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In
the news
The future of the online campaign: participation
By Andy Brack
September 2001
Published in Campaigns &
Elections
Any candidate
worth his salt now adds an online component to his political
holster of bumper stickers, yard signs, direct mail, advertising,
grassroots organizing, phone banks, fund-raisers and more.
Most,
however, still don't use the Internet well. Instead of providing
personal e-mail newsletters and using viral marketing tactics
to build online communities of support, they post Web pages
that collect dust. They forget to use online fund-raising
components during traditional outreach. They spend a lot of
upfront time developing a Web site; then they ignore it …
for weeks.
Today's
political Internet is like a child. You've got to feed it
if it is to grow. Even though we're not sure what it will
mature into, the 70+ percent of Americans online are becoming
more comfortable with the Internet. Effective campaigns of
the future will take advantage of the medium to encourage
two-way participation, not just one-way data outflow from
candidates and parties.
Andy
Brack, communications strategist for the Brack Group (http://www.brack.net),
is founding editor of PoliticsOnline's Netpulse (http://netpulse.politicsonline.com),
the biweekly e-journal of politicking on the Internet. He
integrated the Internet into his 2000 congressional bid.
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