Legal Marketing & PR

Social Media is Increasingly Important in Political Campaigns

By Timothy Stanley

The world has changed since the last time Jerry Brown was at the helm of the State of California. First elected to statewide office in 1970, Governor Brown is no stranger to campaigning throughout the “Golden State.” One major difference between the campaign that eventually brought him his first tenure as governor and his 2010 campaign was his use of social media.

Since President Barack Obama’s use of social media in his presidential campaign, many other prospective lawmakers have used social media as a way to get their message out to voters. Social media is becoming increasingly important as traditional marketing channels are becoming less effective. Printed newspaper ads, for example, are costly to run and do not reach the same number of people that a Facebook fan profile or Twitter profile have the possibility of reaching. Social media profiles are almost always free to create. However, most candidates have a paid staff member or team that creates, monitors and updates these profiles on behalf of the candidate.

Governor Brown showed his love of social media by placing a profile on all of the major social media websites:

• Governor Brown’s Facebook Profile
• Governor Brown’s Twitter Profile
• Governor Brown’s MySpace Profile
• Brown’s LinkedIn Profile
• Governor Brown’s YouTube Channel

All of the aforementioned profiles were linked from his campaign’s website www.jerrybrown.org and were crucial to promoting himself to Generation X, Y and Z voters. Social Media is definitely in the future of political campaigning. Are politicians in major states able to win elections without social media? What does social media mean for you? Is social media essential for business owners? The trends all point to the fact that social media websites are an essential tool for promoting yourself in the 21st century.

Full post as published by Justia Legal SEO Blog on February 07, 2011 (boomark / email).