Digital Government – Connecting through Online Media

Barack Obama is often referred to as the first digital president, a man who led his party to victory in the 2008 US presidency elections with an extremely successful digital marketing campaign . Now, unlike the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009, this is an accolade which sits rather more comfortably on the shoulders of this young American president and it seems that the leading British political parties are looking for similar inspiration.

The Labour Party recently advertised numerous e-marketing roles within the party with the stated aim of “connecting with its voters”. An online communities’ organiser’s position, for example, would focus on the social networking website Facebook and the micro-blogging website Twitter with the hope of building a successful online reputation for the party, a vacancy that was created in response to a similar position held by Craig Elder at the Conservative Party.

The Guardian recently highlighted the growing obsession of political parties with online media and in particular, the usage of Google Adwords campaigns by the political parties extending the significance of Google Adwords beyond the business world.

The Conservatives have been actively making use of the Adwords platform, making sure that anyone using Google to find out about Labour’s Alistair Darling’s pre budget report will also see a sponsored listing of George’s Osbourne’s views as well.

A search for terms such as “Budget”, “Pre-Budget Report” or “Treasury” produces further sponsored listings displaying the Conservative Party’s website but they are not the only party using up Adword’s as a search for the same three terms also displays results of the Labour Party’s website. So the race for political success is literally heating up with a Bidding war at Google’s doorsteps.

Is there a message here?

Call it the Barack effect that has finally stirred the political parties into action, but the rise of Social Media and digital marketing as a whole is plain to see as even the political parties have now started to place a lot of emphasis on being online and are competing step by step in this new age of advertising.

To realise that social media and search engine marketing is important and is really just Step Zero; Step One is all about finding the right agency partner with qualified professionals to drive home the advantages of this enlightenment.

Source:

Guardian

IAB

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