SOCIAL MEDIA: The New Grass Roots.

Once upon a time in politics, grass roots efforts were limited to door-to-door campaigning — just like once upon a time in marketing, there existed the door-to-door salesperson. But politics, like marketing, has changed (many would substitute the word merged) — and in 2008, more than ever, presidential candidates have been setting precedence for how to target younger audiences through new social media including blogs, text messaging, video and social networking.

During his brief campaign, Mitt Romney effectively used his blog to get news out and react to other bloggers. John Edwards used his Flickr photo-sharing site to provide an inside glimpse of the business of campaigning. And Ron Paul had a streaming-video site where his team could broadcast live events.

Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each had their own effective methods of communicating with their constituents. Clinton utilized Facebook to interact with her constituents, whereas Barack Obama had (and continues to have) what is likely the most sophisticated and interactive web marketing and social media campaign in history — a highly integrated marketing effort including e-marketing, webcasts, an online community and even a ranker that tracks an individual's "point total" relative to financial and social support. At the same time, John McCain slugs it out with similar web marketing, support and recruitment tools, and even has a "follow Cindy's travels" page to brand and market the would-be First Lady. In addition, each campaign employs tools such as Google Blog Search or other news sites such as memeorandum.com to track what bloggers and journalists are saying about them.

If social media tools are now a critical way to reach and market to the American people, how can you use them to reach and market to your people? NOISE can help.

Source: PR Week, NOISE
Reported by: Lori Sansoucie