A little over a month ago, Republican Scott Brown pulled off one of the biggest political upsets in recent history, overcoming a 30+ point deficit to win the vacated seat of Ted Kennedy in a special election in a heavily Democratic state. One month prior to that, virtually no one had heard of him.
Much has been written about what happened in that month, and at some level it’s safe to say that Brown’s campaign embracing the digital space above and beyond the traditional political campaign played a major role in his success. But what is up for debate is whether or not his tactics should have other campaigns rushing to imitate. After all, there’s only so many hours in the day, and so many days in the week.
If every election had similar conditions to the one between Scott Brown & Martha Coakley, the answer would be pretty straightforward: candidates should be investing heavily in social media, leveraging rapid, cost-effective platforms for interacting with broad bases of support.
But the Scott Brown election was special, and while other elections might share some similarities, the following conditions combined into the perfect storm for Scott Brown’s digital revolution:
The Digital Tea Party
Tags: Campaign Effectiveness, Social Media
A little over a month ago, Republican Scott Brown pulled off one of the biggest political upsets in recent history, overcoming a 30+ point deficit to win the vacated seat of Ted Kennedy in a special election in a heavily Democratic state. One month prior to that, virtually no one had heard of him.
Much has been written about what happened in that month, and at some level it’s safe to say that Brown’s campaign embracing the digital space above and beyond the traditional political campaign played a major role in his success. But what is up for debate is whether or not his tactics should have other campaigns rushing to imitate. After all, there’s only so many hours in the day, and so many days in the week.
But the Scott Brown election was special, and while other elections might share some similarities, the following conditions combined into the perfect storm for Scott Brown’s digital revolution:
Continue reading ‘The Digital Tea Party’