John Edwards and New Media
Today John Edwards announced his candidacy for President. My posting about it certainly shouldn’t be news to you. As one might expect, it’s been on every major news outlet starting with the morning shows. However, one thing that I did find interesting is Edward’s reaching out to internet culture. Long before the morning shows aired the announcement, Rocketboom was invited to New Orleans to shoot the announcement of the announcement for You Tube. Additionally, Robert Scoble was approached to follow Edwards around the country for the next few days to cover his trip from a blogger’s perspective.
What’s my point? Well, certainly no other presidential candidate has used grassroots new media this way before. Will it make a difference in Edwards bid for 2008? It’s certainly no secret that he been podcasting for many months, but will all that give him a leg up with the tech-savvy crowd?
What do you think?
December 29th, 2006 at 10:26 am
I think it most certainly will give him a leg up and will also cast a shining light on the democratic party illuminating the fact that not only is one of their own using a fresh perspective when it comes to campaigning, but also that they know more about the internet than it being where you can use “The Google.” What’s also innovative to his approach is that he is getting his message out to millions of voters at a reduced cost. Think about it.
According to the Nielsen ratings, ~69% of Americans have internet access. The Nielsen ratings also report that YouTube has nearly 20M unique users per month. You don’t have to be a math genius or a statistician to see that he is reaching out to a new audience and getting to quite a few of them.
I like his slogan, too: “Tomorrow begins today.” There is no time like the present to start making positive changes for both our country and the planet.
December 29th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Couldn’t agree more Kelly.
-S
December 30th, 2006 at 3:38 am
Thank you for your wishes
I wish you actually the same 
I have nothing to add 
Have fun at New Years eve
January 2nd, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Speaking of ‘The Google’ poor guy, when you type in his name, all this info on a psychic comes up as the first two results. How unfortunate. Oh well, at least it’ll keep George confused for a while
On a serious note, he and his team are a clever bunch, this is going to reach millions in a non-invasive manner. Also nice to hear someone simply talking about what they are hoping to achieve and not directly attacking someone else.