Note to Presidential Candidates: "Half the Battle" isn't good enough

A lot of outstanding insights have surrounded the role of social media in politics, namely in the presidential candidacies, which has social media pundits everywhere pumping their fists a la Kirk Gibson circa 1988. 

As much as this does inspire a conceited reinforcement of my work in the digital arena, I remain level because I think everyone now recognizes that social media is merely an evolution of our time: socio-environmental trends + digital assets = necessity for peer-to-peer, two way communications.  So why wouldn't political figures leverage the digital age to have genuine conversations with voters?  However, I'm intrigued to contribute to the conversation when I read this post on Fred Wilson's blog earlier today where he made several interesting observations, including:

"I just checked the exploratory committee websites of Hillary, Obama, Edwards, McCain, and Romney. A few have blogs (or so they call them). Not one of them actually write any posts."

The old adage goes that showing up is half the battle.  Well, in an uncharacteristic 'glass-is-half-empty' moment, I'd like to voice that "showing up" on social media channels isn't even half the battle.  Simply having a prescence on social media properties such as MySpace and YouTube doesn't cut it.  Uh-uh!  Today, people are suspicious about marketing.  And heck, even as a marketer myself, I'm skeptical that John Edwards himself replies in his MySpace.  The voice isn't authentic to me. 

How is this approach any different from traditional marketing where key messages completely devoid of personality and dialogue are pushed one-way to the audience?  Yes, different channels attract different demographics and the more touchpoints, the better.  I get that but that isn't the point.  The bottom line is social media is about joining everyday conversation.  Merely posting pictures, canned responses, and videos of speeches isn't leveraging social media for value.  It's showing a complete ignorance of the medium. 

So a collective word to Hillary, Obama, Edwards, McCain and Romney: what you're doing is creating a bigger megaphone.  What you need to do is have better conversations with potential voters.  Even if you're short on time as Fred mentioned, you would not believe the power that 1-2 genuine sentences (read: actually from you) posted everyday holds.  MySpace and YouTube are social media tools.  The real power is unlocked by interaction, engagement, and at the highest level, empowerment.

I realize I'm somewhat presenting this as "damned if you do, damned if you don't" proposition.  And ending this post on that note would be bad form.  So here's one possible solution: why not provide a daily video blog about your travels across the country as you meet the military, police, and firefighters of the nation?   Forget the  high production costs of commercials that I'm never going to watch anyway.  Let's see some authentic content and hear some genuine messages that we won't get anywhere else.

I'm nothing if not helpful so here's a sample marketing plan I put together (I'll use Hillary per this example):

Goal
Primary: Generate awareness for Hillary Clinton.
Secondary: Launch an online political evangelism program around Hillary Clinton. 

Target Audience
Primary: Top influencers of online communities around the nation (insert appropriate party preferences here).
Secondary: (insert appropriate geographic clusters here)

Campaign Length
Short- and long-term, high-impact

Modes of Engagement
Vlog, posted 5 times a week (at minimum) available at:

• Official YouTube Brand Channel (BTW, here's a top influencer Hillary should seek the help of)
• MySpace 
• Blog via official website

Note: this is an example of just one mode of engagement. 

Hope this helps!

-Johnny

P.S.- To Fred: it took 35 minutes, 16 seconds to bang out this post.  

P.S.S.- This blog post endorsed by supporters for Johnny Chan 2008. 

Comments

[Nick Urbani]

Johnny Chan for 2008!

The Washington Post reports that Hillary has AT LEAST $45 million in the bank for her campaign. They couldn't fit a competent marketer into that budget?

You make a great point that while social media may be widely recognized, it obviously does not know how to be utilized. It frustrates me that politicians do not see this opportunity to have a genuine connection with their constituents. I mean, they really can't be this blind, right? I've never trusted a candidate 100% just because of the natural stigma that comes along with being a politician. But the fact that they won't openly engage with Americans, when there is a clear possibility to do so, leads me to believe that they're scared or have something to hide. Maybe they aren't any genuine messages your hoping to hear Johnny.

Beyond that, there is the opportunity not only to promote one candidate over the other, but to promote something on a much bigger scale. Blogs, comments, and genuine vlogs will have much larger impact on Americans than P Diddy's Vote or Die Campaign. (take that, take that)If politicians embrace social media the way it should be used, voting rates will increase.

Hopefully, Hillary used some of that 45 mill to hire someone for reputation management and they will see this post. But will they respond???

[Johnny Chan]

You bring up many excellent points Nick, particularly when you note that maybe there aren't genuine messages coming from the mouths of politicians anyway.

And you're right... the natural inclination is that politicians are masters of the spin.

We all know this joke:
How do you know if a politician is lying?
His mouth is moving.

How refreshing would it be to have a candidate who speaks with sincerity, from the heart, someone who communicates naked? Now I'm not suggesting that every candidate need to pull a McCain and roll up their sleeves and belt out a "Yeehaw!!!" (nor should they).

But enough is enough. Enough spin. Enough polish. I'd like to see more 'elbow grease' coming from genuine engagement with voters. If true leaders lead from the front, not from the top, then it's time for our country's leader to be in front of voters and on their level. Social media allows the perfect platform to do this and it continues to perplex me why they don't.

Maybe you're right Nick. Maybe the old joke isn't a joke afterall.