Political races not taking advantage of YouTube
Steve Safran October 24th, 2006
YouTube is the most powerful means of sharing video yet created. It also has a great demographic, and is an easy way of getting out a grassroots message. So lots of politicians are taking advantage of it for next month’s election, right? Nope. Reel Pop’s Steve Bryant did a little YouTube digging and found a woeful lack of interesting campaign-contributed video. The official ones that are there are boring TV ads. The most successful official one seems to be - no surprise - a funny one for the Ned Lamont campaign. Steve also has some good practical advice: if you don’t control your keywords, your opponent will - and will use that against you. How are candidates missing out on this obvious - and free - opportunity to reach young voters? The days of spending jillions on wasted TV time are ending. Put a real, human message on YouTube and let your passionate supporters help spread it.
5 Comments Add your own
1. dancannel | October 24th, 2006 at 9:19 am
HA! They are in Ohio. We are having a big problem with our footage being used in campaign ads. At the grassroots level there are several campaigns with posting on YouTube. The views are not high but they usually get media coverage.
2. Tarheel95 | October 24th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
Vernon Robinson, a congressional candidate in the 13th District (NC), has posted numerous YouTube videos targeting opponent Brad Miller. Search for him on YouTube and you’ll see what I mean. They’re humorous spots — and some of them might even be true.
3. flotsam | October 25th, 2006 at 5:21 am
Perhaps candidates recognize there are potential ethical problems with youtube and are shying away for those reasons.
The level of law suit associated with the system now may seem daunting to candidates who don’t need another problem at this point in a campaign.
Think about it as a campaign manager.
4. Megan | November 7th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
i like your site
5. tx | January 18th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Wow, thanks for the excellent information!
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