[...] Social Marketing from Democrats and Republicans [...]

[...] Spin Radio (NPR Affiliate) which was joined by KickApp’s Michael Chin. He saw my post on Social Marketing from Democrats and Republicans, which kick started this conversation. Also, McCain has launched a new social network, using [...]

As you noted in an earlier tweet, there aren’t many media in which people donate money to increase marketing…unless you think of political fundraising as being akin to payola, where entities pay to get more exposure for their messages.

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/09/social_news_fracasdigg_puts_fo.html

[...] Social Marketing from Democrats and Republicans Jeremiah takes a look the political + social media landscape. [...]

[...] finally, from Web Strategy, Social Marketing from Democrats and Republicans looks at trends amongs social media users in the parties.  In all cases, Democrats were more [...]

Good thoughts, (as usual). Perhaps we may see activity in the collectors and critic behaviors before they jump right onto the creator.

On the other hand, I’ve had this conversation with several brands who want to change the behavior of their customers to move ‘up the ladder’. I had to tell them, it’s very unlikely, as they are influenced by their peers –not brands (or in this case political parties.

Therefore, you’ll have to factor in their affiliations, expecting them to rise up the ladder isn’t yet a reality that I’ve seen.

[...] the full post – Social Marketing from Democrats and Republicans.@naveed_l [...]

[...] latest blog on the impact of social media  touches a topic that is close to my heart which is does Social [...]

In other words, i’m less interested in why the current social world skews towards one party (i think age is a big factor there) than i am in the idea that this election cycle may alter the social media landscape as we head towards 2009/10.

Point taken. The title of the post: “Social Marketing” implies usage of social media tools, and our social technographics doesn’t include email, im, cell phones or verbal discussions at the coffee shop.

The technographics doesn’t account for the “account for the guy who’s speaking in the 15,000 local American Legion posts? Or 8,000 VFW posts” but you can bet with a sample size of 8 or 15k they’ll be using social media tools –furthering the messages using social tools.

Therefore, we agree, they’re both tied.

It’s quite conceivable that those who are older, (or it could be a Republican thing, or both, I’ve no idea), already have a variety of social networks. Perhaps deeper long standing networks than those that have popped up in the past 5 years or so. Things like Rotary Clubs, Volunteer Fire/Ambulance Squads, PTA’s, etc. I’m not saying these necessarily skew Republican or older. I really don’t know. But they might. (Personally, my more right leaning friends seem to be sending stuff via Email. Which is also harder to counter since whatever those cartoons or claims might be, they’re not public fodder.)

What I am saying is that we in this industry have to take care to understand that just because someone doesn’t have a Facebook page doesn’t mean they’re not engaged in their own social graphs of various sorts. (Again I mention Email. I believe we do know that younger may be abandoning Email a bit for FunWalls and IM and such. But their parents still use Email plenty.) I fully realize your original question likely intended to focus online. And that you started with the caveat about your perspective from your own network.

Still, I feel compelled to suggest the offline aspect of social networking because of the underlying reason you seem to be asking in the first place. You said, “Yet frequency isn’t telling, and sentiment is.”

The election isn’t going to be held on Twitter. And I’m not sure there’s a direct mapping of the technographics ladder to propensity to vote. (Though there may be some this time around given given online efforts to activate by Dems probably have been more effective then Republians.)

So, finally, my point is to be very careful of how such data is used. In Josh’s post, he seems to conclude that with Republican’s at 16% “Creator” level, this is a weak showing. Yes, the research has voting propensity results for “Inactives” for whatever snapshot time the polls were taken. But does Social Technographics account for the guy who’s speaking in the 15,000 local American Legion posts? Or 8,000 VFW posts? And so on? There may be a ton of people that have plenty of influence that just doesn’t happen to be along the lines of force this model is looking at.

Thanks, this is interesting,yes I’d love to talk to David All.

My.BarackObama.com grew organically and in many ways its growth closely parallelled its corporate sibling. To the extent that your coverage focuses on social networking, it is no surprise that the political leanings of those involved in the first iteration of social networks so closely mirrors the aspirations and judgments of the Democratic party.

Thoughts of an API are great but miss the mark in terms of how the GOP apparatus works. I’d refer you to David All who is a thought leader for the GOP.