2008 Presidential Race on Cell Phones
I was in the process of writing up an article on the 2008 candidates using text messaging as a component of their campaigns. The Washington Post beat me to the story this morning. (See their post)
I'll still work on a more in-depth piece for next month. My first take, however, is not all are doing equally well. I do like that Barack has branded his own short code – this could be powerful going forward. Still a lot of "glitches" in what these candidates are working on. Hillary has no follow-up messages once you sign up. She does collect carrier information though which will be a plus for her team going forward. Obama's team isn't, but could be collecting on the back end. I received a number of error messages when I signed up for ring tones and wallpapers. Finally, these guys haven't learned to manage frequency yet. I signed up for Obama's text service last Thursday – I'm already ready to turn it off because I've received so many messages. The one announcing the debate on TV was the only one worthy of being sent to my cell phone. (However, I didn't have my cell phone set up for remote Tivo programming so couldn't record it anyway) Could have done without the offer of a free sticker, but it was a sneaky was of getting my home address.