Politics, Social Networks
Apr 19, 2007
Todd Zeigler
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And so it continues…

The “Are Republicans Behind Online?” conversation produced another handful of posts today. David All started things back up with a column in the Politico. Mike Turk weighed in and then weighed in again with the thinking behind shutting down the RNC’s Team Leader program (which I helped build). Patrick Ruffini put in his two cents as did James Joyner (who coincidentally I watched on a panel today in LA.)

I think this topic is pretty well surrounded but have one miniscule point to make.

I don’t think social networking works at the national committee level.

The DNC’s Party Builder social networking platform uses the same software as Barack Obama’s successful My Barack Obama program. The RNC’s My GOP program has much more limited functionality and doesn’t allow users to create their own content on GOP.com.

Here is a graph from Compete.com that shows trends in traffic to Democrats.org and GOP.com.

Shouldn’t the DNC site be way ahead of the RNC given that they have the more open social networking tool? Shouldn’t all that user generated content/networking be driving tons of traffic? I have no doubt Party Builder has been a moderate success but it certainly hasn’t been a game changer. The tool has been much more successful on the Obama site. Why?

I just don’t think people want to socialize all that much on a Committee site. The largely negative content produced by both the RNC and DNC just doesn’t create a vibe where you want to kick up your heels and hang out. Right tool, wrong venue. With benefit of hindsight, I think this stuff works better if employed by individual candidates and/or activists with passionate voices.

What do you think?

  • http://www.kungfuquip.com Turk

    I think this speaks to Patrick’s point which is they could be more successful if they changed their approach to content – make the content more engaging and less like a press release.

    We had talked about doing exactly what Townhall did – attracting a large stable of contributing authors to write better and more interesting content. Obviously the concern is what the impact would be on a party if one of your contributing editors made an Ann Coulter comment.

  • http://www.kungfuquip.com Turk

    I think this speaks to Patrick’s point which is they could be more successful if they changed their approach to content – make the content more engaging and less like a press release.

    We had talked about doing exactly what Townhall did – attracting a large stable of contributing authors to write better and more interesting content. Obviously the concern is what the impact would be on a party if one of your contributing editors made an Ann Coulter comment.

  • http://www.davidallgroup.com/2007/04/18/republicans-must-bridge-the-great-partisan-digital-divide/ the david all group | Blog Archive » Republicans MUST bridge the great partisan digital divide… [UPDATE]:: websites, online marketing, political strategy, republican

    [...] UPDATE April 19; 8:02 AM: More responses floating in worth a read: Turk jumps back in with further thoughts. Todd Zeigler has some thoughts. Patrick Ruffini’s advice: if you want Web 2.0 – start acting like a Web 2.0 company – build it, grow it, prove it. Only then will the Party listen. [...]

  • http://www.bivingsreport.com Todd Zeigler

    Unless the new content fundamentally changed the way people view the brand (RNC and DNC), I’m not sure it would have worked. I guess we’ll never know.

  • http://www.bivingsreport.com Todd Zeigler

    Unless the new content fundamentally changed the way people view the brand (RNC and DNC), I’m not sure it would have worked. I guess we’ll never know.

  • http://blogcampaigning.wordpress.com/2007/04/19/republicans-still-operate-in-a-world-of-web-05/ Republicans still operate in a world of Web 0.5. « Blog Campaigning

    [...] Todd Zeigler offers an excellent contribution to the conversation over at The Bivings Report. Well worth a read! [...]

  • http://blogcampaigning.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/lots-of-interesting-stuff-to-report-today/ Lots of interesting stuff to report today « Blog Campaigning

    [...] Todd Zeigler of the Bivings Report joins the discussion about who is doing best online – Dem vs. Rep? And he does have some very useful opinions! [...]

  • http://www.davidallgroup.com/2007/04/25/that-buzzing-noise-thats-majorityapcom/ the david all group | Blog Archive » That buzzing noise? That’s MajorityAP.com:: websites, online marketing, political strategy, republican

    [...] As we have noted a few times recently here on The Bivings Report, the Democrats have dominated the Internet and that Republicans should counter their digital presence. Interestingly, that’s a major motivation for Brady and Giuliani to launch The Majority Accountability Project. In a press release on David All’s blog (and during their YouTube video site introduction), Brady explains that: [...]

  • http://www.davidallgroup.com/2006/12/13/the-buzz/ the david all group | Blog Archive » The Buzz:: websites, online marketing, political strategy, republican

    [...] As we have noted a few times recently here on The Bivings Report, the Democrats have dominated the Internet and that Republicans should counter their digital presence. Interestingly, that’s a major motivation for Brady and Giuliani to launch The Majority Accountability Project. In a press release on David All’s blog (and during their YouTube video site introduction), Brady explains that: [...]

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