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The
Internet has become a decisively important
feature of the American political landscape.
It is changing the way information is
disseminated, and it is shaping political
events. Consider the Monica Lewinsky story:
the scoop was broken on the Net and the flow
of details via the Net substantially
shortened the news cycle.
You
need to be exploiting the Internet in your
political activities. While the Internet has
not replaced other media for political
communications, there is already a
constituency in your state and district which
prefers to receive its news and political
information via the Internet. And right now
— today — our research finds that nearly
half (48%) of major GOP donors are available
to receive your communications electronically.
When the Internet fully matures, it will be a
major vehicle for two-way, multi-media
communications between constituents and their
elected officials. And this will be sooner
rather than later.
Websites
are a useful first step in exploiting the net,
but websites are too passive for politics —
politics demands action. The goal is to get
your messages out. To that end, there are
three things you should be doing now to
capitalize on the Net:
-
Systematically
Collect Constituent Email Addresses
-
Regularly
Solicit Constituent Feedback Via the Net
-
Post
& Transmit Video "Position
Papers" on the Net
Why
Systematically Collect Constituent Email
Addresses?
The
main impediment you face right now in using
the net to reach your electronic constituents
is … you don’t know who they are. Yet in
order to respond aggressively when
opportunities arise, you have to have your
lists of advocates and opinion leaders ready
to go. A robust Internet effort begins by
compiling the email addresses of your
constituents. You need to do this through your
campaign website, your campaign mail and
telephone communications, and through joint
promotions with Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) in your district.
What
QEV Analytics does for you:
We’ll
help you devise a strategy for soliciting
and compiling email addresses. Website
surveys are one of the methods we use to
draw constituents into your electronic
database (and we actually compile and
analyze the results of these
website-resident surveys). You should also
be compiling email addresses from all other
voter contacts: mailing, telephone (voter ID
calls) and face-to-face. QEV will manage
your data base, integrating email addresses
into your existing voter data file.
Why
Solicit Constituent Opinions Via the Net?
Your
voters want to know that you are listening to
them. You need to be reaching out to your
constituents, at THEIR email address, to share
your views, and — more importantly — to
ask them what they think.
What
QEV Analytics does for you:
We
make it possible for you to systematically
solicit the views of your constituents by
email. We send them an email message
containing an attractively formatted
questionnaire, which they fill out by using
their mouse to point-and-click. Then with a
final click of the mouse, the results are
automatically sent back to us for
compilation, analysis, and presentation to
you.
Why
Post & Transmit Video "Position
Papers" on the Net?
Video
images dominate political communications.
Voters want to see you, to hear your words
come form your lips. Your websites should
provide video clips of your member commenting
on key issues and events. This adds depth to
your public image, and gives your on-line
constituents a chance to get to know you
better. Plus, these clips can be transmitted
to your constituents, and retransmitted by
them to their circle of friends; the
multiplier effect is potentially huge.
What
QEV Analytics does for you:
We
will coordinate the preparation and
uploading of the video files — these
"talking head" shots are
relatively inexpensive to produce — and we
will help you determine the rotation of
issues and "social commentaries"
to activate your most politically important
constituencies. And of course, we’ll work
with you to draft the text of the clips.
We
want to contribute to your political success.
Crafting a comprehensive strategy for
exploiting the Internet will do this.
Put
QE V
to work
for you. |
