Trust Me

It wouldn't be a New Media if the internet and World Wide Web worked the same way as every other media. The challenges of campaigning in the New Media should be faced with the understanding that the marketing approach for television/radio is largely incongruent with what is necessary to be successful on the internet.

Seth Godin managed to distill the paradigm shift required for success on the internet in his work Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers. Seth was a little overzealous in predicting the speed and depth of the permission marketing impact, but history will prove his concepts prescient.

Marketers and major corporations are fast catching on to the theory of Trust-Based Marketing, as supported by Glen Urban's extensive research. Campaigns are at their essence a marketing exercise, and future successful campaigns will leverage the lessons of corporate e-marketing.

Campaign internet strategy should take advantage of the interactive tools and behavior available only through the New Media, and should leave the sledgehammer of one-way communication to their television and radio ad buys. Howard Dean's Open Source strategy in 2004 demonstrated the power of Trust-Based Marketing to energize and directly engage the electorate. His and other candidates' use of the internet to maintain and foster a base of support through Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems is another example of corporate e-marketing best practices applied to the political field. (Note to incumbents: A CRM system based on the proprietary data gleaned from your work in office is the strongest present day advantage of incumbency.)

Go to school on the commercial sector. The New Media differs from the Old, and there are plenty of examples of how to use it effectively to spur action, engender loyalty, and better meet the needs of both the candidate and voter.