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I thought we’d kick off the first blog posting with something that “tech savvy” campaigns or candidates might consider.  Should a political campaign “advertise” online.  First, we should define what “advertising” is in this question.  Advertising would be the act generating impressions or clicks from paid online mediums.  Okay, that was quick.  Now let’s walk through some of the fragments of online advertising to see how they apply to a political campaign.

You’ll find a lot of young (and novice) campaign workers who’ll advise the candidate so do a large spend on their online program.  While it’s true pretty much anyone running for office should have a website, there are probably better ways to get your online message out than spending tons of money.  (Side note: don’t bother with a website if you’re not going to develop some decent content and use some sort of template – or better – that showcases you in a good light.  I’m talking to the County Board type races.  If you do it, pay someone a set fee to create and maintain your web presence.  There are affordable solutions, just search “campaign websites” on Google and you’ll find some good options.  Small campaigns shouldn’t be trying to reinvent the wheel.  Large campaigns better offer a high quality online presence or you’re toast in the digital war.)

Having said ‘clicks,’ I would advise most campaigns to do a PPC campaign on Google and Bing.  (Why Bing?  55+ use it as their primary search platform and that’s who votes.  They often “google” with a little g their search on Bing.)  The reason why is because the cost of a PPC for an entire campaign, geo-targeted would be lucky to break $30.  There just won’t be that much search volume.  In a small state’s gubernatorial race, you’d be lucky to spend more than $500 total on PPC.

Stay away from banner advertising.  I be clearer: don’t ever buy a banner ad.  If site owners are energized about your campaign and would like to donate, fine.  But don’t waste time and money on banners.  They just don’t work; they never have, they never will work and while the mainstream media has tried on several occasions to convince us otherwise, it’s money down the drain.

“Social networking”  is the next topic.  It’s a dumb name, but no one has created a better label.  This would be Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter and a million others.  Small campaigns can basically ignore social networking; the juice is not worth the squeeze.  While it all sounds good, it takes up too much time you can be using for knocking on doors.  Larger campaigns however would be crazy not to utilize the buzz platform.  And, it’s all about buzz.  Usually it must be authentic to work.  Although I’ve seen complete fabrication chat pick up steam.  A large campaign should you LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  Anything else will likely not reach far enough.  All of these vehicles are free.  Use them, but be careful, not fully understanding the audience each speaks to can backfire and do so quickly.

What about a paid ad on Facebook?  Sure.  Go ahead.  Again, you’re not going to reach a large spend with it.  But, make the ads issue or event related.  This takes a lot of time, probably will energize your base and drive the opponent crazy.  All sometimes worth it, just depends on the race.

Paid directories: No.  These are worthless.

Search engines: Submit your site (domain name) to the major search engines.  Make sure you create good meta information to the spiders know how to index you.  (People have said that meta is dead, but I beg to differ…but it’s great for those of us who still use rock-solid meta in our work.)

Youtube.com: It’s free to post your vids on the tube, so have at it.  Again, their paid options couldn’t cost a large campaign so if you have the time and people resources, have at it.  Some smaller campaigns trying to act large (for whatever reason)  will post tons of video to YouTube.  Dumb.  Just put out those videos that will accomplish a specific goal.  To date, no political campaign has properly used YouTube – no, sorry kids, not even the big O.  (Crowd shutters.)  YouTube is growing up, but the full potential is far from maturity.  The next campaign who uses YouTube properly will receive deep rewards.

Email: Most larger campaigns with any grasp of digital are smart enough to collect email addresses and then send “periodic updates” to their list.  But, few campaigns know how to use email effectively.  Email should be used very carefully with end-result in mind.  The email should have something to say, be available in text and HTML and be professionally done.  A political campaigns email program should be planned out from beginning to end.  Even those “emergency” emails should be written months in advance, playing into the over-all strategy.  Email marketing in a political campaign should be segmented as well: know who you’re mailing what message to.  Your email program should be planned and funded; both easy to accomplish.

While marketing your campaign online can feel like a lot of work, setting priorities and creating goals will help reduce the confusion and stress.

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