We’re talking about YouTube this week on RunSmart2Win. Our goal is that by the end of the week, you will be sold on this campaign necessity for engaging today’s voters. We’ll discuss the concepts of introducing your candidate on YouTube, going viral, improving and targeting your message with YouTube Insight. Today we’ll begin with some incredible statistics about the changing electorate, the mass exodus from television to the Internet, and the reason YouTube has become so critical to modern campaigning. We’ll conclude with a final bullet-point list of the advantages of politicking on YouTube. Tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday we’ll delve into some “how-to” suggestions; today we’re selling the undeniable value of YouTube…and the reasons your campaign should be on it!

First, here are some “YouTube election” statistics from Christine B. Williams and Jeff Gulati, writing in Politics Magazine:

“America is watching YouTube, and it’s not just the young anymore. Altogether, 35 percent of Americans watched online political videos in 2008, compared with just 13 percent in 2004. Although the percentage watching decreases among older age groups, the percentage watching within each age group has increased each election cycle. The YouTube audience profile has aged: almost one-fourth are 35 to 49 years old and one-fifth are 50 or older.

Your opponent may not have used YouTube in 2008, but it’s a good bet he or she will in 2010. While only 13 Senate candidates opened a channel in 2006, 72 percent of major party candidates did so in 2008. No House candidate opened a channel in 2006, but 28 percent of major party candidates did so in 2008.

…

Don’t be caught in a competitive race without your own YouTube channel. For candidates in tough races, YouTube is one more distribution channel they can harness to mobilize core supporters and extend their reach to new groups of voters.

…

YouTube’s got what it takes. Relative to traditional media and campaign websites, YouTube is:

• Timely: The channel can be updated immediately.
• Easy: Updating is simply a matter of uploading a video.
• Cost-effective: Campaigns do not have to purchase as much bandwidth for their websites if they just post a video tab directly linking to YouTube from their website.
• Popular: The site reaches a large and growing audience.”

Now, a few more telling quotes and statistics:

• “More people watched more video on YouTube last week than watched the top ten shows on network television.” (Seth Godin, Meatball Sundae, p. 104)
• “It will take more than one election cycle for television to become irrelevant. What’s clear, though, is that the ability to send a message to the base — and to do it with no filters, not time constraints, and no money — is too powerful to be resisted.” (Seth Godin, Meatball Sundae, p. 171)
• “…someday a campaign will do [unscripted reality moments on video] to perfection, [understanding] that people — especially the young — see through the slick packaging of television and prefer seeing the world raw and unscripted, not as it’s imagined in a Madison Avenue conference room or a Hollywood studio.” (Joe Trippi, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, p. 109)

Still skeptical? Here are the irrefutable benefits YouTube brings campaigns of any size or scope:

• YouTube has built-in features that encourage “sharing” — embed code, tell-a-friend tools, direct links to all major social networking platforms. YouTube videos are what people are talking about at the water cooler — the actual one and the virtual one. (More on this Wednesday in Going Viral.)
• Americans have shorter attention spans than ever. And they’re more interested in getting information when and how they want it. Face it, your 30-second TV commercial is not nearly as effective as it was just five years go. Your message isn’t getting through on television. Welcome to the world of TiVo.
• Not only do Americans have shorter attention spans — and TiVo remotes in hand — they also have sharper “BS” meters than ever before. Scripted, polished, produced is out. Un is in.  TV is for infomercials. YouTube is for authentic messages.
• Almost 70 percent of American households are online; of these, 85 percent have broadband. There is no longer a technological reason not to do online video.
• It’s a great way to empower your passionate supporters: allow them to create and promote their own online video material supporting your candidate. Do you remember the single most popular YouTube hit of the 2008 campaign? Hint: it wasn’t produced by the McCain or Obama campaigns. It definitely wasn’t sanctioned. And over 15 million people watched it.
• Once again, it’s free.

Tags: Campaign Tips, eCampaigning, online campaign, online video, YouTube

This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Campaign Tips, eCampaigning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.