Monday, December 31, 2007

New Channels = New Targeting Opportunities

Another interesting tidbit in the article mentioned in my previous post discusses Hillary's outreach to women. Her polling has obviously found an opportunity to target this demographic. My thesis is that these new communication channels offer a new way to target - target based upon communication channel not by demographic. Persons on Facebook show that they are willing and interested in communicating a different way. Speak to them in that way. Social media creates more of a conversational, many-to-many dynamic. Yet have the candidates created forums for a conversation? They are still stuck in a one-to-many rut.

Many folks are just getting in to email. I still get chain emails from my mother-in-law. We all remember the adoption cycle of email - chain emails and forwarded jokes were the norm wen we first got connected. So in that vein, campaigns should create similar such emails, with their own twist.

Texting is taking is another new channel available. I am certainly a newby to this one - my wife and I just started using it in excess within the past year. Maybe a game / contest? I am sure there are others more adept at this medium with a better understanding of how it is typically used. The premise, though, remains the same: mimic the manner in which the medium is already being used.

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