Gubernatorial candidates using new media

By Ashley Badgley 217-960-1331

SPRINGFIELD — With only seven days before the Feb. 2 primaries, candidates are reaching out to voters with the help of new online media and organizations.

That has gubernatorial candidates looking to more than television advertisements to get their message across this election season.

Elizabeth Austin, Campaign Communications Director for Gov. Pat Quinn, said candidates have an opportunity to reach a lot more people using more than just television, radio and newspaper ads.

“With a few clicks, one person can reach the same number of voters that it used to take a roomful of volunteers a few days to get out,” Austin said. “New media makes it much simpler to reach people repeatedly.”

Quinn’s campaign is on several new media and social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. In fact, all candidates for Illinois Governor have these sites set up, however only Republican Bill Brady also has a link to his LinkedIn profile, a social networking site that is aimed at business professionals.

Soren Dayton, the Strategic Manager for New Media Strategies, said reaching out to voters over the internet is the best way to get in touch with the most people, even in specific areas. He said he thinks the number of friends, followers or links is not a good measure of how the election will result, but if there is a sudden jump in numbers, then they are “signs of movement” in a campaign.

“[Online media] is a much more direct, horizontal method of communication,” Dayton said. “You can get a fine tuned and rapid response that you can’t get with television and radio.”

Dayton used the example of last week’s special U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts to explain the momentum any candidate can get from new media.

“Right after the Massachusetts senate election, the [U.S. Senate Candidate Mark] Kirk campaign ran ads saying ‘we can do it in Illinois too’ to capture some of that energy,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to get across a highly targeted message.”

While Dayton said there are ways to manipulate social media to reach a very specific audience, Austin said the Quinn campaign sticks to “traditional” media for targeting voters in certain areas or at certain times.

“For a Democrat primary,” Austin said, “historically the focus of [advertisement] has been geographically targeted.”

“TV, radio and newspaper are effective ways to reach voters in a certain area.”

Austin said the best way to use new media is to work with other organizations and activists who support or have supporters of the candidate.

“It is useful to create our own following, but it’s more effective to join forces with outside organizations who already have supporters,” she said. “One of the best things about this campaign is the online advocacy from our supporters.”