I was reading chapter 3 in Ireland and Nash’s book Winning Campaigns Online and I came across a passage (on p 34) that stressed the importance of making every message produced through traditional media available on the web.

I somewhat agree. I think modern political strategists would say it is important to have most of these messages online and available. However, many modern political strategists would argue that having all your direct mail pieces online would be detrimental to your campaign. A seasoned campaign strategist from your opponents campaign could look at your campaign’s media online and find out who you were targeting and in turn target those people with an opposing message of their own. That would be bad news!

I think campaigns should take care to reformat some of the messages that do make it online. TV, radio, direct mail, press releases, etc…should be reformatted to give the online viewer more information than they would get otherwise.

For example, take a look at the “Commercial Potential” column on the right side of this blog: Who You Talkin’ At?. The blog lists different commercials for products - some with 15, 30, and 60 seconds versions of the same spot. Imagine if you had the option to chose a quick, average, or extended edit of a political commercial. Also, imagine if all of the sources cited in the commercials were listed on the page with the video for users to click!

As for print material that goes out to the public - when this material goes online it should be clickable and browseable. An online version of a press release should have hyperlinks throughout the document that take you to sources cited. Online direct mail pieces should give you more indepth information on policy positions and information on the candidate or issue.

The internet is interactive - all material uploaded should have a place for people to easily comment on and/or respond to. It may open up a camapign to criticism, but it also will get more citizens engaged in the process.