Slow Start For Mobile In 2012 Presidential Campaign

Posted by Soulskill on Monday January 2, 2012 @10:30AM from the vote-now-for-five-electoralbucks dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Social networks played an important role in the last U.S. presidential election, but the explosive growth in smartphone usage and the introduction of tablets since 2008 could make or break the candidates for president in 2012. As the Republican primaries heat up, the major contenders show on their official websites a strong recognition of social networking and connecting in digital ways via desktop computers. But the GOP and President Obama's campaigns are not yet making many mobile-specific connections to supporters via smartphones or tablets, analysts noted. Some campaigns have special links on their websites for getting updates via SMS to a phone, but they don't appear to have candidate-specific downloadable mobile apps on Apple's App Store or the Android Market so far."

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... and the demand for this is where? by wanderfowl · 2012-01-02 10:34 · Score: 5, Informative

I can't think of anything I'd want _less_ than a candidate for public office sending me campaign-related text messages. Does anybody outside of the campaigns themselves actually want this, or is this a social marketing consultant's wet dream?
always one step behind by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-02 10:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

When the world moved to the web, politicians were printing paper flyers.
When the world moved to social networking, the politicians put up oldschool web pages.
As the world moves to mobile computing, the politicians learn about social networking sites.
They are always a step behind, because they react to what their analysts are reporting, and being reactive means you are never up with the times.
Our web site has seen an absolute explosion in mobile platform use over the last 24 months. No surprise our elected representatives don't get it yet.