Web Politics 2.0 - ' Page 2' (
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Learning curve
Despite the political disappointment, Web marketing can teach business something about viral strategies, grassroots organizing and the directing of offline behavior. The challenges of a Web marketing campaign are often cultural, not technical, and the returns can be hard to measure. But as marketing of all kinds assimilates to the Web, companies will have to heed the lessons learned by political campaigns.
"We are already doing business with small and large companies, and getting inquiries from household names in the corporate world," says Nicco Mele, chief executive of EchoDitto Inc., a Web design and consulting firm that worked this year for Senator-elect Barack Obama of Illinois. "The Web lets you recognize that your customers are powerful people, and companies can use the Web to give them a place at the table," says Mele, who previously served as webmaster for the Dean campaign.
Online campaigns—for politicians or products—allow a level of interactivity and user participation that traditional strategies cannot provide. "Effective political Web sites provide a menu of tools that constituents can use to be active and exercise their energy, and expand the reach of candidates and issues they support," says Larry Biddle, another former Dean campaign aide who served as deputy manager of Florida Democrat Betty Castor's aggressively wired senate campaign. Castor raised about $800,000 online, and used an "Action Central" page at her busy BettyNet.com site to anchor a statewide network of volunteers. She lost narrowly to Mel Martinez, but did win a tough Democratic primary and throw a serious scare into her favored GOP opponent.
"Most candidate Web sites only present the candidate in a one-way dimension," says Biddle. "The Web is two-way, and provides updates on activities. It puts lots of needed energy in the political process. Online communities let people not just support the candidate, but be active in their support—becoming an extension of the political process beyond the candidate."
Clearly, online campaigning is in its early days. "The Internet is still not the be-all, end-all of campaigns," said Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, a political consultant who runs the popular Daily Kos Weblog, a political analysis and commentary site that averages over 500,000 page-views per day. "But those who make good use of the tools can better fund-raise, organize volunteers and garner the support of the blogs and other online partisan sites than those who compete in the analog world alone."
For Bowles, a Charlotte investment banker who served as White House chief of staff under Bill Clinton, and lost in the 2002 senate race to Republican Elizabeth Dole, the Web was integrated into an overall campaign strategy in a race where every small advantage counted. His contest with Burr for the seat vacated by vice-presidential candidate John Edwards pitted Bowles against a popular five-term congressman from Winston-Salem; and Burr started with a substantial lead in funding. For months, the two men ran a civil and substantive race. Then they spent a few weeks spraying mud at each other ("Clinton lover!" "Tool of special interests!"). But when the voting was done, the nation's tenth most-populous state chose Burr as its new senator.
Case Studies 
