Here's a piece today from the Wash Post's front page. Seems that Mike Huckabee's surge in Iowa has been in part of a vast gressroots network of conservative Christian/home school parent types. One key quote is that "In the first nine months of the campaign, Romney ran more that 5,000 ads on Iowa television. Huckabee ran none."
Now they're neck and neck, with Huckabee having a slight lead. Huckabee's supporters used one-to-one mail and email lists to spread the word. They did most of the work...sort of like Howard Dean's "Deaniacs" did back in 2003.
In the meantime, Romney relied on - because he had to - traditional methods backed up by big spending. His strategy may have made sense - he knew he's do well in next-door New Hampshire, and had to expand beyond that BUT the key here is that a form of social media (email) is blowing away, pound for pound, top heavy traditional media.
A political lesson on social networking in today’s Iowa
The Washington Post is pointing out that, once again, passionate grassroots support is outperforming traditional top-down marketing. And the weapon of choice appears to be email. It may just affect who will end up being the next president of the United States. (Via Marketing Conversation)
GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and Baptist minister, has had some extraordinary help from volunteers - some of whom aren’t directly involved in the campaign - who are tapping into their network of church goers and like minded citizens. This is a classic example of key influencers at work, using word of mouth to effectively spread the word about Huckabee’s stances…particularly about home schooling.
A very telling part as to why this is amazing is that the previous frontrunner in the state, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had aired 5,000 televison commercials in the first nine months of the year. In the same time period, Huckabee’s team had aired not even one. Now, Romney is behind.
Those of us in social media constantly talk about tapping into the community. I’ve often had doubts about that. Not because the concept wasn’t sound…but because , quite often , there wasn’t a community to be tapped into. Here there is.
The article describes that there are an estimated 9,000 home-schooled children in Iowa. More often than not, the parents of these children are conservative Christians. These are the type of people who plan to vote in next month’s Iowa caucuses.
Here’s a series of quotes from the article that I think best describe the scenario;
While early attention focused on Romney and other better-known and better-funded opponents, home-schoolers rallied to Huckabee’s cause, attracted by his faith, his politics and his decision to appoint a home-school proponent to the Arkansas board of education. They tapped a web of community and church groups that share common conservative interests, blasting them with e-mails and passing along the word about Huckabee in social settings.
That shows a sense of relevancy - a vital aspect of successful political (and all) types of marketing. Here, the citizen can relate to the product - namely, the candidate, Mike Huckabee.
Home-schooler and business professor Erin Hartman put it this way: “There isn’t all that much strategy. It’s about common people coming to the campaign and saying, ‘I like Mike. What can I do?’ “
“I feel Mike’s best because he’s comfortable with us, because he’s one of us. We see a genuine authenticity,” Judy Roe, 39, said.Organized and motivated because of passion. That’s something that 5,000 commercials on television couldn’t do.
“We have worked harder to organize, but folks like the home-schoolers are going to be pretty motivated,” acknowledged Gentry Collins, who runs Romney’s Iowa campaign.
But grassroots passion does work>
“It’s a lot of word of mouth, certainly,” said Eric Woolson, Huckabee’s Iowa campaign manager, who often hears from supporters that his e-mail inbox is full. “It was me until the end of April, all by myself. Until the last week of June, there were two of us. There were three of us from August 12 until October 1.”
Now, obviously the word wasn’t strictly spread only by email. But it is the perceived sense of relevancy and authenticity that drives the passion in people.
We saw this throughout much of 2003 with the presidential campaign of Howard Dean. The ‘Deaniacs’, so to speak, were sparked by an outpouring of blogs and MeetUps throughout the country. Most were disgusted by the way the war in Iraq was going and they then give-no-ground to any detractors of his policies.
The problem Dean had in the end is that his support was almost too national and not focused in Iowa. Relentless attacks by all of his opponents and his own personal behavior at times doomed his candidacy. A blogger in New Jersey or a MeetUp in Denver were too far away to save him.
Huckabee may have the same problem, only in reverse. He’ll have to make sure the passion for his candidacy spreads beyond his supporters in one state.
I love seeing this passion. It’s democracy in action. With a touch of social media.
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