John Edwards and Peanut Butter

Posted on March 31st, 2007
By Todd Zeigler in Politics, Social Networks, Web 2.0

Jose Antonio Vargas from the Post has a good article up about the John Edwards campaign’s presence on a mind numbing 24 social networking sites. The experts quoted in the article are all complimentary of Edwards’ efforts in the social media space. I think the story is missing one thing: a strong statement of dissent.

So let me repeat that I think 24 is way too many sites for a campaign to maintain a presence on. I don’t think it is good strategy.

The whole thing takes me back to the peanut butter mainifesto written by Yahoo’s Brad Garlinghouse in response to his own company’s meandering stategy.

I’ve heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular.

I hate peanut butter. We all should.

Yup.

Trackbacks/Pings

Comments

Benny

April 1st, 2007 at 2:32 am

I wouldn’t call Ruffini’s post exactly objective, would you, Todd? Not only has he worked for Rudy, he’s worked for McCain blogging under his own name and not giving full disclosure either.

And, you might just go check out Edwards’ numbers on the ActBlue fundraising page or for easy reading, Jerome Armstrong’s piece. Yes, Armstrong is a Dem, but he doesn’t have a dog in the hunt at the moment. There’s a strategy behind 24 networking sites, albeit, I agree it would be a big challenge to keep them up, including a twitter account.

Edwards has said more than once, and perhaps you haven’t been around to hear it, that his campaign would be grassroots, which includes the netroots–from the ground up.
Todd Zeigler

April 1st, 2007 at 12:45 pm

Benny,

I think Edwards is doing a lot of great things online. I just don’t think deciding to have a presence on 24 sites is one of them.

Also, Ruffini works for Rudy but I think you are confusing him with someone else on the McCain thing. He’s since praised Edwards for improving his site:

http://www.patrickruffini.com/.....s-do-over/
Benny

April 5th, 2007 at 8:03 pm

My bad, Todd. It was Patrick Hynes I was thinking of.

2008
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul

2007
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

2006
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

2005
Jan	Feb	Apr	May	Jun	Jul
Aug	Sep	Nov	Dec

2004
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Nov	Dec