What campaign manager could resist technology that reaches more than 75% of Americans? Taking cues from television, presidential hopefuls are using cellphones to text-message voters in much the same way that viewers vote for their favorite American Idol contestatnt, reports the Washington Post. The Obama campaign has jumped on the fledging text messaging bandwagon, saying they ll text messaging to organize events and urge supporters to donate money.
Your cellphone is probably the one piece of technology that is with you all the time, said Joe Rospars, Obama s new-media director. He oversees the mobile campaign, which kicked off a few days ago. The reality is, I don t think there s a campaign or a political organization right now that has figured out how to smartly use this technology.
There s going to be a lot of experimentation. Short Message Service (SMS), commonly used by TV shows such as Fox s American Idol, has made texting more affordable. The way I think about it is, if we can support our American Idol contestants by texting, why not our presidential candidates?
said Tim Chambers, co-founder of Media 50 Group, a start-up that focuses on the mobile political space. The changes that we ve seen and are seeing in the private sector have yet to truly catch fire in the political space, Chambers said. Currently, only a few American politicians using the technology: California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.), both Republicans, used text messaging in their reelection campaigns. In Europe and Asia, text messaging has been used more widely.
After the surprise outcome of the Spanish election in March 2004, when voters organized through text messaging to vote out the governing Popular Party, the headline in the International Herald Tribune read Cellphones May Have Tipped the Scales in Spanish Election: Text-Messaging the Revolution. The following week, a political cartoon featuring a group of election strategists showed a man in the middle saying Nadie penso en mensajes SMS ( Nobody thought about SMS messages ). So far only the Democratic front-runners are using text messaging.
John Edwards, the first of the candidates to launch a mobile campaign, has sent texts urging his supporters to join his Young America program (text summer to 30644) and sign a petition to end the war in Iraq (text iraq to 30644). Last week, his campaign launched a fundraising drive that started off with a text message and was followed by a prerecorded phone call from Edwards himself: Hi, this is John Edwards. Thank you for taking the time to respond to our text and listen to my message.
What campaign manager could resist technology that reaches more than 75% of Americans? Taking cues from television, presidential hopefuls are using cellphones to text-message voters in much the same way that viewers vote for their favorite American Idol contestatnt, reports the Washington Post.
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