I've written about politics a couple of times over the last year, most recently in "Political Metrics" and I've noticed the buzz generated by John Edwards candidacy for President has generated in the blogosphere - just looking at the blogs I read. I found it insightful as I wrote a post about Smartmobbing the next US Election last April.
Look at the Buzz John Edwards is getting (it's higher than Hillary Clinton or Barrack Obama) - to me that's an indicator of support; though it's too early in this process to make much of it.
I think it's pretty smart to use YouTube to announce Edwards candidacy - people are using online video now as much as or more than TV; I know that for a fact - and it's all the talk at every conference I attend. The fact of the matter - those people who end up voting in the next election will probably also be computer literate - a lot of them. Why go and spend a ton of money to advertise on TV and Radio when you can do it….more or less…..for FREE on YouTube and other online media. Sure, Edwards will have to spend some money - but he can also target a lot better using online media than TV and Radio broadcasts - or outdoor banner ads (although outdoor ads can be very effective if placed properly).
And measurement of all of this - is where we get the metrics (the one's we really don't have yet…do we?) We don't do good tracking of online media for political campaigns (and there's probably no laws on this yet anyway).
One thing you could look at is the number of RSS Subscribers per candidate's web feeds - that should tell you something (if they even collect that yet). You can reasonably expect that 99% of people subscribed to a candidates web feed are supporters and a good number of them will vote for the candidate where the next election comes along (in 2008 in this case).
Here's what's I have noticed so far about John Edward's Candidacy
Seth Godin calls John Edwards The YouTube President; the idea is the candidate that wins national elections is the one that best masters the newest communications technologies available - like what John Kennedy did against Richard Nixon in 1960.
"….John F. Kennedy was the TV president. The debates got him elected and his newsreel footage lives on. (When was the last time you saw Eisenhower in a video clip?)
That began an era of politics that lasted more than forty years. That's why it costs hundreds of millions of dollars to run for President."
Talk Left also likes the Edwards Candidacy
"…John Edwards is running a different campaign this time around. It's great to see him take such a strong progressive stand:
Edwards said it's not just Iraq that it is chaos and in need of moral leadership from the United States. He said the United States should be leading an end to genocide in Sudan and to atrocities in northern Uganda. He also said the United States should be part of the International Criminal Court, something that Bush has fought against to keep Americans from facing politically motivated prosecutions."
Someone else noted the video had only been viewed 10,000 times but I just looked and as of right now, it's had 58,000+ views. Let's look at the metrics YouTube provides for a minute (BTW, here's something I'd like Google do do a lot more with ….Online Video Metrics).
Views: 54,688 / Comments: 98 / Favored: 58 times / more stats…
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