Analysis of John McCain's use of the Internet
From digmovements
[edit] John McCain: first to receive a nomination, last to go online
In response to the Democrats web domination, John McCain has also started to embrace the Internet in his campaign. While McCain started his campaign in the traditional Top-Down republican style, focusing primarily on large donors for the bulk of campaign dollars, he has been forced to strengthen his online following due to Obama and Clinton strong online presence. Early in the primary, McCain’s campaign used the Internet as an advertising tool. The McCain campaign made sure to buy up many of the competitive search terms in an effort to redirect potential voters towards their site. He even bidded on the search term: “Hilary Clinton.” In order to redirect all the traffic he could towards his site. Ironically, early on McCain purchased the search term “Rudy Giuliani” and in turn Giuliani purchased “John McCain”. [1] While McCain was initially successful with his online marketing, he did not do the same online organizing and fundraising, that put him at a disadvantage, when the already more publicized Obama/Clinton race was dominating Internet fundraising.
[edit] McCain's Website
The McCain site is severely lacking compared to the high tech and well run sites of the democrats. The majority of McCain’s online staff has been let go, and the site is rarely updated. His blog is rarely updated and McCainSpace has been left unfinished, his site is pretty barren and cannot compete with that of the very tech-savvy democrats. McCain is planning on launching a new, more interactive site in June, but that might too late. In grassroots donations, McCain’s $66 million, pales in comparison to Clinton’s $174 and Obama’s $197. If McCain plans on catching up to Obama and Clinton, he’s going to have a lot of legwork to do in the way of his site, online following, and online fundraising.[2] This year’s general election, unlike any other before, will hinge on the candidates’ abilities to utilize the Internet and if the McCain campaign is unable to get their online department together we may see a very one-sided race.
