My job in the real world revolves around building communities for clients. I identify and help clients join online networks, and the key to success is always identifying a large group of people who are already online who naturally fit with your message.
Reading through Huckabee's statements on his secret weapon being bloggers, I think his campaign is onto something that has flown under the radar.
Quote originally from the Nation
"The greatest secret weapon we have is over 700 dedicated bloggers to get our message out to people," said Huckabee, who credited conservative web activists -- the "RightRoots" -- for catapulting him past better funded establishment candidates. "We don't have the kind of money that other campaigns have," he explained, "a lot of the reason is because of the 700 bloggers out there pounding away on their keyboards and hitting the send button and making magic happen."
I've done some thorough mapping of the political blogosphere, and I can tell you that the 700 bloggers Huckabee is talking about are not all political. Instead, he's tapped into the communities of evangelicals online, that include homeschoolers, religious moms, and social conservatives. Rather than going to political junkies, who often are read by the state's newspapers (like 24thstate.com), Huckabee's campaign turned to people likely to vote for him who are normally non-political, at least in the subject matter of their blogs.
That's a powerful campaign tool. If Huckabee beats the poll numbers, especially in Iowa, I think the social media aspect of blogging will be a big part of it. It could muster thousands of votes for him in vital caucus areas that would go unread by pollsters and pundits.
The next question, is what groups of bloggers can other candidates and the national parties motivate in the coming election year?
Whatup....
Yeah, when Chuck Norris came to town I found myself in a meeting with the web agents of Huckabee crowd.
Posted by: Darin codon | 01/05/2008 at 04:35 PM