Rachel Miller

November 3, 2009

Social Media and Image in Political Campaigns

R. Miller 2

Table of Contents

Abstract ..........................................................................................................................................3

Literature Review .........................................................................................................................3

Introduction ................................................................................................................................3

A New Media Changes Politics .................................................................................................4

The Invention of the Internet ....................................................................................................6

Image Vs. Internet .....................................................................................................................7

Motivation and Campaigning ...................................................................................................9

A Physical Connection: Election Night and Testosterone ....................................................12

Applications ..................................................................................................................................14

Social Learning Theory Creating the Motivation to Vote ..................................................14

Protecting Your Candidates Image in the Internet Age.......................................................17

Fundraising on the Internet ....................................................................................................21

Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................22

Reference ......................................................................................................................................25

Appendix A ...................................................................................................................................27

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Abstract

Political campaigns are changing as fast as technology. Navigating a new world of social

media and viral marketing is going to be a must for all candidates from city council to the

presidency. Campaigns must adjust to the changes or risk being left in the dust of their political

rival. The 2008 elections showed that it is possible to run a successful Internet campaign; now

social media will soon be the norm in campaign marketing and making sure that it gets the

attention it deserves will fall to campaign managers. With all of the different aspects it would be

wise to not only learn about social media in general, but also how campaigns can react with

staffing so they have a successful November.

Literature Review

Introduction

Image is everything in political campaigning. This has been a long-standing belief for

political campaigners and scientist; however, how image is created and maintained in the public

eye is changing rapidly. Image, much like branding for a company, must be created, maintained

and cared for so that the campaign retains control over their image. Allowing that image to

change in anyway could spell doom for a political campaign and in today’s fast paced, media

driven world, where not only is the news media working twenty-four hours a day, but social

media applications are available on most cell phones. These changes in media are making it

more difficult to keep those candidates images as clean as the day they were created.

When campaigning in the United States began the only way constituents got information

on their candidates was from tour stops in their towns and in these cases it was only if they were

lucky enough to live in a town where the candidate was headed. Finally there was a new

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medium, the radio took over as the way people got their news, and made campaigning easier

suddenly campaigns were able to reach more people at one time with radio speeches and debates

between candidates. Along with the new media came the need for a good image, Franklin D.

Roosevelt worked hard to create a certain image through his radio speeches and newspaper

photos, even hiding his handicap from the world. “At Hyde Park, they have something like more

than 40,000 still photos of Franklin Roosevelt and of those 40,000, there are only two of him in a

wheelchair, and they were family photos. And there was never a cartoon of him being

handicapped or being in a wheelchair or otherwise. He was always running and jumping or in a

boxing ring, hitting -- knocking a Republican out of the ring or something like that. People were

more polite back then, and the press loved Franklin Roosevelt because he took care of them”

(pbs.com, The Presidents, FDR) The next big change for political campaigns came with the

invention of the television, with this campaigning was given a whole new medium for getting

messages out and campaigning was changed forever.

A New Media Changes Politics

During the 1960 Presidential Campaign John F. Kennedy faced Richard M. Nixon for a

televised debate and for the first time voters all around the country had the opportunity to not

only hear the candidates, but could now see them as they faced each other. The 1960 debate

was available by both radio and television and for those viewers who heard the debate on the

radio only the majority felt Nixon won, or at least that the debate was close. This was much

different for those who watched the campaign on the television, in this case the majority of

viewers felt that the younger looking Kennedy, with his healthy looking tan, overwhelmingly

beat the older, tired looking Nixon (Kopacz, 2006, p 1).

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This change with the way politicians entered voter’s homes via television was one of the

first fundamental changes to campaigning and image management in decades; in fact today

politicians are warned that the non-verbal cues they put out are very important when it comes to

winning a campaign (Kopacz, 2006, p 1). This includes everything from how they look to the

amount of blinking or sighing they may doing while in uncomfortable situations (Kopacz, 2006,

p.1). Television gave voters a view of the individual candidate, something that had not been

done in the past where campaigns were more focused on the political parties (Kopacz, 2006,

p.2). More recently the Internet and social media have changed the way candidates are seen

again. There is always a camera available to catch that candidate in a position that would go

against the image they were trying to portray. Today more than ever this is the case with how

fast media flows from person to person, event the smallest miscue, or bad image can create a

much closer race and in some cases can cause a candidate to even lose the election. In current

campaigning it was not only important to have a good message, image and tone to the campaign,

but all candidates and workers needed to think of the personal image they portray to voters.

News travels faster today than in any other time in history, not only do political

campaigns have the use of the old mediums, such as speeches, radio and television, but now

there is a whole new way to communicate with voters. The speed of the Internet and social

media has created a new forum for political campaigns to reach the targeted voters. However,

social media can also hurt campaigns. Candidates need to be aware of their surroundings at all

times, this includes when they are not on the campaign trail per se. Social media is available at

all times and in many cases people have the ability on their phones to change history; all they

have to do is snap one picture or take a thirty second video, next a fast post on Facebook.com or

YouTube.com and the change has occurred (Corsi, 2008, p.9).

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Just as Nixon was hurt by his personal appearance during the 1960 televised debate more

and more politicians are become victims of their own non-verbal miscues. Even Barack Obama,

who many feel ran a perfect image based campaign, fell victim to one of his personal vises

during the campaign when a photograph of him smoking became a viral sensation, being passed

along by emails and Facebook.com postings. Gone was his image of a smiling candidate of hope

and change, now this photo of him looking worn down and angry shone a new light on him as a

person and candidate. As a “New Age” candidate smoking went against the image Obama camp

was trying to portray to the voting public. This rare photograph taken during a private time

changed the view a lot of people had of Barack Obama, instead of a trusting, smiling view of

hope they saw someone who was tired, unhappy and untrustworthy, the worst thing that could

possibly happen to someone trying to run against the established government foundation (Corsi,

2008, p. 235).

The Invention of the Internet

Although Al Gore’s claim that he “invented the internet” quickly changed his image from

a well-educated candidate to someone who did not have a clue as to what was going on in the

real world, truly the invention of the Internet has changed politics much more than most political

scientists could have ever imaged. Internet campaigning, the popularity of this medium did not

start in 2008, as many think, but during the 2004 Presidential election. The creation of the 527s,

which are independent political groups named for the section of IRS code that governs them, is

what started the first real political fighting on the Internet (Swint, 2004, p. 6). The 527s were

created because of the McCain-Feingold Finance bill, which limited the amount of “soft money”

that candidates and political parties could spend in a given election. Donors adapted, instead of

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giving money to the candidates and political parties who could not use it they started to give

more of their money to the 527 groups that they wanted to have help their candidate.

These 527 groups became very effective using the Internet and social media to get their

message out. They also showed that the Internet could be used in many different ways and

increase their messaging from traditional campaigning tactics. As well, these 527 groups were

able to run the kind of dirty campaign that gains interest in the public, therefore having hard

hitting pieces that garnered support was easy for them to do, and they were able to get their

followers to spread the word with the click of a button on their computer (Swint, 2004, p. 6).

MoveOn.org is a great example of these groups that took to the Internet to get their

message out, all the commercials from the 2004 campaign reinforced who they were and gained

attention to the website, which has spots for donations running at all times (moveon.org). It can

also be argued that McCain-Feingold could have been one of the reasons that John McCain lost

the election; he did not change the way his campaign office worked. They remained focused on

traditional campaigning tactics, including speeches and television ads (personal communication,

2008). On the contrary, the Obama Campaign adapted and worked social media to get past the

rules on money and was able to use it in to their favor. Thanks to social media the Obama

campaign was able to gain more donations of lesser value, instead of focusing on less larger

donations (Bradley, 2008).

Image vs. Internet

The goal of a political campaign is to win over voters and today more of these voters do

not pay attention to the campaigns until the elections near in fall time. When working with

political campaigns the majority of the media related resources are saved until the October

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months. This is why it seems like suddenly there many more commercials, direct mail pieces

and emails which start in the fall, in cases were the elections are more local the weeks leading up

to the election could be the only time voters see who is running for the positions. This is why

this time is even more important to watch how the image of the candidate is being portrayed in

the media, especially social media, even in local campaigns.

In the presidential campaigns the majority of the coverage by the mainstream media

during the primaries is based off of the personality of the candidate. This is usually because

there are very few differences between their views, however, when the general election starts the

mainstream media tends to start focusing more on the differing issues of the candidates (Corsi,

2008, p. 5). It is during this time that the image, which the candidates have worked hard to

create, can start to fade into the recent past. This very series of events has happened during

several campaigns through the years, including during the 2004 election between George W.

Bush and John Kerry.

During the 2004 Democratic primary many deemed John Kerry as the most “electable” of

the candidates running and, for the democrat party he was thought of as their best chance to win

back the White House from George W. Bush and the Republicans (Swint, 2006, p. 3). However,

it was during this primary that Kerry felt the need to create an image of a decorated war veteran

who rallied against his own war and was against the Iraq War. This was so he could gain the

trust of those who were anti-war in his party and gain the nomination of this party. In time it

showed that creating this image would become his downfall during the general election.

John Kerry was labeled as a flip-flopper by George W. Bush and after the Swift Boat

Veterans came out with there own 527 interest group they were able to break down the image of

a honorable war hero to that of someone who turned on their country and fellow soldiers by

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protesting, and testifying in front of congress about the war activities while the fighting was still

going on overseas. The image Kerry tried to portray was ripped apart by a grassroots group with

the Internet to back them and the help of many people who help to get the message across to the

majority of the public. This group is now widely credited as what helped to take the issues out of

the 2004 election and make it more on personality and image, thus causing John Kerry to lose the

election keeping the democrats out of the White House for four more years and Congress in

control for two more years (Swint, 2006, p. 7).

The Internet has become the main medium where most people get their information and

candidates have learned from the more grassroots approach of the 527’s on how to gain attention

and keep control over their image. Planning a clear and strategic Internet presence is one of the

most important keys to winning elections, candidates need to be sure to spend as much time

working on creating a presence on the web as they do planning media interviews and performing

stump speeches (Gibson & McAllister, 2005, p.13).

Motivation and Campaigning

“Motivation is a powerful tool in the hands of leaders. It can persuade, convince and

propel people to act” (Shah & Shah, n.d. p. 1). Campaigns have another hurdle to face other

than the opponent, the voter. The average voter does not pay attention to campaigns until the

end, if they decide to vote at all. Every year in a given precinct there are several candidates and

issues on the ballot, sometimes even two to three times a year. For most voters it is too much to

take in and many feel that in order to vote right they must research and understand the issues

before voting. This makes it difficult to motivate voters to even show up at the polls, let alone

become involved in a campaign. It is in this way that social media and a strong Internet presence

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can help to create the motivation needed to compel voters to not only to vote, but to help spread

the message to other voters in the community.

This motivation can come from several different forces and it is the job of the campaign

to push forward to help create that motivation. In the case of political campaigning the main

type of motivation that needs to be created is Achievement Motivation, this is where there is a

“drive to pursue and attain goals” (Shah & Shah, n.d. p. 3). A good campaign makes the voters

feel they have something invested in the candidate or issue and that if that candidate or issue won

during the election they would be able to claim a victory right along with the candidate or issue.

It should be a source of pride for the voter that they were involved with the campaign;

however, a proper campaign would also instill several other types of motivation, including:

Affiliation, Power, Attitude, and Fear Motivations. These are all types of motivation that the

individuals who work for the campaigns should have and in most cases the majority of these

workers will feel these motivations because of their attachment to the campaign. Affiliation

motivation will affect workers because those who work the most with the campaign will try to

relate with those working with them on a social basis and should have a lot in common with

others working the campaign. The workers will feel Power and Attitude Motivation because

they should feel that they could have an impact on the campaign. This is an important goal for

the leaders of the campaign to have because if they can successfully create motivation among the

workers they should be able to create Attitude Motivation, which will effect how the workers

view their future. Finally voters who feel they have a vested interest in the candidate could also

have Fear Motivation, in many cases voters and workers could get to a point where they may

actually fear what the future could hold if the other candidate is elected or the issue fails and may

help in the final push for votes, especially if the race is close (Shah & Shah, n.d. P. 5).

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Motivation needs to be repeated, it is not enough to simply start motivating people they

let them go on their own (Shah & Shah, n.d. P. 5). This is how social media can help candidates

keep voters motivated on all levels. The Obama campaign was very successful at keeping its

workers motivated by keeping them updated with text messages, and social media posts that they

could pass along to other voters and citizens to help increase the support for his campaign. As

one of the keys to get more voters interested and signed up for its text messaging program they

announced that the campaign was going to send a text to everyone announcing the Vice

Presidential candidate once chosen. This was supposed to happen even before the media would

be given the name. However this did not work as planned there were issues with the servers and

most people who signed up for the text messages, including media and those working for the

McCain campaign never got the message and instead those who were signed up for the text

found out who the Vice Presidential candidate was going to be from the media.

Campaign motivation needs to be based off of Maslow’s Hierarchy Theory, the needs in

the theory are basic human needs, and this can be attributed to the fact that in today’s society

most American’s feel that the government can have a large effect on everyday life. The needs

that campaign motivation can have are physiological, which for 2008 election included

healthcare, monetary and for many even their shelter and standard of living were on the line;

security and safety needs, social, esteem needs, and the need for self-actualization (Shah & Shah,

n.d., P. 6). For most of the workers these needs are real motivators, many of the people who take

jobs working on campaigns have a real vested interests in the success of the campaign.

However, what the Obama campaign did was to make anyone who visited the site feel like they

could make a difference and many tried by creating and sending information to friends from the

campaign to spread the word.

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A Physical Connection: Election Night and Testosterone

A recent study preformed by neuroscientists at Duke University proved that supporters in

campaigns feel that they truly are affected by the outcome of a political election. The study

showed that young males who supported either John McCain or Robert Barr, both candidates for

President of the United States who lost the 2008 presidential election, had a significant drop in

testosterone shortly after Barack Obama was declared the winner (Choi, 2009, para 2). Although

men usually see a drop in testosterone levels at night those who voted for John McCain or Robert

Barr had more of a decrease in their levels soon after the election was called for Barack Obama.

On the contrary young male voters who supported Barack Obama saw less of a decrease in

testosterone (Choi, 2009, para 2).

Researchers for this study looked at 163 college-aged male volunteers before and after

the results of the election were announced; (Choi, 2009, para 2) they also tested 106 females,

who did not see a significant drop in testosterone (Choi, 2009, para 3). The male volunteers

were also asked to take a survey describing how they felt, many of those who voted for John

McCain and Robert Barr responded by stating they felt: “significantly more controlled,

submissive, unhappy and unpleasant after the loss than the Obama backers” (Choi, 2009, para 1).

Anthropologist Coren Apicella noted that this is an exciting time for studying how politics really

affects the human body, “Political scientists are starting to recognize the role of biology and

more and more research is showing there may be some reciprocal interactions between how

elections make one feel, and how feelings can affect political behavior” (Choi, 2009, para 6).

This study is some of the strongest evidence to date that using several types of motivation

to keep supporters working for their candidate really does have an affect. The 2010 and 2012

elections are very likely to have similar effects on the voters and supporters of all the candidates

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vying for political office. This means campaign staffs need to work hard to ensure that their

supporters are not left feeling the affects of failure on election night that have truly physical

outcome.

Image and the campaigning go hand in hand; the biggest obstacle for today’s campaign

managers are to ensure that their candidates do not fall prey to negative images that can change

everything. Moving from the more traditional forms of campaigning to using the Internet and

social media can help campaigns greatly, especially those, which are short on funds. The key is

to be sure to maintain a positive presence while watching all other areas for anything that could

go against the image they want to portray, any slip could cost the election and for many their

motivation for a positive future.

Social media is a great way for campaigns and businesses to stay informed on how their

image is being portrayed in the public. Utilizing social media to gain public support, as well as

using it to monitor ones image is a must for any candidate or business. Keeping a politicians

image is one of the most important tasks of a campaign manager, candidates need to be looked at

as a brand and treated the same way that most companies view their brand management. As

Barack Obama’s campaign found out during the 2009 Presidential election, even one photo can

change your image. For his campaign this change in image was from the photo taken of him

smoking on the campaign trail, this made many look differently at him after they received the

photo to their email inbox (Corsi, 2008, p. 235).

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Applications

Social Learning Theory: Creating the Motivation to Vote

Proposition 1: Using the Social Learning Theory with voters will help to increase support

for a candidate’s campaign. The campaign must have a plan to follow through with all the steps

to ensure voters actually get to the polls on election, which is where the support actually counts.

Campaigns must work to keep their positive image, but also need to be sure they are

motivating volunteers and campaign staff. Although the motivation for each individual working

on a campaign is different, utilizing the Social Learning Theory will help campaigns stay on

track to gain the support and motivation they need to grow and obtain a win on Election Day.

The Social Learning process consists of four levels: attention, retention, reproduction and

motivation (Dainton, 2005, p. 208).

The first action a campaign must take is to get the attention of their target audience. In

the 2008 election the Obama campaign focused there attention on first time voters and the

campaign was very successful motivating them all the way to the polls where 70% first time

voters cast their votes for Barack Obama (Luntz, 2009, 141). The campaign knew whom they

wanted to target and were very successful getting their attention by using the media this audience

was more likely to use, the Internet. As the graph created by the Pew Internet and American Life

Project (appendix A) shows 78% of Internet users, and 73% of all adults’ ages 18-24 used the

Internet to for political purposes during the 2008 Presidential Election. In fact the number of

Internet users who looked for political information on the Internet does not fall below 60% for

any age group, including those over 65. However, for all adults it is not surprising that the

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lowest numbers fell to the 65 and over age group, with only 22% of all adults’ used the Internet

to gain political information (seniorjournal.com, 2008).

The next process in the Social Learning Theory is retention; (Dainton, 2005, p. 208) this

is where the image of the candidate is most important. The republican 2004 presidential

campaign was able to use this to encourage followers to not only pay attention to the information

they were sending out, but to repeat that information so voters would be able to retain the

information all the way to the polls. Looking back at the 2004 Presidential Election voters

showed they retained certain ideas and visuals about the candidates. While the Bush campaign

worked to remind voters about the War on Terror, including how President Bush lead the country

soon after the September 11th

attacks, the Kerry campaign struggled to show him as a Veteran

who was against the war.

Soon after John Kerry emerged as the front-runner and probable democrat candidate, the

Bush camp started labeling him as a flip-flopper. That title stuck throughout the election,

especially after John Kerry was caught flip-flopping on his stance on the Iraq War. In response

to critics that stated he did not support money for the troops he answered “I actually did vote for

the $87 billion before I voted against it” (Swint, 2006, p. 5). The Bush campaign not only used

this to get the attention of voters, they made sure it was seen over and over again in many

different Medias. One of their more famous commercials from the campaign has been viewed

nearly 78,000 times after it was put onto youtube.com nearly two years after the election. This

commercial included images of John Kerry windsurfing where he changed direction every time

he changed his mind on the issues. These issues included the War on Terror, funding the troops

and education reform. The commercial ended with “John Kerry, which ever way the wind

blows” (youtube.com). This commercial and the repetition of Kerry’s flip-flops on the issues

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helped the Bush campaign gain a landslide win in 2004 carrying the majority of the county as

seen in the graft below.

2004 Presidential Election Results by County (Gastner, Shalizi, and Newman 2004)

The next step in the Social Learning Process is reproduction (Dainton, 2005, p. 208) this

again is an area where the 2008 Obama campaign thrived. “Viral Politics” was really created

during this campaign (Luntz, 2009, p. 143), more individuals felt the need to not just sit back and

watch the campaign, and they wanted to be a part of it. This was true with many of the Internet

sensations that used youtube.com to get their message out and in overwhelming numbers those

presenting information on the social networking site were those supporting Barack Obama. By

the numbers presented in Dr. Frank Luntz book What Americans Really Want…Really (2009) the

views of political videos for Barack Obama beat those from people supporting John McCain by a

wide margin. In one example the “Obama Girl” beat the “McCain Girl” post by more than 8.5

million views. Also one of the biggest political videos ever was “We Are the Ones” done by

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Black Eyed Peas will.i.am and received more than 15 million views before January 20, 2009

when Barack Obama was Inaugurated in Washington D.C as President of the United States of

America (144). According to Dr. Luntz (2009) “For the first time, the political élites didn’t

matter. The combination of video and viral marketing allows individual citizens to communicate

in ways that were once limited to the professionals--- and the best communications now have the

power to influence history” (144).

The final step in the process is to motivate, this is where campaigns need to remain

focused (Dainton, 2005, p. 208). Without the motivation to get to the polls, no matter what, the

other three steps in the process are wasted. When working on campaigns it is known that the

weather can have a large impact on the turnout of voters and many times bad weather can create

a loss for a democrat candidate, even if they were in the lead heading up to election day

(personal communication, 2008). In 2008 the weather held out for the day across the county and

a record turn out of more than 130 million voters showed to cast their votes at the polls, one of

the largest percentages of voters in the history of the United States of America (Luntz, 2009, p.

136).

Protecting Your Candidate’s Image in the Internet Age

Proposition 2: Campaigns need to spend as much time and energy focused on social

media as they do on traditional means of campaigning. It will also be helpful for campaigns to

create a position for a social media manager and team to ensure social media is being utilized to

its fullest and that the campaign is not a victim of a social media attack.

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Throughout political history the way information gets to the voters has changed many

times and during these changes it always seems that the candidate who adapts the quickest to the

change is the one who gets the lead in the election. During the infamous 1960 presidential

campaign between Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy America got the see candidates in a

televised debate for the first time. This new media showed the public and campaign managers

how important image is and how fast if can change for a candidate. Kennedy not only appeared

to be the younger, healthier candidate but he also appeared more calm, unlike Nixon who was

tired looking, and sweating during most of the debate (Kopacz, 2006, p 1).

Today information moves at the speed of the web and anyone can change the image of a

candidate with one picture or video. Starting out with the right image is important but

maintaining it also takes hard work and at times can be more difficult that creating that image.

Having a strong presence on the Internet is needed to run a successful campaign; this now also

includes a social media presence (Gibson & McAllister, 2005, p.13). Many businesses have

faced this similar problem; Dominos for instance showed why all companies, and campaigns,

should watch social media to ensure their brand is not damaged. According to Patrick Vogt,

chairman and chief executive of Datran Media, (2009) “The scope, reach and speed with which

harmful content can ricochet around the Web are truly alarming” (para1). Dominos showed

companies, and campaigns, how to not handle a social media disaster.

Dominos social media disaster started when two employees posted a video of them doing

disgusting things to food that was supposedly being prepared for customers of the chain. This

video hit youtube.com and within days more than one million people watched the video and

relayed information about it on Twitter accounts. At one point it even a simple Google search of

Dominos would show five pages that mentioned this public relations nightmare. The problem

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was that Dominos not only had rouge employees, but they were too slow to answer the video,

taking 48 hours to release any information about the incident. In the past this may have been

acceptable, but in today’s fast paced would the story had done a large amount of damage to the

brand (Vogt, 2009, para 6).

Dominos has shown businesses the importance of monitoring and using social media, and

is a great study for anyone working on campaigns as well. The speed in which the Dominos

brand was damaged in this case needs to be a wake up call for any campaign that feels social

media is just a passing fad. With one click of a mouse, or even a posting done on a phone could

cost a candidate an election. Companies have the luxury of time, in the case of Dominos they

have enough customers that they were able to ride out the effects of the crisis and continue

business as normal. The election cycle does not allow for the time needed to simply ride out a

crisis. Social media is now a large part of the way campaigns are going to be run, for instance in

the Ohio Governors race Twitter and Facebook have pages dedicated to both candidates more

than one year ahead of the election as of October 2009 Ted Strickland had over 2,200 followers,

where as John Kasich had over 7,900 followers.

According to Vogt (2009) there are several steps that companies can take to prevent the

kind of damage done to Dominos, campaigns can also take these step to ensure they are not

damaged too greatly in a social media attack. These steps include first creating a social media

team (para 4), this would include people who monitor the web for stories that are both positive

and negative for the candidate and creating a strategy for the campaigns social networking

presence. It is important to cover both positive and negative stories because the team, when

working on post for the campaigns social media pages, can use both. The more the team can find

about their candidates the better equipped they will be for any questions, or issues that may arise

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in the public about the candidate. Secondly, campaigns must have the ability to follow

developments on the web as they happen (para 4). This is another function that the social media

team should take on in the campaign. Monitoring for news on the candidate and responding will

be a full time job for someone on the campaign and needs to be just as important, if not more

important, than the traditional types of marketing done in campaigns such as preparing for a

debate. For campaigns having a good plan for dealing with the Internet needs to be as much of a

priority as doing interviews and speeches (Gibson & McAllister, 2005, p.13).

Third, the campaign must answer any attacks or questions contrary to the image

portrayed by the campaign as quickly as possible (Vogt, 2009, para 4). The longer it takes to

respond, the harder it is going to be to get that response in the mainstream. In the case of

campaigns any time wasted, especially toward the end of the campaign, could cause more

damage than the campaign can successfully fix by the first Tuesday in November. The last

strategy a campaign can put in place to fight social media attacks is to put a prevention strategy

in place (Vogt, 2009, para 4). This can save a lot of time if and when a social media attack

affects a campaign. Just like creating a crisis communication plan, a social media attack plan can

help the candidate fight back the same way they are being attacked. Some of the processes that

could be put in place are to maintain open communication on both Twitter and Facebook

accounts, where information could be posted refuting the attack. Getting the correct information

out along many different mediums as fast as possible is the best way to limit the damage that

could be done by any attack that could cause harm the image that the campaign has worked hard

to create.

Social media and networking can take on a mind of its own. During the 2008 campaign

not only did the campaigns have social networking site, but also many other people started up

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sites to help the presidential candidates. These networks were built to not only support

candidates, but to also raise money and get more people registered to vote (Luntz, 2009, p. 145).

Twittering in politics really got its start with the Obama campaigns followers during the 2008

election, today more and more political figures are using the social media site to get their views

out. These include Karl Rove, Republican Strategist who has now become the “most influential

Twitterer in Washington” (Luntz, 2009, p. 145).

Fundraising on the Internet

Proposition 3: Utilizing the Internet to increase fundraising is a must for any successful

campaign by going after more donations from more people.

Before the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill, it was easier for candidates

to raise and use large sums of money from smaller numbers of people. After the bill put limits

on the amount of soft money that candidates and political parties could use this all changed.

Now campaigns need to focus on getting smaller amounts of money from larger numbers of

people. Internet fundraising did not start with the 2008 presidential election, as many people

believe, although Barack Obama utilized the practice and made it a normal political practice it

was actually Howard Dean, a democratic presidential candidate, who started using the Internet to

gather campaign donations during the 2004 presidential election. What most people do not

realize it was a third party candidate who actually brought in the highest amount of money on the

Internet. On December 16, 2007 Ron Paul raised $6 million dollars in a 24-hour period from

more than 30,000 donors. Many of these people had never donated to him in the past (Luntz,

2009, p. 144).

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All political campaign websites should have a section where visitors can donate to the

campaign, moveon.org started this during their first couple of years when they acted as a 527-

group working against the reelection of George W. Bush. Barack Obama raised more money

than all the presidential candidates of the 2004 election combined, finishing with more than $770

million in donations. This number included $110.7 million that was donated to the campaign by

more than a million contributors between October 16 and November 24, 2008 (Bradley, 2008,

para 3).

Increasing the number of contributors is crucial for a campaign to be successful,

especially during tough economic times where people are less likely to donate to the campaigns.

During the 2008 election many political candidates felt the pinch of the tighter economy in their

campaign chest. This meant they had less money to use for traditional marketing tactics such as

direct mail and advertisements; this is where social media can be used to both save and raise

money. Since social networking sites are free they are a great tool for getting out vital

information and steering supporters to the website where they can donate money. John Kasich,

the republican candidate for Ohio Governor, utilizes both social media and the Internet to gain

attention and donations. One of his tactics is to attempt to get 2,010 donations of $20.10 for the

2010 election by the end of November 2009 (twitter.com/JohnKasich).

Conclusion

Political campaigns change as fast as the technology they use; this is going to create

implications every time a new media is created. Many companies and campaigns looked at

social media as a passing fad that was only done by teenagers; however it is here to stay

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(personal communication, September 30, 2009). According to Facebook.com there are more

than 300 million people with Facebook accounts, including many women over the age of 35,

which is the fastest growing demographic on Facebook.

Not only is social media growing, but also the connectivity of the public is increasing.

More than 88% of the American public has a cell phone and of them more than a quarter use a

Blackberry, or other personal digital device (Luntz, 2009, p. 20). These devices all have the

capability to get social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, this means that utilizing these sites

for political campaigns not only puts you in the voters living room, or office but keeps you with

them everywhere. Not using and monitoring social media could have a large affect o the

campaign, more than we have seen in the past.

Managing campaigns will now mean creating more positions and watching the Internet at

all times to ensure the image of the candidate is not negatively affected. Now not only are polls

and traditional marketing going to be a large part of the average political campaign, but social

media will need take a large amount of the manpower for a campaign. This may actually be a

good thing, where most social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, are free forums and can be

utilized by even the smallest campaign. This can increase the amount of information a

campaign can get out about the candidate without increasing the cost associated with the

campaign. Just keep in mind the person who is in change of social media needs to be someone

who both understands social media and basic communication principles. This means the

teenager of a candidate may not be the best person for the job, instead find a volunteer who has a

greater understanding of these principles.

Social media is an emerging way to communicate with large numbers of people and as

more campaigns and companies move away from traditional marketing tactics and to social

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media the statistics and research will change. The 2010 election will be sure to see new

emerging media for the campaigns to use, the key for any successful campaign will be to utilize

these changes to gain the upper hand in the election. John McCain found this out during the

2008 presidential election where he stated that he did not use email; this made his campaign

sound out of touch and in the age of the Internet (Luntz, 2009, p. 21). Staying up with

technology and understanding your target audience are going to be the keys to victory for any

election.

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Appendix A