I have made no secret of my admiration for the campaign Michael Bloomberg is currently running in New York City. A few months ago, I wrote on the Bloomberg campaign's integration of Facebook Connect - a feature designed to connect Bloomberg supporters through the power of the world's largest social network.Sometimes, and I would argue most of the time, candidates get caught up in the thrill of social media and forget what these tools are all about - connecting real people together, not computers. Since the 2008 election, every candidate from City Hall to the White House wants the "Obama internet magic" but very few understand that the "magic" wasn't in the tools the Obama campaign used, but what they used the tools to build.
This week, the Bloomberg campaign featured their Adopt Your Building or Block program in a blog post from Shirley McClintock - a campaign volunteer not officially affiliated with the campaign. In the blog post, Shirley explains the program as such:
Building captains are in charge of reaching out to their buildings' residents - by writing letters, going door-to-door and handing out flyers - to make sure that everyone knows why Mike's the best choice for New York City. Captains are encouraged to tailor the program to their own building to make sure that canvasses are easy and efficient. Canvassing, a vital component of any campaign, means going door-to-door and speaking to your neighbors. It's that simple, and it's also very effective; I find that voters are more willing to take the time and talk about the race when it's a friendly face they recognize from the elevator.The Bloomberg campaign has taken a page directly out of the Obama for America playbook - give your supporters the tools to self-organize and take ownership of your campaign. They have gone beyond building their email lists, Twitter following and Facebook fans and found a way to leverage those online supporters to take action for the campaign in the offline world (and by action, I mean they go beyond just hitting up their online supporters for money). Social media can not be about the number of online supporters you have - it must be about how best you can leverage that online support into actual votes.
