About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leader in online competitive intelligence. Contact Hitwise to maximize your online marketing programs.

Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

Analyst Weblog

« Rudd, Howard and Obama: Domestic and International Online Political Mix | Climate Change and David Hicks »

Political Campaigns 2.0

February 14, 2007

To elaborate on the point in my previous entry that Australian online users have a strong interest in international politics, the Hitwise Local Competitive Index figure below shows that 74.7% of visits to the Lifestye - Politics category went to international websites for the week ending 10 February 2007.

Local Competitive Index for Lifestyle - Politics Websites

The Huffington Post, ranked 2nd in the Lifestyle - Politics category was also the most popular international politics website for the week ending 10 February 2007 with 2.46% share. RSS feeds are an integral component of The Huffington Post's news and opinion delivery.

As Australian users look to international political websites, I thought I'd provide a few comments on the online media strategies of both Obama and Clinton, who are leveraging the strengths of the web including social networking, blogging and online video.

Obama's website offers a customisable panel for users including tabs with, "My Dashboard", "My Friends", "My Groups", "My Fundraising" and "My Blog". The benefit is that supporters may connect online despite the geographical spread of the US and build their network in advance of each step of the election process.

Clinton similarly allows users to submit guest blog posts to her website, send messages of support and ecards to friends, while responding directly to questions on policy through a series of webcasts.

The point being that these tactics could be employed by Australian politicians in their media campaigns. While we have different geographical and cultural nuances, the networking structure of the web offers the opportunity to build a community of supporters and therefore engagement.

Thanks to my colleague, Hitwise engineer and West Wing enthusiast, Chris Mayer, for pointing out the slick features of Obama's website.

Posted by Sandra Hanchard at 11:28 AM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Politics