Political Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Political Internet Marketing, Visibility and Social Media Marketing Strategies for Politicians, Lobbyist, Activist and Fund Raisers by Trent Partridge of Politics280.com

Creating Internet Visibility is a critical goal of Political Internet Marketing. You need to make sure you are on as many influential, popular and niche websites as possible.

You also need to be using key tactics and strategies that will increase your Political Internet Marketing success: Social Network Aggregation, Social Media Optimization, Online Political Brand Identity, Political Feed Aggregation, Search Engine Optimization, VideoSEO, Profile Optimization, Political Search Reputation, Internet Legacy Building, RSS Tactics and many more.

Its Not In Our Budget
The days of 'Its not really in our budget is over.' Political Internet Marketing is here to stay and it is becoming more powerful by the minute. Ron Paul raises Million dollars in 24 hours; Barack Obama essentially wins his Presidency with aggressive and smart Internet Marketing strategies. You cannot run for office, lobby, fund raise without some sort of aggressive Political Internet Marketing and Social Media Marketing strategy.

Your Political Internet Marketing Goals Should Be To:
-Get your winning message out (Influence)
-Make sure you are on a wide variety of websites (30 Minimum)
-Control your online message and reputation (Critical)
-Continue to identify key websites (Growth)

When you are marketing online you cannot have accounts only on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg and Jumptags. You will not be maximizing your Internet Visibility by being on 5 websites. I have maintained a theory from my early days on the Internet; you have to be on as many web spaces as possible. I would never set up any of my clients in any industry with 8 to 10 accounts and call that Internet Marketing Visibility. Internet and Social Media Marketing professionals like myself were creating multiple social accounts years ago. Being on 8 to 10 websites back then seemed like a small number. But now with the amount of social, niche and community websites on the web 8 to 10 websites is just not cutting it.

The media hypes a few websites (Twitter, Facebook and YouTube) like they are the only ones that matter. But there are thousands of important websites that have millions of members on them. Obviously you cannot reach all of them but you have to tackle a few. Once you understand that everyone isn't going to like the popular hyped websites then you will expand your Internet Visibility reach.

What people are saying:
-Facebook too many people promoting would rather be on Ning
-Twitter just doesn't do it would rather be on FriendFeed
-Tagged is too young baby boomers would rather be on EONS
-I like Facebook but also enjoy targeted sites like Glee, MiGente, BlackVoices

How important is your Internet Marketing Campaign?

Traditional Media Outweighed by Digital Published by SocNets.

Most Popular Media for 2010:

* Email, with 56.8% realistically planning to use it
* Social networks, at 56.3%
* Keyword search (49.7%)
* Radio (42.2%)
* Magazines (42.1%)
* Online display (40.5%)
* Event sponsorship (36.9%)
* Rich media display (35.5%)
* Direct mail (34.7%)
* Regional TV (32.8%)
* Regional newspapers (31.7%)
* Out-of-home (31.2%)
* Email sponsorship (29.5%)
* Online video (26.7%)
* Mobile SMS text (26.1%)
* National TV (18.2%)
* National newspapers (14.8%)

Obviously if you do not have a real strong Internet or Social Media Marketing presence you can possibly lose a race or not be able to effectively market your message.

Top Internet Marketing Opportunities:
1. Video Sharing - YouTube, DailyMotion
2. Social Bookmarking - Diigo, Spotback
3. Social News - Mixx, StumbleUpon, Digg
4. Photo Sharing - TinyPic, PhotoBucket
5. Podcast Audio - Odeo, AmigoFish
6. Podcast Video - PodBean, Mevio
7. Blogs - Wordpress, Blogger
8. Microblogs - Tumblr, Indenti
9. Feed Aggregators - Feedage, RSS
10. RSS Directories - Google, BlogCatalog
11. Online Press Releases - PRWeb, PRLog
12. Article - GoArticles, EzineArticles
13. PPC - Google Adwords, MSN/Bing AdExcellnce
14. Email Marketing
15. Banners - Fox, MSNBC

I gave two examples of each category but there are thousands for each one. If you are serious about any type of marketing you must touch on all of these.

Where are you in the Political Internet Marketing Landscape?

Beginner (3 to 5 websites) The media has hyped us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube so much that for many lobbyist, politicians and activist the buck stops there. These three websites are great intro websites and I do recommend them as great starting points. But do not stop here!

Intermediate (6 to 12 websites) This person uses the above 3 and includes sites like Flickr, Digg, Linked, Daily Motion and Yahoo Video. The key here is that you have an Internet presence. However you might not have the activity required for a successful campaign.

Winner (13 to 20 websites) This is a real nice spot especially if you are in the 20 website range. Usually these people want daily message aggregation and their same message sent out to many websites. They are on Utterli, Indenti, LiveJournal, Tumblr and 4 to 5 video websites

Champion (21 to 40) If you are in a competitive race or trying to get your message out daily to people on 30 plus websites then this is definitely a must for you. You will be on social media sites like Mister-Wong, Diigo, Flurl, Mixx, Hi5, and 10 video websites. They key to Champions is their message is sent out fast and furious for immediate Internet Visibility.

Dominator (41 to 60) At this level your goal is to dominate text and video websites. Clevver, Clipmoon, VSocial, YouAre, Vidlife are a few of the 30 plus video sites you will have videos posted. Your goal is online visual visibility along with traditional Internet Visibility. A lobbyist, politician or activist who signs up for this type of program clearly wants to dominate the narrative online.

Message King (61 to 80+) When you are at this level you are truly going for the gusto. You will have guaranteed internet impact and your message will be passed virally.

Super Bowl (81 to 140) Clients who we have worked with in this arena just want no excuse for not getting their intended message out. They believe in maximizing their chances of winning by all means necessary.

Why Not?
I get emails, articles and video from politicians, lobbyist, fund raisers and activist all the time and I can tell they are not maximizing exposure. If you have a message and you are trying to get it to the masses local, regional or global why are you not taking advantage of the opportunities that are out there? Why are you not consulting with a Political Internet Marketer to help you plan your online strategy? If you have a budget why isn't a Political Internet Marketer on your team? If you do not know about Political Internet Marketing why do you not set up training or advanced training?

Political Internet Marketing
If you don't make a serious effort to grasp Political Internet Marketing trust me your competitors will. The Internet moves fast! The tactics you were using last year might not be the same three months later. New and improved strategies, software and methodologies happen every day online. You have to be on top of Political Internet Marketing or you fall behind. I highly recommend hiring a Political Internet Marketing strategist, consultant or seek beginning or advance training.

Feel free to contact me anytime I would be happy to talk to you about your own Internet and Social Media Marketing strategies.

Continued success,

Trent Partridge

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Trent Partridge is a national speaker, trainer and author on the subjects of Internet Marketing and Social Media Marketing. Trent wrote 'Internet Marketing for Music Artist, Models and Entertainers, The MyPropFolio Internet Marketing Workbook' and was a contributing writer for 'Be a Real Estate Heavyweight.' Trent's team at Politics280.com is certified in Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Microsoft AdExcellence, Yahoo Ambassador, WebCEO and Search Engine Optimization. Trent's company Politics280.com helps businesses and individuals with Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, eGovernance Initiatives, Political Internet Marketing, Internet Visibility, Internet Legacy, Social Media Aggregation, Video Internet Marketing, Reputation Management, Online Identity, Internet Crisis, Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Clicks, Analytics, Brand Strategy, Online Public Relations, Feed Aggregation, Podcast Audio/Video, Article Marketing, RSS Feeds, Fund Raising, Lobbying Initiatives and so much more.
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Trent Partridge
Politics280.com