John Edwards NOT Social Networking for 'User Generated Politics' campaign 2008
Edition number 24 in this Digital Markets Blog presidential campaign 2008 series on what I am calling “User Generated Politics”
John Edwards is "Social Networking" like a true politician, he is covering all his bases and promising action. But what is his actual Social Networking record?
In “John Edwards: Be my MySpace pal!” I underscore Edwards’ “User Generated Politics” approach is to promote social networking around him at third party social networking sites on the Web, perhaps all of them!
Edwards self-promos for two dozen different social networking sites and solicits prospective voters to “Connect” with him by subscribing, sharing, tagging, creating, uploading.
Does Edwards really seek to connect for “User Generated Politics,” or does the John Edwards Social Networking “strategy” merely seek to drive promos of John Edwards?
The Edwards Campaign: John Edwards has a presence on all of the following online networks. Most of them will allow you to add images, badges and banners from our downloads page. So feel free to spruce up your profile with some of our stuff…you'll find badges you can put on your website to show your support of John Edwards. Just copy the HTML code shown and paste it on your website. Show your support for John Edwards every time you send an email by adding his image to your email signature.
43Things, del.icio.us, essembly facebook, flickr, gather, myspace, partybuilder, youtube, orkut, ning, metacafe, revver, yahoo! 360°, blip.tv, CHBN, vSocial, tagworld, collectivex, bebo, care2, hi5, xanga, livejournal
In promoing Edwards Social Networking support at the dozens of Social Networking sites, the campaign merely reiterates third-party, impersonal, business model descriptions of the sites! (such as the Edwards Social Networking "promo" for Revver below)
Revver announced a deal to make some user-generated videos available to subscribers of Verizon's VCAST service. On VCAST, Revver videos will not contain the revenue generating advertisements at the end, but Revver plans to share half of the revenue from the venture with content creators.
Moreover, does Edwards really have a presence at the 24 Web sites?
The Edwards 43 things profile indicates, in a very minimalist fashion, “32 things” that Edwards wants to do:
Help people
be elected president of the United States
Donate Blood
Give the needy food they would actually like…
Is Edwards actually networking and connecting for “User Generated Politics”?
Neither Edwards, or his campaign, appear to be doing anything at 43 things. The Edwards profile reports:
0 places, John Edwards isn't going anywhere
John Edwards is meeting 0 people, John Edwards isn't meeting anyone
John Edwards is consuming 0 items, John Edwards isn't consuming anything
John Edwards is working on 0 lists, John Edwards isn't working on any lists
How does Edwards fare on the social networking via video front? Edwards invites all to “connect” with him at YouTube, Metacafe, Revver…
Edwards has posted campaign videos at YouTube. At Revver and Meatcafe, however, he has merely set-up empty profile pages and left them empty.
Metacafe has stepped in to fill the Edwards void, though; Below is what appears on the Edwards Metacafe “connect” destination promoed by the Edwards campaign.
Edwards fares no better at Yahoo 360; He has not been been by since he announced his candidacy seven weeks ago.
What is the "User Generated Politics" result of Edwards NON Social Networking at the Social Networks he promos?
John Edwards has NO friends at bebo, ZERO friends at TagWorld, NO friends at VSocial…
Edwards’ friendless status has even inspired pity for the candidate at hi5. Joshua at hi5 says he has “added” Edwards not in support of the Edwards platform, but “”cause you only got two friends.”
John Edwards has no ideology or resolves at essembly...
In love, it may be better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all.
In “User Generated Politics” presidential campaign 2008 though, it is NOT better for John Edwards to have pseudo Social Networked and lost than to have never attempted to Social Network at all!
STAY TUNED TO THIS DIGITAL MARKETS BLOG FOR CONTINUING COVERAGE OF WHAT I AM CALLING “USER GENERATED POLITICS” 2008
More in this Digital Markets Special Series:
John McCain announces McCain Space! Republican ‘User Generated Politics’ and
Bill Clinton million dollar email campaign for Hillary and
YouTube: Must see TV? ‘User Generated Politics’ presidential campaign 2008 and
Is Obama’s social network anti-social? and
Hillary Clinton trumps Barack Obama, on eBay! and
Joe Biden has 226 MySpace friends: Can he connect?