Tim Fullerton

As reported by Tech Crunch and e.Politics, John McCain’s MySpace page was hacked today. On the page was a statement that basically said John McCain was now in favor of gay marriage. What struck me more than a pretty humorous hack, was how his page seems to want to scare people. Look at it here. It is not very inviting to say the least. And then there is this video. Someone needs a lesson in using online videos to help your campaign, not scare people to death. Take a look for yourself.
Stand Up

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Now back to the hack. Campaigns are going to have the be extremely careful in using MySpace. The high profile candidates can expect to have this happen to them. MySpace is not known as the most secure site on earth, so it is a prime target for hackers. That being said, it is certainly still worth each having their own page.

Today I was very surprised to find in my inbox a message from Al Franken titled “The most important email I’ll send you this week…” I haven’t seen an email from his campaign since I signed up months ago, so I was curious. What I found was a highly engaging appear that was actually interesting. Here is the first bit:

It’s the end of the fundraising quarter, and political analysts are watching closely to see how much money candidates can raise by March 31st. That’s why people like me are going to be flooding your inbox this week with a plea for those last few dollars that could push them over their quarterly goal.

Great system we have here, huh?

The message goes on to explain why he was asking for money. It is explained in very simple terms how they will spend the money. I think this email is great. Since the first fundraising reporting deadline is the end of this month, I have received tons of emails asking for money. This is the only one I remembered. Why? Because Al Franken spoke to me like a human and not some fundraising machine. The tone was light, he explained how he would spend the money, and he treated me with respect. The email didn’t drown on and on, but was a highly interesting read. Do you think most politicians would include this quote?

And, I promise, I won’t ask you for money again. (For at least a couple days.)

The reason I write about this is that it can also serve as a powerful tool for non-profits. They have their own deadlines (year end giving), and this is a reminder that in order to stand out in the crowd, you need to be engaging, interesting and make a compelling argument about why your supporters should give you their money.

The people at the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) and DoGooderTV have put together the Nonprofit Technology Conference video contest. For some great examples of compelling and interesting video, take a look at these five. This is somewhat self-serving as I worked on one of them. Can you guess which one?

A lot has been made over the last few days about the mash-up video below depicting Hillary Clinton in a not so favorable light (that’s an understatement). However, I’m not going to talk about the guy who got fired from his job for making it, or whether it’s good/bad for Barack Obama. What I find fascinating is how it appears this will change politics forever.

I say that because of the hysteria surrounding the video. Who made it? Were Republicans behind it? Did Obama do this on purpose? The greater impact is that ANYONE could have made this. Someone in their basement in Kansas or a guy in a studio in LA. Video editing software is so cheap and easy to use now, many people have it on their home computers. This is only the beginning everyone, these videos are going to start popping up everwhere (in fact, they already are). This is going to change politics forever. So many ads will be floating around, I would argue that the most interesting and compelling ones will get attention. This generally means it won’t be the ones coming from the campaigns, but individuals themselves. With YouTube and other video sharing sites viewed by millions a day, it is going to be a lot tougher for campaigns to compete. Plus, how will campaigns respond to all these new ads? How will campaign finance laws make sure campaigns aren’t hiding behind fake user names? This video has raised a lot of questions, and not many answers to this point.

If you think campaign attack ads are vicious already, just wait until everyone with a computer can make one.

I promised a more detailed report on the MySpace presidential section they released on Monday. MySpace Impact is designed to give MySpace users an easy way to learn more about the presidential contenders. The format is clear and easy to read, but my biggest question is why not all the campaigns are listed. Where is Bill Richardson? He has an official MySpace page and isn’t on here? MySpace boasts over 160 million accounts - this is a perfect opportunity to introduce yourself to a huge audience. Most of the major contenders are here, but many second-tier ones are missing. Impact might not be a revolution, but it is clearly something worth being involved with at the moment.

The message is simple. If MySpace wants to give you free publicity TAKE IT.

If one thing is different between the presidential race in 2004 and 2008, it clearly is going to be the battle on the internet. Three years ago, an online video would have had little to no impact. Today, it’s a great way to reach thousands, if not millions of potential voters.

Barack Obama’s team just sent out an email to his supporters with the embeded video below. It’s a powerful reminder of Obama’s consistent opposition to the Iraq war. More importantly, it highlights the differences between some of his Democratic rivals who originally voted for the war and are now against (Edwards and Clinton most specifically). YouTube has allowed for easier access to what cadidates have said in the past. Maybe it won’t be on the same level as television ads in ‘08, but clearly YouTube is going to play a vital role in the next election.

They guys over at TechPresident are reporting that MySpace will launch a presidential platform today. So far, 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans have signed up. Right now it is not live, but it will be real interesting to see what it looks like. I’ll be writing more about this when there is something to look at.

Yes, it’s true. There are some ways that non profits can get money for free. Here are two ways.

GoodSearch is a search engine powered by Yahoo! that gives have its ad revenue to the charity of you choice then you search. Each search brings in $.01 for the non-profit, and while that might not seem like much, think about how many searches you do in a day. It can add up. Why wouldn’t a non-profit register for this?

The other is Squidoo. Squidoo allows people to create their own pages or “lens” as they are called on any topic they wish to write about. Squidoo then shares its ad revenue with its lensmaters, but here’s the great part. Those lensmasters can elect to give the money to their non-profit of choice.

Two quick and easy ways to bring in some additional revenue. Both are in their early stages, but worth keeping an eye on.

There has been a lot of chatter recently about a new site called Twitter. Basically what it does is to allow people to send short messages to the site that people can read. At first I was at a complete loss as to why we need such a technology. I mean, do I really need to know you’re currently watching The Daily Show? But after some thinking on this issue it hit me. This is the perfect tool in times of a natural disaster. In developing countries, cell phones are the mode of communication, where not many people have access to the internet. This would be a perfect way to upload short bits of information on what happening on the ground. This is something humanitarian organizations are always in dire need of - updates from the ground. This makes the people affected also the newsmakers. Imagine if the people caught in Hurricane Katrina had this kind of info, or the people affected by the tsunami. This could take user generated content to a whole new level

John McCain has taken an interesting step to get people signed up for his email alerts. He has posted his NCAA college basketball tournament picks and is encouraging his supporters to fill one out on his site as well. The important part of this is that you have to sign up for email alerts to see his picks. It’s an interesting gimmick that is likely to drive up the numbers of people receiving his updates. In an ever competitive world online, little things like this can go a long way in helping your cause.

Now for the bad. What is up with his picks? He picked a couple of 10-seeds and I think a 9 and that’s it. Anyone who knows college hoops knows an 11 here or a 12 there is going to win too. Picking the highest ranked teams to go all the way is a sure-fire way of losing your office (or online) pool come end of tourney time.

A lot of non-profits are still struggling with how best to dive into the “Web 2.0″ world. As crazy as it sounds to some of us, most are still not doing much outside of emailing their constituents. Non-profits are notoriously understaffed, so this should not come as a surprise. So how should a non-profit start out in this world? As simple as it sounds, it’s as easy as this: start a MySpace page.

A MySpace page will allow you to test several areas in one spot and it will be an excellent testing ground as a first step. It also has the lowest threshold. For one, it is free, and two, most groups will have the content already generated that you can put up online (unlike YouTube or even Flickr to some extent). This can take as little as two hours per week to maintain. Here are some simple steps you can take to start your MySpace page.

These might sound simple, but it is the easiest way to build up a presence on MySpace, and will let you see how much more your staff can handle.

According to all the polls, the current Republican frontrunner is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. As the frontrunner, does he also have a top-flight website? Well, not really.

First up the good stuff. The site’s main goal at this point is to collect emails of supporters. As someone who is very well known throughout the US, this is a good move. There is also an RSS feed (something lacking on most sites), so you do not have to check the site every day for updates. There is also a prominent donation button in case you didn’t know all candidates need money to be successful.

On to the bad stuff: This site just doesn’t do it for me. While the design is clean, it’s just not an inspiring place to visit. There is zero engaging content. No videos, audio, or the slightest hint at any social networking sites. And what is up with the URL: www.joinrudy2008? Who is going to remember that?

There is not a lot of stuff on this site, and to be honest, I expected more from the Giuliani campaign (who has hired many top-flight GOP insiders). What I will assume is that there is much, much more to come. Before Barack Obama announced, his exploratory committee site was very dull. Once he announced it was a different world. If this site changes, I will certainly change my grade.

Overall Grade: D

Tonight’s installment features former Congressman, UN Ambassador, Energy Secretary and now Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM). Clearly he is one of the more experienced candidates in the race, but how does he measure up on the web?

Quite well actually. The Governor’s site is clean, to the point and easy to navigate. It is very easy to sign up for email alerts and he has links to his social networking sites directly on the homepage. That being said, he has a long way to go as he only has 1250 friends on his MySpace page, compared to the tens of thousands for some of his competitors. And how come his interests are not filled out on his profile? People like to vote for candidates whom they like. What better way to start that process than to show some of your likes and interests?

There is also a campaign blog, but I would use that term loosely. No comments, trackbacks or diggs on this blog. It’s more like a short diary than anything interactive. People want to be able to share their opinion. Even if the comments were moderated, at least it would give some flexibility to people who want to participate.

So the campaign has done a decent job of getting a site up that is engaging and one that people might come back to. They are not in the top-tier of websites, but a decent job.

Overal Grade: B

Up tomorrow will be former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani

Not so great marketing. I got this email from Senator McCain’s campaign today.

As a special thank you, we have another piece of exclusive John McCain 2008 gear. Today, we are offering the official John McCain 2008 hat with your contribution of $100 or more in response to this email.

They’re giving away hats for $100 contributions? One thing I’ve learned is that donors appreciate you spending their money in an effective way. For the Senator who has championed government waste, this seems like a huge waste of money and resources. Unlike many environmental campaigns, donors have not come to associate getting gifts with donating to political campaigns. If people aren’t expecting it, why offer? This means the campaign will actually receive less profit from each donation and it will take critical staff resources to manage the relationships with the companies distributing these hats. Not a great fundraising appeal in my opinion.

We switch it up a little tonight and talk about a favorite of the far right, Senator Sam Brownback. This is your standard political site. Not a MySpace or a YouTube to be found. There is a simple, easy to find sign up box for emails and his announcement video is on the site (though not on YouTube). Brownback does has a blog and it is updated every day. However, take a look at the number of comments. Most posts do not have any comments, while others have 1,2 or maybe 3 (for an example of the opposit, check out Obama’s site).

Brownback is clearly one of the lesser known candidates, which makes you think it would be very important for him to take the Edwards approach of signing up for every social networking site out there. Every supporter counts and he needs a lot to catch up to the more well known Republicans running.

Overall Grade: C

Up tomorrow: Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM)