Technology

The main goal behind my mentorship was advertising, and a lot of technology was involved. However it wasn't very advanced or hard to obtain technology. The thing I noticed was Mrs. Cooley's most valuable resource was email. Running a campaign is all about appealing to people and the best way to do that is by building a relationship with them. Email gave Mrs. Cooley the ability to build that relationship without using much time and it allowed her to reach a lot more people. She would keep potential voters updated on events and the benefits of voting Cooley with a quick two minute informational email sent to a mail group of as many people as she wanted to include. Another valuable communication device was her iPhone, with it she could not only call people, which was her preferred method of communications because it was more personal, but also stay up to date with her mail, and use a variety of nifty apps. Social Media also played an important role in the campaign. Websites like Facebook and Twitter allowed Mr. Cooley's name to become more popular and brought in some more supporters, plus it kept people informed on the Campaign. Supporters could share the Cooley for Congress posts or tag the page and inform their followers/friends of Cooley. Towards the latter part of the campaign we expanded to radio advertising which was really convenient, because the radio stations gave reports on the most successful ad, and played it the most.

A program that I learned about was Vote Builder. It wasn't used in Cooley's campaign because it wasn't very cost efficient, but I personally think it's a very useful program. Vote Builder is used by the Georgia Democratic party to attract more votes. It is basically a record of all registered Georgia voters, and it includes details that could be used to target voters. For example it includes the voter's Religion, Age, Party Affiliation, number of people in household and their ages, voting record, and a lot of other personal details. It also allows for Robocalls to be made and mass mailing lists based on the detail of your choice, for example you could send a letter to all African American twenty-three year old males in District 9. The information on Vote Builder can be extremely valuable if used intelligently and with a manipulative goal.

I think any future technological innovations would be beneficial to campaigns. Politics is a game of charm and being able to relate to the public. The best innovations in the political field is anything that improves communication, but that involves a wide range of things. Improved planes and cars means an improvement for politicians to travel to the people, Social Media offers cheap advertisement, and web cams allow human interaction without physical presence; an adaptable candidate will be able to use whatever technology is developed to his or her favor.

I'm still not sure about the specifics of my project presentation but I know that computers will be involved. Right now I am leaning towards a video project because I find a movie like presentation that allows me to make creative cuts, add sound effect/music, and present information in a visually exciting way is an effective way for me to present my research. A video also allows me more exposure opportunities because if I do it correctly I should be able to just send a link to people without me having to explain anything in person. Another perk is that I can satisfy the performing art geek in me by creating a video. :)