2008 Politics: The year of the Political Web

September 25th, 2007 by Terry Pearson

You probably think I am crazy if you read the title of this article. Right now, I bet you are saying “Of course the subject of politics is online. Just ask John Kerry or Dan Rather what a bunch of bloggers equipped with your dirty secrets can do. Or look how much influence the fascist run move-on.org has on politics.”

But I am referring to the main political candidates and politicians. I recently moved to Inver Grove Heights, MN and I had the hardest time finding out about the local political scene in the area. In fact, my congressional district is different depending on if I look at Congress.org or House.gov. It is strange that it is so hard to find who your representative is.

Politicians are even harder to find. Yes, big name candidates have websites, but even those are sometimes hard to navigate and void of real meaning. But try searching for a candidate’s personal campaign site. It is almost non existent.

Going even further down the line, look for your local BPOU (Basic Political Organization Unit for those of you that don’t speak politic). Type your county followed by a political party and “BPOU” in Google. You will likely find at best an outdated site from a few years ago, announcing that they are excited to start the 2004 campaign season. Usually all the contact info is out of date, and there is no detailed information on party platforms. Worse yet, they do not even say a good way to get involved.

I know there are exceptions (if you know of exceptions to this, post a comment and let me know), but the vast majority of sites are useless. I think that politicians underestimate the power of the web and search engine optimization. Candidates have a great opportunity to sell their ideas to an audience. Candidates also have a powerful recruiting tool.

It is time that candidates and BPOUs realize the power of social networking, forums, blogs, online advertising, and a good website. I believe that websites may play a major role in the 2008 elections. Whoever can capitalize on this market, will likely gain an easy 5 to 10 percentage points in the election.