Social Media and the Presidency: Site evolution, playing games and contrasting messages

Sen. McCain's site has gone through another evolution. It's tighter, even easier to navigate, less cluttered and right to the point. A little "straight talk design" maybe? Notice the emphasis on energy policy?


My earlier post on this shows some of the evolution as the campaign moved from dark to light and made things easier to find. At the same time, they continue to focus on trying to maintain control -- there's the McCain Space (vs. MySpace) and that nifty push to get people to post on blogs and how to do it (I like this). Hard to find the social networks and as I wrote in the earlier post they are still focusing on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook.

I like the evolution. The site packs more power. They've done an excellent job using design, images and text to make their point without making people wade through so much information they don't know where to go.

But...what's really fun is the new game that has been posted on his site. It's called "Pork Invaders". To be honest I'm not sure if McCain is the first to do this (probably not) but what I like here is not just the fact that the game is on the site, but you can grab the code and put it on your site AND you can add it to your Facebook. So now they begin to see how to create synergy between the main site and the social media sites.

Wanna play? (notice how you can "join the team" with one click)






It's like the McCain Campaign has a sense of humor or something. Hmmm....

By the way it was a big fundraising deadline last night (June 30th) and you would certainly know it this morning (July 1) by looking at both candidates blogs:

Obama: Deadline Closing In
by Amanda Scott Monday, June 30, 2008 at 11:43 PM
Remember, the deadline for June fundraising is midnight local time. Help the campaign build our 50 State strategy and bring change to Washington. Every donation counts!

McCain: Posted at 9:43 AM on 6/30/2008 by matt_lira
Travel with John McCain Every person who makes a contribution, of any amount, by midnight tonight will be entered in a drawing to join John McCain on the Straight Talk Express for a day. Click here to participate.

Um...it is the July 1st now folks. Where's the update? Do I ask for too much? It's almost 9:00 a.m. EST Time. Both of these blogs should provide some info. Anyway, just by this much of a posting can you see the contrast in the two campaigns? McCain will let you win a ride with him on his straight talk bus if you contribut...Obama is earnest and wants us to help him bring change to Washington (think intrinsic reward).

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't provide equal time and one thing I don't think I've talked about at the Obama site yet is the Mobile Text with really cool ring tones -- in a mix of musical genres. Wish I had any sense of musical ability so I could list them, but I distinctly got hip-hop, techno, country and I think marching band (grin).

Not sure how I feel about the whole ring tone thing -- and yet, it is a great and subtle way to get people to spread the word for sure. I wonder how this one is doing for the campaign.

Next post will be a blog analysis. Why? Because I'm noticing that the blogs are becoming less and less about information and more and more about showing off a video or begging for money. What is the roll of a blog in a political campaign when you have a website to provide information on issues? Um...commentary maybe?

On a final note, some recent buzz on the social media series here at my blog:

1. Tracking Obama's, McCain's Use of Social Media at AppScout (from PCMagazine)
2. Aggregate blog Social GaGA links to the AppScout Story