Sites to BeholdIL Senate candidate Suzi Schmidt's generic Internet website was plugged by the Herald as a paradigm example of how local politicians are leveraging some of the new media to their advantage ...
Candidates flock to social media to connect, influenceOf course no Internet story is complete without at least mentioning some old Web 2.0 mainstays like eMail-marketing, YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, Flickr, blogs. The Herald delivered, taking a glancing look at how campaign-Schmidt has adapted to these new-media web outlets -- complete with links.
Your LakeCountyEye is nothing if not a skeptic and a procrastinator. Although the Herald story hit the newsstands more than three weeks ago, your LakeCountyEye has just gotten around to calling Herald's bluff and paid a visit this weekend to Suzi Schmidt's Twitter and FaceBook pages.
Campaigns like to keep the voters up-to-date and involved in the election process. Your LakeCountyEye decided to get the skinny from Schmidt's latest Twitter tweet:
Busy getting petition signatures this weekend, Zion Jubilee Days events this weekend include the parade on Monday, Labor Day. See you there.Ah, those were the days, your LakeCountyEye remembers the Zion Jubilee Days quite well. Like it was only yesterday. Back then in aught-nine, you had to catch the ferry to Shelbyville, which is what they called Zion in those days. So your LakeCountyEye tied an onion to our belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say ...
11:00 AM Aug 31st, 2009 from web
... but your LakeCountyEye digresses.
One can tell a candidate by the company they keep, which is where FaceBook comes in. FaceBook was originally an, ahem, social networking site for college students -- but has morphed into a marketing tool for all sorts of endeavors, not the least being political campaigns.Your LakeCountyEye prefers to see the pictures first, and when visiting FaceBook always goes before anything else to the albums. Schmidt's FaceBook page offers a photo album with the name ...
Camapaign [sic] Trailwhere we're invited to ...
Follow Suzi as she campaigns to take back the 31st Senate District!Judging from the album's content, there hasn't been much camapaigning to follow these past 5 months. This pace will no doubt accelerate as we near the November election. There is also a nice, albeit lonesome shout-out from local power broker, Fernando Salazar.
Added about 5 months ago
Schmidt's FaceBook page boasts some 200 friends. A well-rounded collection including the famous and the near-famous as well as sundry others.
A random sampling of Suzi Schmidt's actual FaceBook friends have been culled by your LakeCountyEye ...
 Paul Mitchell is going door-to-door, followed by events this afternoon & evening. Get caught up in the campaign! http://paulfor62.com #tcot #prolife. |
 Joe Walsh Joe Cantafio, lead singer 101st Rock Division, will play our new campaign song Lead the Way on the Geoff Pinkus show Sunday night from 5PM -7PM on AM 560 WIND. Please tune in for Joe Cantafio's interview and listen to our rally call!11 hours ago |
 Aaron Lawlor United States Congress |
 Ed Sullivan knows that when you put down a 67,038 expenditure for computer consultants instead of 670.38 on a campaign finance report that it is time for a break. |
 Angie Wallberg Has anyone got that e-mail where you are supposed to put your name next to your birthday, the intent being a list with someone's birthday for each day of the year? Hello! If I put my name on the list - how are the other nine people the mailer sent it to going to know that I did? 10 sent, each sending to 10 more, then 10 more......there will be a million lists by the end of the year - none of them complete! :)). |
 Bob Wallberg Nothing like bowling with the Grandkids. |
 Larry Falbe |
 Louis G. Atsaves |
 Maria Rodriguez Sharing war stories with fellow mayors at the Lake Zurich Chamber of Commerce awards dinner. Marian Rodriguez I am looking for the following recipes: posole, menudo and green pork tamales. I would love someone to give me the following recipes that are family recipes. I would also take a mole recipe! |
 Milton Jensen Enough playing games Widen Greenbay road from the State line to Sunset. Politics clog highways,. |
 Patrick Carlson I'll never understand how someone be 15 minutes away for 45 minutes... |
 Steve Carlson |
 Mayor Kristina Kovarik Excellent turnout for Coffee with the Mayor this morning at K-Sweets in the WNPL. Thanks K-Sweets for hosting and a very special thank you to all the residents who stopped to talk today. It was really nice to be joined by County Board Commissioner Steve Carlson. I really enjoy hearing from our residents! |
 Pamela Althoff Pamela Althoff |
 Dan Venturi |
 Sherry Ridge Make a will. Personally I recommend trusts, either way the only law firm I personally back is Harter & Schottland, visit www.Gotcourt.com, if they don't have what you need, still call and ask for a referral. I trust only them with my life and my children's and family. Why? They care! They know good people can make bad choices!!! |
 Toby Mussman Smithson We are three weeks into the New Year, are you still maintaining your Healthy lifestyle resolution? |
 Rich Miller |
:((
2 comments:
Good investigative reporting, Eye. Next you can start in on Twitter - all the @'s and #'s are boggling to the unaccustomed eye.
Good point about including links to social networking sites on a candidate's website, though. They're only a plus if you keep the sites up to date - otherwise they make the candidate look hopelessly lame.
David Hoffman, candidate for US Senate, is using Facebook and Twitter extremely effectively. He has the advantage of a large group of young volunteers and campaign staff. Candidates should ask themselves (1) who their target audience is (do their constituents really use Twitter?) and (2) whether they have the commitment, or the staff, to maintain those pages.
Hi Nicki,
My guess is Suzi Schmidt is spending the correct amount of resources on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Which is zero. This sort of media only appeals to the under 30 kids. This is a group that surged to support Obama. However I don't predict a groundswell of under-30s rising in support of Schmidt.
But someone did go to the trouble of getting that Schmidt+newmedia story planted in the Herald. Yet no one did their due diligence. Team-Schmidt never bothered to update their newmedia in 5 months. And the Herald declined to called them on it.
-BB-
Post a Comment