Politics Goes Mobile

This week’s highly publicized YouTube debate signaled another shift in the way politicians employ technology; four years after Howard Dean’s campaign helped push politics onto the Internet, most mainstream candidates have poured resources into high-quality websites, and are present on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

Now, reports indicate that some politicians are exploring new options, by diving into another rapidly growing subculture – the world of mobile content.

The cell phone is the primary communications tool for a significant portion of the voting public; many potential voters consider their phones irreplaceable, and politicians are taking note. Using interactive mobile content to reach voters is a strategy that could enhance a candidate’s visibility and increase his or her credibility with constituents, but, among the leading presidential candidates for 2008, only Democrats have entered the mobile world.

Three of the mobile front runners are Barack Obama (text “GO� to 62262), Hillary Clinton (text “JOIN� to 77007) and John Edwards (text “TODAY� to 30644). Sending a text message to a campaign is a way to indicate your interest in the candidate, and you’ll receive a few perks in exchange for some demographic information - including campaign freebies, and valuable reminders about important dates. For now, it’s all pretty typical mobile content stuff.

With the early start to this campaign season, there’s still plenty of time for other campaigns to join the mobile fray – it’ll be interesting to see how mobile politics evolves as we head into 2008.