VasGk | Κοινωνικό Νερό

Last week I took part at the 6th International Political Marketing Conference, you can read the full abstract of my presentation: Blogger Outreach strategies and New Media Engagement . It was great to talk with fellow political marketers, and academics, and learn a lot from interesting presentations on the topics of political science and marketing. I presented on how political campaigns need to engage with bloggers in creating and running blogger outreach programs to communicate with influential people online. As people in new media understand, the argument of Blogger Vs Journalist was raised. My take is that Bloggers should not be treated as main stream media journalists or reporters. Political campaigns need to target them with new media tools and technologies that have proven to be effective in creating personal links, and valuable in gaining trust from online communities. The campaign should be able to provide bloggers with relevant insightful and bundled information, in order ...

The upcoming election campaigns in the States, are probably going into full mode next week, and the Republicans have launched their new campaign bus along with http://www.firenancypelosi.com/ A cool move by the GOP in energizing grassroots campaigners in every bus stop. So where is the bus now? well have a look: Also watch RNC Chairman, Michael Steele talking about the bus tour... you know it's ON! What are the democrats up to? well, they have launched a new http://www.democrats.org  website and re-branded with the new "D" logo. I find the new website much more clean than the old one, but maybe thats because they kept a lot of white space. Anyhow, you can learn more about the new democratic branding changes reading "Democrats, the Brand" Let me also comment on the vast number of email coming from " Organizing for America ", I definetly receive around one per day, maybe more. In the latest one today, the Obama campaign is offering "canvas...

I know... I have not posted anything for a while know, but here I go again. I was really impressed by this recent interview of Robert Gibbs on Fox News. My comment on the liberal viewer facebook page was: she was actually right... anyway, gibbs fouled on asking a question to the presenter, he should have expected that answer, he was obviously intimidated. And Yes, she was aggressive, but what else would you expect? soft ball responses? I have to say that I enjoyed the exchange.

Barack Obama was the second person to reach 10 million facebook likes, after Lady Gaga . Facebook for sure plays a distinctive role in online communications, and politicians in particular seem to be very fond of how facebook helps them connect, talk and get feedback. W hen  politicians become part of someones daily news feed, they connect in ways that are yet to be determined as to how they can shape future relationships and influence voting  behavior.  When people spend time in providing feedback, or channel political messages to friends, they need to be acknowledged for that.  facebook provides an intimate online technology platform that drives interactions in being more personal.  I can understand that engaging in dialogue can be time consuming, but politicians, in trying to help their constituents, need to get personal and provide useful information, just like other "facebook friends". Last year nobody knew Lady Gaga, she did however passed the 10 millio...

Yesterday I saw these updates on facebook, they were identical, both from Barack Obama and the Democratic Party . They directed to a website, part of the 2010 get out the vote web campaign to " Add your name as a strong supporter of comprehensive energy and climate reform" I would argue that this can be quite excessive use of Internet campaigning from both these accounts to communicate one message. BUT that does not matter. Internet campaigns don't matter, raising money in running for office don't matter. Votes Matter. This is what Alvin Greene said, the 2010 Democratic Nominee for Senate in South Carolina. Alvin Greene is an unemployed Army veteran who had been completely unknown until becoming the state’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. Who can disagree with "Votes Matter". Alvin does not have a website and does not have any presence on social media. So, Who’s Alvin Greene? Alvin is running against Jim DeMint, a United States...

Browsing facebook, I came across an update from Barack Obama : We have a choice as a nation. We can return to the failed economic policies of the past, or we can keep building a stronger future. We can go backward, or we can keep moving forward. I want to move forward, and I think America wants to as well. These remarks were made during a speech at Carnegie Mellon University concerning the Economy, on June 02, 2010. It is astonishing that a forward looking politician like Obama, will end up using a cliché pseudo-dilemma as a campaign message. I suppose that with the 2010 mid-term elections coming up, partisan politics will start to re-appear in political speeches. In a recent article on Politico " Obama must match rhetoric, reality " Danielle Pletka, who served on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and is vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, argues that: It doesn’t matter what the president and his...

6th International Political Marketing Conference Thesalloniki, Greece  Title: Blogger Outreach strategies and New Media Engagement Credit:  OSCE/Mirvete Mustafa Abstract Building an online presence and actively engaging with Bloggers, and key online communication stakeholders, can provide valuable assets to a political campaign. A cohesive online political Marketing plan needs to include a Blogger outreach strategy in order to engage with online communities, actively have part in online discussions and shape an Internet political communication campaign. Integrating Blog communications to a public relations plan helps promote a candidate and spread the campaign message to the Internet, while utilizing two-way communication bonds with online communities.  The research shows that Bloggers should not be treated as main stream media journalists or reporters; the political campaign needs to target them with new media tools and technologies that are ha...