The Internet’s Role in Political Campaigns

[...] A new report on the role of the internet in political campaigns has been released.  The focus is on the 2006 cycle.  Here is the blog post that introduces the study: We recently completed a study that assesses the utilization of the Internet as a tool for 2006 political campaigns. The study, a follow-up of the 2002 version, examined how 2006 senatorial candidates used the Web to publicize information about their campaign platforms, personal backgrounds, and volunteer opportunities. We looked at a number of Web campaign tools and made comparisons based on party affiliations, importance of particular races, and whether candidates were incumbents or challengers. [...]

[...] Un estudio recientemente publicado sobre los usos que hacen de internet los políticos en estados unidos muestran datos interesantes : – EL 96% tienen web sites acitvos – 23% poseen un blog – 5% mantienen un podcast – 18% ofrece feeds RSS ( Siendo los democratas con 25% el partido que mas ofrece feeds) [...]

[...] A new study from communications consultant The Bivings Group faults political campaigns for failing to adopt the latest web technologies as campaign tools. The group studied 2006 Senate candidates and found that while all but one had a website, only 23 percent maintained campaign blogs and 5 percent had podcasts. The report also finds few campaigns using social tools like user organized fundraising campaigns and house parties. [...]

LOTD: May 25…

I’m not really a fan of lists of links, as I’d rather actually say something with blog postings, but given my slackeritude on this blog here and there, I think it’s best if I at least share all the things……

[...] The Internet’s Role in Political Campaigns » The Bivings Report A study that assesses the utilization of the Internet as a tool for 2006 political campaigns. Blogs, podcasts and RSS are all covered. (tags: rss blogs politics stats research) [...]

Thinking Social Media and Politics…

With all due respect to my colleagues who practice government relations, political parties seldom……

The Internet’s Role in Political Campaigns � The Bivings Report…

The Internet’s Role in Political Campaigns
Posted on May 24th, 2006
By Erin Teeling in Other, Bivings, Technology, Politics, Tools, Website review

We recently completed a study that assesses the…

[...] Many of the candidates’ blogs were well-maintained and sophisticated.  However, it was disappointing to find that interactive features of the blogs were limited.  With just over half of the blogs publishing user comments, it is questionable whether some candidates blogs can really be considered blogs at all.  This is another example of our main findings from our political campaign study: candidates are still underutilizing Web tools, and many are hesitant to open their campaigns to interactive strategies.  It seems that most candidates are more comfortable with traditional forms of campaigning; the transition to “cyber-campaigns” will indeed be a gradual one. [...]

[...] The Internet’s Role in Political Campaigns » The Bivings Report “We looked at a number of Web campaign tools and made comparisons based on party affiliations, importance of particular races, and whether candidates were incumbents or challengers.” (tags: politics stats research) [...]

[...] After finishing our 2006 study of political web campaigns, we became curious as to how American politicians’ campaign websites compared to those in other countries.  We looked at similar studies conducted in the UK, Germany, Australia, Finland, Hungary, and Sweden, and drew some conclusions: [...]

[...] “An extraordinary study examines how well candidates for Senate are utilizing online technology in the 2006 campaigns.” [...]

[...] The most recent estimates I’ve seen show that only 1% of online households regularly listen to podcasts. And a study we performed recently found that 5% of 2006 Senate candidates are maintaining podcasts on their campaign websites. [...]

[...] Our study on Internet usage by 2006 U.S. Senate campaigns got a nice write up on the excellent PBS MediaShift blog today. The article focuses on the use of tools like blogs and podcasts by the campaigns. It’s a good read. [...]

Blogs …

WashingtonPeople often accuse those of us who live “inside the Beltway” of being an insulated group of policy wonks. While it’s true that you could spend a lifetime going to policy briefings in Washington, there are in fact more than…

[...] I exchanged a few emails with Mark Glaser from Mediashift a while back when he put together a story on our campaign study. One of the questions he asked is how I advise candidates and campaigns who are thinking about blogging. It’s a question I’m asked pretty often and something I address in the pitches I put together. So here is my somewhat convoluted answer. [...]

[...] Yesterday, the Herald Tribune out of Florida published an article on the use of blogs and podcasts by FL gubernatorial candidates. I was interviewed (me, me, me) for the article and it includes a mention of our study on the use of the Internet by 2006 Senate candidates.  [...]

[...] For the tens of people that are interested, we put together a podcast about the findings of our recent campaign study.  In the podcast, Ajit Verghese interviews myself and Erin Teeling (who actually wrote the thing) about how 2006 Senate campaigns are using the Internet.  We talk about which sites are good/bad, how candidates are using blogs and pocasts and what we expect to see from political campaigns in the future, among other things. [...]

[...] After the success of our recent study, The Internet’s Role in Political Campaigns, we decided to perform a study on America’s newspapers. [...]

[...] Erin had a little free time today so we decided to build on our campaign study and do some quick research to see which US Senate candidates had the most popular websites.   Please note that the site rank and reach per million data included in the table below is taken from Alexa.  We included the blog column based on our own research. [...]

[...] From the Bivings report: The Internet’s Role in Political Campaigns We recently completed a study that assesses the utilization of the Internet as a tool for 2006 political campaigns. The study, a follow-up of the 2002 version, examined how 2006 senatorial candidates used the Web to publicize information about their campaign platforms, personal backgrounds, and volunteer opportunities. We looked at a number of Web campaign tools and made comparisons based on party affiliations, importance of particular races, and whether candidates were incumbents or challengers. The results clearly showed that while Web use by political candidates increased dramatically since 2002, politicians are still failing to take advantage of all the Internet has to offer. Ninety six percent of this year’s Senate candidates have active websites, while only 55 percent of candidates had websites in 2002. While most candidates use a set of core Web tools, the majority of candidates are refraining from using newer and more sophisticated Web strategies, such as blogs and podcasts, on their campaign websites. Only 23 percent of Senate candidates are blogging, just 15 percent offer Spanish alternatives to their websites, and an even smaller number of candidates, 5 percent, maintain podcasts. In contrast, between 90 percent and 93 percent of candidates offered biographies, contact information, and online donations on their websites. It is obvious from these results that despite a general increase in the use of the Internet for political campaigns, candidates are still hesitant to pour finite financial resources into new campaign strategies. [...]

[...] Erin Telling of the Bivings Report has followed the Senate race closely and is surprised by the results. [...]

[...] All of this information ties in with our research about political campaign sites and blogs (here, here, and here), which we found were generally of poor quality and failed to reach the general public on a personal level. [...]

[...] Regardless, the result is what you would expect.  Scoble, who appears a bit intoxicated by the experience, has compared Edwards to JFK and is writing enthusiastically about how technology is changing politics (a subject many have been writing about for years).  I think the coverage would be quite different if InstaPundit or DailyKos were on that plane.  [...]

[...] Today we added a new section to our corporate website called The Lab.  Over the last year we’ve completed a number of studies and written a number of articles about topics we’re interested in.  The Internet’s Role in Political Campaigns.  How newspapers and magazines are using the Internet.  Stuff like that. [...]

[...] To answer this question, I decided to take a close look at 12 websites: these site belong to politicians who have officially announced their 2008 candidacy or who have formed presidential exploratory committees.  I conducted the survey much the same way as I did our original campaign study, altering the criteria somewhat and keeping in mind that many of these sites are probably placeholders for future content and are not yet fully populated. [...]

Great site! Are you updating this information for the 2008 Campaign which is already underway?

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[...] Sia la Casaleggio che la Bivings trattano accuratamente anche studi sull’influenza di siti politici sulla massa degli [...]

[...] Since our 2006 report on the quality and content of campaign websites, we have seen a marked improvement across the board in sites that incorporate multimedia content, personal fundraising, the Spanish language, and of course, candidate presences on social networking websites. With the 2010 midterm elections just a week away, one would assume that given the wide praise and success of  President Obama’s 2008 campaign website and social media presence, that senior members of his own party in tough campaigns would be the most adept at online communications and social media. [...]

[...] 3. As we noted in our 2006 report- challengers, regardless of party affiliation are still the most adept at using new and emerging web tools. While the Democrat’s strength on Facebook in these specific races might be the exceptions that prove the rule, overall when you compare the national party committees candidates, the GOP is proving to be the most versatile producer of social media in 2010. [...]