if you love our free stuff…you’ll absolutely drool over the paid content we have inside…but that’s the bet we’re making.
So, I’ve made this even easier than normal. You don’t even have to look at the sidebar and select the FREE option, just look DOWN this page a bit more and fill in the box. You’ll be added to our FREE subscriber list and get ready to hang on.
2010 is going to be BIG for us at ORS and for you the political junky, campaign manager, county party chairman, communication coordinator, or candidate for office (from school board to U.S.
Congress). Please join us.
Producing High Quality Campaign Video on a Budget
We’re writing courses right now that will instruct you, your staff, your volunteers, or your campaign manager (sometimes your college age kid) to shoot and produce what Grant Crowell of the ReelSEO blog calls “Business Quality Video” on a budget.
Crowell lays it out perfectly when he discusses the fact that anyone can get “their buddy” to shoot and produce cheap video once or twice. Then, back to reality. Many campaigns spend a good portion of their budgets on video early on (nothing wrong with paying market rates) or they get someone to create a “welcome to my campaign” video on the cheap because the video shooter/editor wanted to contribute something to their friend. Then the rest of their campaign is devoid of video because no one knows what to do and the volunteer said, “Sorry Jim, I can’t do anything else free because this stuff takes time that I don’t have.”
Here are the top things you need to do in your local, state, or national campaign to build your business quality video library…and your defensible reputation online.
- We coach people to think of each video as a micro branding opportunity. Invest the hour it takes to learn how to put a title, logo, or tagline/jingle onto as much of your video as possible. We don’t always do this when we’re doing “Man on the street” type video or posts because the timeliness is more important than the branding in many cases.
- Understand your equipment. A Flip Cam is going to produce great quality visuals but if you’re in a crowded room or far away from y0ur subject, the audio may suffer. A sub $1000 investment in a few key pieces of equipment will make you a video rock star.
- Know your environment. Shooting video with the sun or an open window in the background…not so good.
- The camera generally erases your memory and kills brain cells. When that director (your wife) says, ACTION! you may stare at the camera blankly while you struggle to remember your lines. That’s natural. Take deep breaths and remember that we all don’t get paid $20 million per film. Actors are good at…well…acting. A general rule I follow is that reading scripts subtracts 90% from my authenticity factor. It can be done and I certainly use bullet point guidance some times…but our best video has been short segments where I deliver raw emotion and passion on a topic. Try it. Practice. Memorize as much as you can and speak from the heart.
There’s more to the equation but this is a good start. Stay tuned for our new course and in the meantime, if you need a flip cam…grab one from our affiliate store.
Highlight Video from the ORS Launch Party
Paul did a great job editing this video into a highlight and promotional video from the ORS Launch Party. We had a great time on Tax Day. Join us and take a peek inside the event.
Campaign Technology: Did Obama Win Because of Social Media?
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
According to Pew Internet, Obama did win because of his leveraging of the social media, web technologies, mobile technologies, video, podcasts, etc. When we’re talking with candidates, campaign operatives, county party officials and volunteers, and state wide party organizers…we say that “Better communication THROUGH technology wins elections…not just understanding “technology.” Should we adjust our thinking?
Here are a couple of key bullet points from the summary. I encourage you to go get and read the entire report called “The Internet’s Role in Campaign 2008″ available for free download.
- Fully 45% of internet users went online to watch a video related to the campaign.
- One in three internet users forwarded political content to others. Indeed, the sharing of political content (whether writing and commentary or audio and video clips) increased notably over the course of the 2008 election cycle. While young adults led the way in many political activities, seniors were highly engaged in forwarding political content to their friends and family members.
Do what I do at every talk I give, ask the entire audience, “Where’s the first place you go for information on a product, place, person, or service?” Listen to the chorus of “Google”.
Then, if the county chairperson from “Any County USA” says that “In my county people just don’t use the web like you city slickers” dump this report in front of them and have them go call his or her immediate family and ask every one of them:
- “Do you have a Facebook account?
- “Do you use the web to get news or information?”
- “Do you know that Oprah’s on Twitter?”
Don’t let an obvious deficit in technology become an unconquerable chasm. The time is NOW! Build now for all of “them” who will be your largest voting block soon.
Hat tip to podcasting news for the heads up.
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Don’t Blame Capitalism, said Milton Friedman
I had this blog post emailed to me by Chris Rants, Member of the Iowa House of Representatives, District 54. I was very pleased because I always like shout outs to locals here in Iowa.
Anyway, everywhere we go, with the exception of maybe the National Review, it seems everyone is telling us why capitalism has failed us. This trend, having been lead by the liberal drive by media (yes, I know, saying liberal was rather redundant) it actually convincing Americans that it’s true. Capitalism ruining our country?? IT’S ABSURD!!!!!
Take it from Milton Friedman in the video below. See how many NBC news casters or commentators can dispute what he has to say. Capitalism didn’t ruin our economy. We did! We are the ones that spent more than could, we are the ones that tens of thousands of dollars in credit maxed out. We dug ourselves a hole many, now, can’t climb out of.
Every attack on capitalism I have heard thus far is not exclusive to capitalism. Even if some of these attacks are legitimate (though I haven’t found one that is) they are applicable to every other kind of economy and government. Capitalism works. It’s why we have the standard of living we do. Still not convinced, listen to Friedman.
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Cracking the Code: A non-technical look at building a defensible political reputation through video
Cracking the Code is one of my favorite narrated multimedia presentations. We’re releasing this piece at launch because the use of video in campaigns is such a hot topic today. Some campaigns have built quite a library of video content that serves to “protect them” against aggressively funded opponent attacks. In this video, we talk about how you can “reach the top 5% in production quality of all the videos on Youtube” for under $500. We also discuss some key video hosting platforms and findability enhancements that maximize your chances for success.
Remember, if you’re running for Mayor or Governor…you’ll find a wealth of information inside the Operation Red State Interactive Learning Environment. We hope you’ll join us.
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Technology and Politics Links from ORS 02/26/2009 (a.m.)
- Image via Wikipedia
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http://www.andydrish.com/2009/02/24/seth-godin-on-blogging
Seth Godin and Tom Peters on Blogging…just WOW. I hope I say it half this good in my classes. Unreal. Please take a listen to this minute and a half clip. You’ll fire up your blog immediately afterward I think. Whether business or politics the same power applies. This is the most powerful marketing tool in the universe…and it’s FREE!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of operationredstate group favorite links are here.
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