FINALLY!

FINALLY they’re getting it. The US polling geniuses are deploying the medium of text properly. It’s been a real annoyance of mine for a while. Over here in the UK, we’ve more or less got no clue. (I refer you to Tony Blair’s Big Conversation rubbish a while ago — 35p a text I think it cost the electorate to use).

Presidential Nominee Obama has announced that he’s going to tell his supporters of his Vice President selection first. By text message. (Or email).

Very clever. First that’s a news item in itself. I read about it in USA Today. That’s going to get quite a few folk signed up if they haven’t already.

Second, he’s sidestepping mainstream media. Love it. If mainstream media want to find out, they’ll need to subscribe too.

Third, he gets control of the message. It’s his spinners who’ll craft the text message content and who’ll get the message directly into the minds of his key supporters. Before any mainstream media filtering.

The USA Today quotes Micha of Techpresident.com:

Micah Sifry, co-founder of the blog Techpresident.com, says the Obama campaign is “charting new ground” in using cellphones to keep supporters interested and engaged. The offer to text the vice presidential news is “a big carrot to hand people,” he says.

Interesting, interesting.

If you’re in the States, sign-up by texting VP to 62262. Or sign-up online.