to txt or not to txt

justin@justinhamilton.org — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 08:04:04 -0500

Don't forget that that for the average consumer (read voter) txt-ing frequently can be quite expensive if you don't have some kind of plan; particularly for the young people who would be most likely to use sms in the first place. Unlike e-mail, you're asking people to pay money each time they hear from you. For some people this won't matter, but for many it will.

The GOP found that the best use of SMS was to keep in touch with their most solid supporters and mostly when used as an alert system for e-mails they sent out (i.e. "don't forget to check your email for an important message from candidate X"). In those cases SMS was used to drive up the open rates of the GOP's email program.

For the most part, candidates seem to think its enough that they've just heard of text messaging and that the wow factor they think that generates should be enough.

I think its real value (yet to be unlocked) is in field organizing and GOTV.

So ideally a candidate would build in interactivity to enhance dialog, not by rapid response, but by asking survey questions that draw on the crowd to help plot campaign strategy ala howard dean.

Once you build that trust relationship, and have buy-in, and loyal, regular users, you can branch out to informing people of "meet up" like events, candidate appearances, and ultimately, building a viral, peer to peer GOTV operation.

As far as rapid response, I think the Philippines holds the answer: offer a ring tone that is a voice recording set to music. this can be funny or serious, but must be interesting enough for me to decide that everyone I know should hear it.

Where Are My Text Messages Mr. Edwards?

Lynne d Johnson — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 01:03:18 -0500

Though the focus of techPresident is on how the candidates use the Web, as well as how voter-generated content affects the process, I've become very interested in what methods are being employed in the mobile space. One in particular wasn't very hard to find, it was in John Edwards YouTube video, "Tomorrow Begins Today," where he announces his candidacy and asks you to "Text Hope to 30644."

techPresident - Where Are My Text Messages Mr. Edwards? - Comments

to txt or not to txt

Where Are My Text Messages Mr. Edwards?