If there ever was any doubt about the power of the new media, this can be dispelled by looking at the way the McCain and Obama campaign committees are using the new media to get their messages across and to establish dialogue with voters.
Traditional media is easy to measure in terms of audience reach but not in terms on how it is affecting your intended audiences.
The new media provides instant feedback to the candidate.
Web sites provide raw numbers in terms of "hits" - how many times the site is being visited but also provides an opportunity for site visitors to comment on what he or she thinks about the campaign, to offer suggests for change, new ideas and responses to the position of the other candidate.
Both the Obama and McCain sites are using the most up-to-date and sophisticated technology.
Let's look at some things on Barrack Obama's site, www.barackobama.com. Obama himself does NOT write this blog. It does however work at being current and update with the latest stories and breaking events.
First off, his site has a date and time on it - this is critical. In a fast-moving political environment, you cannot be seen as being yesterday's news.
That will make you part of the "old" media - like today's newspaper that essentially is providing in-depth coverage of old news.
The blog makes use of current images of Barack and Joe Biden on the campaign trail. There are some excellent photos and videos of the two of them at events conducted the night before or earlier in the day.
Viewers get to see Joe Biden in action by clicking on a Flickr slideshow. A simple click also takes you to links with Digg, Facebook, Newsvine, Stumble and del.icio.us
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give Obama's site an 8.5.
The McCain website is also written in the 3rd person but keeps visitor interest high between blog updates with dynamic new photos and videos.
They also refer you to You Tube for other perspectives on the election.
Viewer reminders are posed prominently advising visitors to check back frequently for updates.
When I checked on the Next Page box, I was invited to join Community McCain Space.
It is very user-friendly providing lots of possibility for visitor participation. This gave me a choice of top RSS (Really Simple Syndication - a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works) on Iraq, health, the economy, and campaign spending.
www.johnmccain.com makes excellent use of the most current You Tube videos to slam Obama.
This is a good example of using the new media to make your opponent look bad without saying he or she is bad yourself, just let the audience be the judge of what others are saying.
I would also give the McCain web site an 8.5 rating.
State and local officials who want to be aware of effective ways to use the new media should become new media "junkies' over the next few months and take some lessons from the leaders of the pack.
Traditional media is easy to measure in terms of audience reach but not in terms on how it is affecting your intended audiences.
The new media provides instant feedback to the candidate.
Web sites provide raw numbers in terms of "hits" - how many times the site is being visited but also provides an opportunity for site visitors to comment on what he or she thinks about the campaign, to offer suggests for change, new ideas and responses to the position of the other candidate.
Both the Obama and McCain sites are using the most up-to-date and sophisticated technology.
Let's look at some things on Barrack Obama's site, www.barackobama.com. Obama himself does NOT write this blog. It does however work at being current and update with the latest stories and breaking events.
First off, his site has a date and time on it - this is critical. In a fast-moving political environment, you cannot be seen as being yesterday's news.
That will make you part of the "old" media - like today's newspaper that essentially is providing in-depth coverage of old news.
The blog makes use of current images of Barack and Joe Biden on the campaign trail. There are some excellent photos and videos of the two of them at events conducted the night before or earlier in the day.
Viewers get to see Joe Biden in action by clicking on a Flickr slideshow. A simple click also takes you to links with Digg, Facebook, Newsvine, Stumble and del.icio.us
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give Obama's site an 8.5.
The McCain website is also written in the 3rd person but keeps visitor interest high between blog updates with dynamic new photos and videos.
They also refer you to You Tube for other perspectives on the election.
Viewer reminders are posed prominently advising visitors to check back frequently for updates.
When I checked on the Next Page box, I was invited to join Community McCain Space.
It is very user-friendly providing lots of possibility for visitor participation. This gave me a choice of top RSS (Really Simple Syndication - a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works) on Iraq, health, the economy, and campaign spending.
www.johnmccain.com makes excellent use of the most current You Tube videos to slam Obama.
This is a good example of using the new media to make your opponent look bad without saying he or she is bad yourself, just let the audience be the judge of what others are saying.
I would also give the McCain web site an 8.5 rating.
State and local officials who want to be aware of effective ways to use the new media should become new media "junkies' over the next few months and take some lessons from the leaders of the pack.
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