Boston Globe Magazine – Social Networking Changes Presidential Elections
This Sunday Charles Pierce will have an article in the Boston Globe Magazine breaking down how social networking and the Internet are changing the Presidential Campaign. Pierce was interviewed this morning on the Hank Stoltz Experience at WCRN Worcester, 830 on you am dial. The discussion was lively, captivating and I can’t wait to read the article.
So why am I writing about this? Pierce in his discussion eloquently explained why the presidential candidates “brand” is no longer their own, but is subject to the whims of MySpace, Facebook, etc. For those of you who don’t believe what so many of the top marketing writers have been telling you, that your brand is now controlled by your customers, this is a prime case in point. Simply substitute the words “Presidential Campaign” with “Marketplace” and the word “Candidate” with “your brand” and you’re going to see what we’ve been talking about.
One of the points that he made in the discussion is that this also makes it much easier to perpetrate dirty tricks. He cites the case of the fellow who took over Senator John McCain’s MySpace page in “about the time it took to make a sandwich.”
What happens when someone launchs a blog campaign against your products because it took you 4 months to ship a promised upgrade?
Let’s say your in Coca-Cola’s marketing department – what happens when someone doctors up a photo of your CEO at a barbeque drinking a Pepsi? Or when a video on YouTube goes viral and your product is bearing the brunt?
Reading:
Who Owns Your Brand?
Who Owns Your Brand? (a different article)
Half-Day with Google
2 thoughts on “Boston Globe Magazine – Social Networking Changes Presidential Elections”
Looking forward to reading that. I actually did a piece on how effectively the presidential candidates were using social media a few weeks ago.
http://www.scottmonty.com/2007/05/are-presidential-candidates-using.html
The 2008 election is really the first major election that will benefit from social media outreach. We’ll see what the candidates learn in the process.
Great post…
I think there’s going to be a lot of lessons learned in this campaign cycle, both good and bad.