In an earlier post, I faulted Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign for missing the boat on their VP announcement via text message. My point was that they had failed to use the “new” medium to it potential. I still think that was a fair criticism, but the Biden pick is old news at this point.“Call Friends” sorts your iPhone contact list by state (based on area code) and marks them all as called or not called on behalf of the campaign. It also reports this data back to the campaign in the aggregate. (“Your privacy is important: no personal data or contacts will be uploaded or stored. Only the total number of calls you make is uploaded anonymously.”) It also allows you to see how many calls you’ve made compared to the total and the leader.
It seems to me, when it comes to the iPhone as a gadget, the campaign “gets it”. They have also made it clear through their fundraising efforts using email and SMS that they “get it” when it comes to new media (Biden announcement not withstanding). But this app is larger than that.
It takes social marketing techniques, those that are the hallmark of “Web 2.0” and applies them to a new platform. It’s an exciting convergence of phone, computer and web technology. Perhaps it’s “Phone 2.0.” Perhaps no one else will pick up on this after November 4. Or perhaps the next social networking app will get us all talking a bit more and typing a bit less.
The intention was to review both Obama and John McCain’s iPhone apps. However, only the Obama campaign has released an iPhone app to this point. If/when the McCain campaign develops one, it will be reviewed.
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[...] our readers know we have no explicit political leaning (we would have reviewed McCain’s iPhone app… if he had one). But, an interesting item of note is that Obama’s transition and [...]
[...] Obama’s marketing team announcing his vice president selection via text message, and the use of candidate iPhone apps. Fast forward to 2012, and the use of mobile and digital tactics has taken center stage. Both [...]