techPresident - strategy - Comments

wonderful article

Freedomfighter — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:21:08 -0400

I think you put it quite aptly. There is a difference in the way the Obama campaign and Moveon converged to grow a movement compared to other attempts to use micro-targeting. They started early and piled it on. When they wanted an event, they sent emails to those most likely to read the email and attend. The result is a bunch of identical minded people showing up, who could be encouraged to donate without any criticism of why they were meeting. That works well, until the people attending realize they were caught up in a form of impulse buying habit and not getting anything out of it.
Micro-targeting has great potential for a true supporter base, but it does have serious drawbacks if there is not a lot offline connection.

McCainism

Freedomfighter — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:04:07 -0500

Excellent post. The reason McCain is going so far is he has made a point of exploiting the media. Such tactics have generated a lot of media coverage for him. The result: NAME RECOGNITION. People don't have to know much about McCain to have some idea who he is and where he has been. Now who the heck names their kid "Mitt"?

But what about the investment?

gibson_stevens — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:12:47 -0500

Great post. Another point to add is how this money is spent. Mark Walsh of MediaPost writes of a new study soon to be released by Borrell Associates that examines 2008 online political advertising. From Walsh's story:

(T)he tiny .5% share of political advertising going to the Internet is well below the 9% chunk Borrell estimates the medium gets of ad dollars overall. It garners at least 5% in all other ad categories, including automotive, travel and health.

This is crazy, especially considering how efficient the social web is for promoting a political idea...

More of my musings...

Good points

ChrisM — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 01:27:18 -0500

Patrick,

Great stuff. I would suggest you watch Huck's online numbers through Monday for further confirmation of some of your ideas.

Couple of stats:
After the SC vote we raised $1.1 million in six days.

So far after Florida, we have raised $400,000+ and are working towards an additional $1,000,000 by midnight on Monday.

While these numbers pale in comparison to Obama's January haul and Ron Paul's 4th quarter results, Huck's online fundraising has truly fueled his campaign.

Our fourth quarter FEC report shows $6.6 million, $5 million of which we pulled in online.

Chris

hear hear

Zephyr Teachout — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:31:52 -0500

This is a great post.

Zephyr

Notes about the data

Fred Stutzman — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:13:57 -0400

As you note, this is self-reported data; therefore, it excludes vast parts of the Facebook demographic that chooses not to report their political affiliation. I'd challenge that this data is generalizable on that basis - yet this is still very interesting.

About political self-reporting - One's political affiliation is one of the most polarizing elements of the Facebook profile. In studies of Facebook profiles, we see that users tend to highlight and emphasize common elements - fostering norms and openness. Declaring political affiliation doesn't necessarily polarize, but there are a vast many Facebook users who put their openness to friendships before their ideology. This is obviously systematic.

What you see still poses an interesting question - why do we see this liberalizing trend among self-reporters? A network analytic approach might reveal tighter clusters among liberal-identified users; this in turn might identify that reporting liberal affiliation is a norm in these tight groups. Another explanation might be the general negative attitude towards "conservatism" as represented by President Bush. It might be interesting to correlate this data with his approval ratings.

Very interesting stuff - thank you for putting it together.

What about Libertarians?

edmondthehun — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:52:52 -0400

Very interesting data and analysis. However, I keep finding more friends on Facebook that identify themselves politically as Libertarian, the only choice besides "Apathetic" on Facebook's "Political Views" that does not fall in the typical range between "Very Liberal" and "Very Conservative." Libertarians are reported to have a larger presence on the Web anyway. Do you have any numbers and demographic analysis for that category?

Also, Facebook allows you to distinguish between "Very Liberal" or just "Liberal," and likewise for conservative. I assume the Lib and Cons numbers in the spreadsheet include both of each, respectively. If you have access to that distinction, are there any interesting demographic trends for those who identify themselves more strongly to one or the other, or is it about the same or not worth mentioning?

Regardless, I look forward to your future in-depth analysis.

Good observations

Jim Crumley — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:22:58 -0400

This is good stuff and correlates to a customer profile I did a couple of years ago for a telecom brand. Early adopters tended to be more liberal in social outlooks and consumer decision making, i.e. hybrid cars, environmentally friendly products, choice of reading matter etc. It's interesting to see that conclusion backed up by different research from a social network site.

Jim Crumley
Trio Strategies

Excellent Work

jedidiah — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:48:41 -0400

Thanks for doing this and thanks for the spreadsheet! This was a great read. I'll be marinating on this for a while and I look forward to your next reports on these data.

It's the message, stupid

Avery Knapp Jr — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:31:22 -0400

Your article has some good points and some grossly inaccurate points.

"But he's not a very good Republican." Was Ronald Reagan, who had remarkably similar rhetoric to Dr. Paul's, a very good Republican? Was Robert Taft? Was Barry Goldwater? Dr. Paul was an air-force flight surgeon, defender of the constitution. If Ron Paul is not a very good Republican, there are no good Republicans. And I know plenty of good Republicans: 125,000 of them who donated to Dr. Paul's campaign.

"Ron Paul gives Internet success a bad name by making it look like a fringe phenomenon." 125,000 donors to Dr. Paul's campaign and you label the phenomenon fringe? Is most of the internet "fringe?" Just because your own personal views differ from Dr. Paul's, Mr. Ruffini, doesn't mean that the tens of millions of people who will support Dr. Paul's ideas are fringe. At one time, freedom individual rights were considered fringe too...perhaps they are today again.

"If a candidate with such a narrow base of support can raise $5 million," Narrow base of support? Its my understanding that Ron Paul had more donors than any other candidate! No narrow base of support here, but instead a wide swath of support...the widest. You know well that landline polls are a lagging indicator of mainly name recognition, and Ron Paul will rise dramatically in these.

"imagine what a candidate with mainstream appeal and a strong grassroots message can do?" Dr. Paul's anti-tax stance, limited government stance, position of defending our borders not the borders of Iraq's, and will to bring the troops home is a very strong grassroots message with plenty of mainstream appeal.

Mr. Ruffini, with all due respect, once you realize that its Dr. Paul's pro-freedom limited government message and his consistency and honesty that is at the heart of his success, and not his campaign's online tactics and strategy, you will be a few steps ahead of the other pundits. I realize you're not stupid (and neither was Bill Clinton) and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but "It's the message, stupid".

Avery J. Knapp Jr., M.D.

WSJ asks Ron Paul supporters for advice

Tex MacRae — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:16:23 -0400

This guy's asking the right questions. Go read and learn.

BizTech question for any Ron Paul supporters who read this post: What is it about the campaign that makes you feel so engaged? And are there any lessons here for how to use the Internet?

Ron Paul is the Libertarian choice

Freedomfighter — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:19:09 -0400

Ron Paul is getting the support of Libertarians because he is libertarian and the Libertarians do not have any well known candidate.

What?!?!

rtester — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:09:05 -0400

"Ron Paul has shown them that a Republican can do this. But he's not a very good Republican."

Not a good Republican? Are you serious? I guess maybe to the establishment Neo-cons he may not be, but historically speaking, he is the ONLY one running for the Repub. nomination that has true Republican principles....and he sticks to them no matter what the circumstances. What's bad about that?

I really don't understand why so many folks keep slamming him. He ACTUALLY stands for something! He speaks out for the people's interests. He says what he means, and he means what he says......and he's telling the American people the truth. How refreshing is that?! He also doesn't change his principles depending on which way the wind is blowing politically. Hmmm, with that description I think I may have just talked my way into agreeing with you....I guess maybe he is a bad "current-day" Republican, or for that matter, a bad politician in general....

....but, is that such a BAD thing?

Ron Paul not a "fringe" candidate

johnfkosanke — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 08:13:40 -0400

Since the big media began branding Paul as a "fringe candidate," gullible journalists from all walks have sheepishly parroted that label - that is, whenever they have been forced to mention him. His fundraising success has occured in spite of the blackout - which has morphed into a smear - because of his record as the most constitutionally conservative member of Congress. It's the message, not the technique.

Not News.

fanboy — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:35:55 -0400

I thought everyone already knew Alexa scores mean absolutely nothing. They can be gamed just like the Ron Paul'ers are doing with digg.com by floating their stories to the top by having an organized crowd.

Except webmasters, who actually has the alexa toolbar installed?

But seriously, he's nowhere near Barack Obama in any REAL numbers.

Alabama for Barack Obama