techPresident - McCainSpace needs to go - Comments

"It's most often Republicans that are bowling alone."

David All — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:36:53 -0400

Turk nailed it.

Democrats are already making waves in facebook/myspace etc. They need more avenues to grow their network and community. In other words, they've had the main course and they're ready for dessert.

McCain is trying to jump a few steps and it's failing the overall strategy to connect people.

If the goal is to raise money, then Mitt Romney's strategy is much more effective. But if the goal is to connect us - then we need to start at the beginning instead of re-inventing the wheel.

Any other thoughts out there?

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David All
The David All Group
http://davidallgroup.com
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I'll take a crack at that...

Michael Turk — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:46:01 -0400

There is a two part answer to your question. First, I think the major difference is Obama and Edwards are open models. The key distinction between MyGOP and McCainSpace is they are a closed/restrictive model. It really reflects the difference in philosophy about the Internet that has developed.

The Democrats see the upside of the Internet as a tool to gather people around a cause, and to some extent they underestimate the potential downside.

Republicans, on the other hand, tend to overestimate the potential dangers, and underestimate the potential benefit. Republicans have not yet seen a race where the Internet was credited with a win. They have seen some of their candidates lose because of the net, but they have had little success.

The other problem is the nature of Republican voters and Democrat voters. I've done polling on this and found clear evidence that Democrats and Republicans behave differently online.

Democrats are generally more receptive to social media than Republicans. Republicans tend to be much more concerned with individual pursuits. It's most often Republicans that are bowling alone.

This is clear when you look at the counter for candidate MySpace friends. It's not a surprise to me that the numbers put up by most of the Democrats dwarf the numbers for Republicans. It's not a function of the age of people on MySpace, it's a function of what we're doing online.

If you're not inclined to social networking to begin with, and the process to get involved is heavy-handed and requires you meet the "approval" of someone else, you're not likely to make the effort.

What about the others?

Joshua Levy — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:49:00 -0400

David, if the major failing of McCainSpace is that it's yet another social network that requires you to build yet another profile and meet yet another group of friends, all in the service of raising money for the candidate, does this mean that other sites that follow this model (like Obama's and Edwards') are also failures? If not, what sets them apart?

McCainSpace needs to go

David All — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 10:12:03 -0400

John McCain's social networking tool is a failure. A tipster passed along this National Public Radio segment regarding the politics + tech sphere as it relates to the Presidential campaign. Specifically, the story focuses on the importance of social networking to a candidate.

If you only heard this report, you might get the indication that John McCain is really dominating the social networking scene. But, you're much smarter than to trust Godzilla, right?