Republican Debate in South Carolina & How the Presidential Candidates Promote it Online
The Republican Debate in South Carolina was held last evening (1/10/08), and by some of the candidates websites, you'd never event know they participated in one. I know, presidential debates can be one of the most boring things you can watch. Sometimes watching Rocky for the 50th time seems more enticing to me. But, by a sort of odd happening I tuned in last night, and I got intrigued, not really by the debate itself, although parts were rather interesting and funny.
Twitter, my friends, can lead you on trips down roads you wouldn't think you could go on. That was me last night. I'm following all the candidates that have Twitter and use it. Right now, Barack Obama and Fred Thompson are the two most active Twitters. Last night I get a tweet from Thompson's campaign, that they are live blogging the debate. I thought to myself - "WOW, now that's a change!" So I went off to investigate.
Sure enough there was actual live blogging that was going on. It was even more live than what we see for Search Industry conferences, there were times in the post and what was happening. It was actually pretty intriguing. But what it aimed to do, it did - it got me to turn on the TV and watch the rest of the debate. It got me interested because of what they were posting about what Fred was saying in the debate.
This wasn't about whether or not I support him as a candidate for President in 2008 - it was more about aiming to get people to the blog, then to give them a reason to turn on and watch Fred's performance. It worked, and I have to say the guy made me chuckle, but it also made me listen to what he was saying.
After the debate was over I went around to the other candidate's blogs who participated in the debate. By some of their blogs, you'd wonder if they even participated. By some of their sites, they seemed to treat the debate as a blip on the screen. So lets take a quick look at each of these.
Republican Presidential Candidate Promoting The South Carolina Debate
Rudy Giuliani
During the debate and before the debate, nothing was on his blog about
his participation in the Republican Debate in South Carolina. It
wasn't until after he appeared on Hannity & Colmes after the debate
did something go up. A YouTube video was posted of his appearance
there. Later a post clarifying his stance on the surge in Iraq
appeared, I believe this was to counter John McCain's claim of being
the only candidate to come out in support of the surge. Giuliani's main site has a link to the multi-media center which also features the YouTube video of him on Hannity & Colmes.
Ron Paul
Now you would really think this candidate, with all his internet fame,
would be using his blog and video channel to promote his appearance in
the South Carolina Republican debate after being locked out of the New
Hampshire one. Nope. As of this morning there's nothing on the blog
about the debate either before or after it. The only inkling that he
was participating was a small "upcoming event" announcement on his front page. I was hoping for some video in his "Video Channel" section, but there's nothing there yet.
Mitt Romney
This guy has got millions in the bank for his campaign, you would think
he might spend a little on it promoting his appearances at the
debates. He's got 5 sons, who help run his blog, at least one of them
was there to write about it right? Unfortunately not the case this
time. The only mention of his appearance in the Republican debate
in South Carolina was in the Flash piece that scrolls by on the front
page, which you all know can't be accessed by the spiders (from my knowledge they aren't using Adobe's SDK).
John McCain
His blog announces the Republican Presidential debate in South Carolina, but that's it (but hey there are now using that Tag feature I mentioned in his review that they weren't using before). There's nothing about it being displayed on the front page of McCain's site,
and I'm not finding any videos of his appearance either. Not even a
clip from his appearance on Hannity & Colmes either, and he was
pretty funny, too, calling Colmes a "bum" and reminding the two hosts
he use to call them both "homeless bums". It'd be nice to see that
humor side of John McCain displayed on his site.
Mike Huckabee
Huckabee has got promotion of his appearance in the South Carolina Republican debate front and center on the main page of this site.
The promotion leads you right into the blog post which features photos
of the event. That's a nice way to promote it, but no videos of his
performance. There are links in the blog post that lead the visitor to
other parts of the site where he has his stand on some of the issues,
but nothing in the way of video clips from his performance on the
debate.
Fred Thompson
I saved him for last, because out of all of these other candidates,
they guy's campaign team really stepped it up to promote his
performance in the debate. They used Twitter to say "hey come look",
then they used live blogging to get people to turn on their TV. Now
they are using a ton of video clips from the debate and the reactions
of the focus groups to really show what Fred Thompson did in the
Republican debate in South Carolina last night. That's even beyond the
live blogging they did.
The front page of the website has a nice "Welcome" piece for those seeing the debate and wanting to learn more, it links into the blog. The only thing missing here? Put one of those videos on the front page of the site. The man's humor can be quite endearing, and people like to see some of that in a candidate.
The clear winner in promoting his appearance in the South Carolina Republican Debate last night on the internet is Fred Thompson. Kudos to his blogging team, you did a heck of a job, you got me to turn on my TV to watch something I'd normally consider more boring than wet paint drying.
Interested in seeing the other reviews done by Search Marketing Gurus? Check out the online marketing strategy reviews for Republicans John McCain, Ron Paul, Fred Thompson & Duncan Hunter, and Democrats Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich.
John McCain is our next Commander in Chief! 2008
When the British soldiers were shooting at us George Washington as a Commander in Chief was always on the Battle Front, on the line of fire, bullets were flying near his head, the sound of Cannons going off and dead soldiers all over the field.
A brave man George Washington was.
So John McCain will be our Commander in Chief in 2008 because in this Video he says how he will lead the troops.
Note From Li Evans, owner of SMG:
Link to video and remaining text has been edited out - as this comment really has nothing to do with the online marketing strategies of John McCain the Candidate.
Posted by: Roger | January 11, 2008 at 11:07 AM
OK Roger - let me put this to you this way, and I'm only letting your comment come through as an example of the type of comments not to leave here.
This isn't a blog for or against any candidate, so from here on out, please refrain from comments like this, they won't be posted - or they'll be severely edited.
This blog is just merely reviewing the online marketing strategies of the candidates. You comment, honestly doesn't contribute to that type of conversation, and thus i'm editing out the link in your comment
Posted by: Li Evans | January 11, 2008 at 01:14 PM
It's fascinating to see the general lack of social media the candidates have been using. They are afraid of losing control, I believe. This is going to evolve, and I can't wait to see how election-based social media changes over the next year.
Posted by: Geoff Livingston | January 11, 2008 at 03:46 PM