MySpace, Netroots Alternatives, and the Great Sleeping Giant of the Angelides Campaign

We all know that the blogosphere is an established force on the political scene. Heck, political blogs are getting VC money these days. But I've been a keen observer of the role of not only the netroots, but social networking sites in politics. These sites are an extension of retail politics which can target a group of people that you might not be able to reach at campaign events and public spaces. MySpace is not the only arena for this type of activism: Faccebook is getting into the act as well. But the reach of MySpace, for example, is amazing if you think about it, and can bridge the gap between Republicans and Democrats in terms of how they "micro-target" prospective voters:

MySpace just passed Yahoo! for the most pageviews per day in the country. 95 million people have set up accounts and built pages. 95,000,000. But the network's size is not the important part.

Within 5 miles of where I'm sitting with this laptop, there are 1,977 twenty-nine year-old female voters with a graduate degree who self-identify as Democrats on Myspace. That's crazy. It's crazy MySpace lets me search with that much demographic specificity. Seriously.

So how does a candidate reach people on these kinds of sites? This is a good overview:

I am among the breed of blogroll surfers - we like to get a feel for different writers' voices and senses of humor. We thrive on reading more posts and more news about a story, we look for stories with the same tags, and follow the trackbacks to get different angles on the same story. I, for one do this because I love finding and informing a narrative. I'm a storyteller.

MySpacers are similarly voracious but not for news, not for information, but instead for character and validation. For things that strike them as cool/new/passionate/goofy. They flit around, meeting people, checking out interests, as if coming into your apartment to listen to your CDs, look at the books on your shelf, see the posters on your wall - and discern (from the images you used to adorn your MySpace page) how you perceive yourself.

They will check out your friends, read what people say about you. And even if they wouldn't normally be your friend, if these visitors get the sense that you are a genuine person, fully-formed around one of the keys to authenticity for millennials (cool/new/passionate/goofy) they will add you as a 'friend.'

The cultural currency on MySpace is the posting of comments. It is truly all important. Being approachable and engaging in conversation is paramount.

There is no difference between this and the personality traits that characterize personal, door-to-door politics. Be engaging and clear, deliver your message in a personable way, show that you care about people's concerns.

I'll bet you'd be shocked to see who is the most successful candidate on MySpace today. It's not John Kerry, or Russ Feingold, or George Bush, or John McCain, or any of the other supposed "net-savvy" national figured. It's the self-described geek who's supposedly running a "charmless" campaign:

Phil Angelides, California's Democratic candidate for governor, had nothing to do with creating a MySpace page under his name. His teenage daughter was the first to point out his presence on the popular online hangout.

But rather than kill a volunteer's unauthorized efforts, the campaign has embraced the youth-heavy site, using Angelides' personal profile page to post position papers and other announcements. It also scans the comments section to gauge what's on youths' minds, turning it into an informal focus group.

"We've come to embrace it as our own," campaign spokesman Brian Brokaw said. "It can help you reach an audience that otherwise might be more difficult to reach. Not as many young voters watch the evening news."

The campaign has also turned to video-sharing site YouTube.com to circulate campaign ads, speeches and other clips.

Angelides' MySpace site (link) currently has 5,442 friends (by contrast, netroots darling Ned Lamont has about 175). In the past two days he has received 16 public comments, a pretty decent number. A lot of them ask specific questions about his positions. Something like 80% of registered users on MySpace are of voting age, despite the stereotype that it's just for 15 year-olds. The MySpace blog for Phil is updated pretty frequently. Some of these are press release dumps, but others are tailored to the community.

By contrast, his opponent, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who you would think would know how to use media better than anyone, has misfired badly with this approach, IMO:

If you signed up for Gov. Arnold's Schwarzenegger's text messenge campaign this weekend, you might see a few extra charges show up on your cell phone bill. The campaign asked supporters to sign up by texting the word "GOV" to 5055 to keep them updated with ongoings at the California Republican Party State Convention this weekend. When The Hotline signed up, we received no less than NINE text messages over two days. A little intense, especially given SMS number five (1:30pm PST on Saturday) asked us to donate over the phone.

People do NOT want media pushed to them, especially in this kind of annoying way.

I think this is a great untapped resource. Angelides is doing a pretty good job but it could be even better. He has a base of support here big enough to get others involved in a viral way as the election nears. This is where you can get GOTV volunteers. This is where you can spread your message to previously uninvolved groups of potential voters. This is where word of mouth can spread like wildfire. If every one of Angelides' friends sent a bulletin about the race to every one of their friends, you would literally reach more people than any television ad in the entire cycle. That's not an exaggeration; it's math.

I hope the campaign continues to use the site in a smarter way, incorporating video (2006 is pretty much the year of the YouTube campaign, IMO) and specific, personality-driven messages. That Angelides is so far accomplishing this the best on MySpace is not necessarily a testament to him but to how everyone else is late to this party. He could be doing a FAR better job of whipping up support. Treat it like retail politics; make sure you shake every hand and pay attention to people's concerns. Are the questions in the public comments getting answered? Are blog comments getting a response? Is there an effort afoot to get more friends (there are automated programs that do a superior job at that)?

Still, I'm very excited that Angelides is this far ahead of the curve, and I think it could potentially be an X factor in the governor's race.