Nominations now open for best use of Web 2.0 this campaign
By JR Hoeft | Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 | MultimediaAnd the Election 2009 Best Web 2.0 nominees are…
Bearing Drift is pleased to announce the first annual “Berries” – an award to Republican candidates for the best use of blogs, videos and social media during their campaign.
Top prize in each category will be a “Berry” button for each winner’s site, as well as a selection from the Bearing Drift store for the new media coordinator (if one does not exist…the closest person to it).
But first things first, nominees are now being accepted through Oct. 27 and then we will vote on the winner in each category.
Please nominate for (and include the link)…
- Best overall new media campaign
- Best campaign blog
- Best use of social networking
- Top Video
All campaigns and committees are included, except Bob McDonnell’s. The gubernatorial campaign is in a league of its own.
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About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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17 Responses to "Nominations now open for best use of Web 2.0 this campaign"
My votes:
Best overall: Terry McAuliffe for Governor
Best campaign blog: Creigh Deeds’ “Virginia Politics” hosted by the WaPo.
Best use of social media: (no winner — not blown away by anyone)
Top video: Republican Party of Virginia’s “Young Lady!” Video
Frankly, no one really hit it out of the box for new media outreach. If I had to start grading (and I will) I’d be handing out a bunch of C’s and force the class to retake the test.
Unfortunately… that also means that the half-assed attempts most campaigns made at new media had little outcome on the real election… which is a shame because so many of them looked serious — they just never really engaged.
Shaun beat me to it. Best new media thingie overall: the RPV “young lady” video. Other RPV YouTubes were also good.
http://www.youtube.com/user/VAGOPTV#p/u/9/vE6d36a2gso
Runner-up: the Women for McDonnell effort, which has emailed me timely and pertinent info – links to things, schedules, invites, etc. http://action.bobmcdonnell.com/group/womenformcdonnell
Part of the story about the universally semi-lame use of new media by campaigns is that in a general election candidates must employ message discipline, which new media venues aren’t exactly famous for. I think video will continue to be more used and more effective than text-based things, for that reason. A well-crafted video delivers a message much more strongly than a candidate’s or surrogate’s argument (on a blog or Facebook) with some thread ninny.
The RPV’s “Dirty Deeds” video was awesome, so that video deserves the top video.
In terms of best use of social media, I have to agree with both Shaun, as no particular campaign has provided the wow factor when it comes to utilizing social networking.
Best campaign blog: VA GOP Caucus Blog (vagopcaucus.blogspot.com)
Best overall: In terms of outreach to Northern Virginia bloggers, Jim LeMunyon’s campaign has been doing stellar reaching out. In a bipartisan matter though, I will have to agree with Shaun on Terry McAuliffe’s campaign having a great new media campaign.
Best use of social networking – (O.P. Ditch) RPV Network http://www.rpvnetwork.org/
Top Video – (RPV) Deeds Post Endorsement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srpt3wMspfQ
Here are my nominations:
Best overall new media campaign: Rich Anderson for Delegate http://rich4delegate.com
He’s done some great web videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bNQh20wwE4 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIk4gcTqWEs) that weren’t just television commercials repackaged for the web, and the first HOD candidate this year to do that. Some other candidates shot specific web video, but they’re mostly dry interview footage. These are a lot more interesting.
Top Video
I’m going to nominate a few here, since this year had some real interesting stuff, especially from the HOD races which previously hadn’t really done this at all:
Aaron Ringel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wNDUNxsuts
Rich Anderson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIk4gcTqWEs
James Morefield: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17Bx1gekhdA (even though this is really a TV commercial put on the web)
and lastly, the video I shot of the Attorney General debate that has gone viral. I can nominate my own work, can’t I?
If Greg can’t nominate his own stuff, I will nominate it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQj6FavCF2I
The videos were the only things that really stands out this year social media wise from the campaigns.
That said I would also like to nominate Ken Cuccinelli for best use of social media.
His personal use of fb and twitter have made them very enjoyable pages to follow. A number of people have commented about that to me this year.
The other nomination for that category is for Jon Jackson of the Tag Greason campaign. Everyone in Loudon can attest to his agressive use of fb to promote events and recruit volunteers.
I would second the motion for Cuccienlli, is personal use of facebook is in stark contrast to nearly every other candidate statewide who has an aid plaster up polls and various useless generic information. Its part of his charm and why he’s doing so well.
Best campaign blog: Blog Roanoke Valley Republicans
http://www.roanokevalleyrepublicans.blogspot.com/
This blog hosted by the Roanoke City and Salem Republican Committee Chairmen, Adam Boitnott, and Greg Habeeb.
Blog was started last year as a way to increase communication between and provide a link to join the Republican Voices of the Valley by using blogging and social media tools. Adam and Greg, have been very successful. They have “dusted up” the conversations about local HOD delegates other adjoining HOD races and of course our state races. Very informative, combines Twitter, blogging and politics for a real time updating.
Crystal, what’s so great about the VA GOP Caucus blog?
I agree Republicans have done a solid job online this year, but the caucus blog is rarely updated, usually focuses on the gubernatorial race, and more often than not is rife with spelling and grammatical errors.
On top of that, it doesn’t even seem to know if it’s official or unofficial. Very strange.
I checked yesterday and it was updated. I would also like to throw in the nomination for Project Virginia and their work with getting the House candidates to get involved with new media.
The “Creigh Deeds endorsed by the WAPO” ad (from the RPV) is the best video.
For best use of social media, I second RPV network: http://www.rpvnetwork.org/
For best campaign blog (really micro-blog, but it’s the best), I second Ken Cuccinelli for his Twitter feed – I think the balance of frequency, newsiness, humor and calls to action is just right: http://twitter.com/KenCuccinelli
For best overall new media campaign, I don’t think anyone has been that great. The reason is that new media just isn’t that great for down-ballot races yet. Honestly, how many people can be expected to follow multiple candidates on multiple platforms? The answer is, very few – and that’s why the influence of all these platforms is limited.
I’m part of a project to make political information about down-ballot races more accessible to everyday, not-that-obsessed-about-politics voters. Voters can just type in their zip code and see everyone on their ballots, down to the local races. Check it out at http://www.imagineelection.com. The advantage for voters is that they can go to one website to see all their candidates, instead of having to track politicians down all over the place. Sites like Imagine Election, that serve voters first instead of campaigns first, might be the future of online politics for down ballot races.
Summer, I’m just bummed you switched out the Catherine Crabill photo. I think the one with her wearing the tinfoil hat was better.
The tinfoil hat incident was pretty great.
The whole point of Imagine Election is that we put our content out there, and then we fix mistakes fast. No worries, the evidence lives on in the conservative blogosphere!
Best use of Social networking: Ken Cuccinelli. No other candidate personally uses social networking like Ken does weather you look higher or lower on the ticket. The personal touch he has been able to put on this campaign especially via social networking has helped him tremendously and it shows in the number of donations he’s had in the last few reporting periods and on and on and on. He’s the grassroots king of VA and he just solidified that title with his use of facebook during this campaign.
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