Old media covers new media; avoids scowl, snarky comments

If you missed it over the weekend (like I did), Fox News Channel ran a couple interesting segments on campaigns using text messaging to reach out to voters, including this one:

It’s good that there’s attention paid to campaigns using new, emerging technologies, but if a campaign tactic is only there to get free media then it probably isn’t worth it.  But as the piece indicates, mobile phone screens are valuable because they are always with people, and text messages have very high open rates.  Smart campaigns are recognizing this and, where it makes sense, instituting tactics that take advantage of this.  One example is Carly Fiorina’s use of realGood Technologies‘ mobile phone bank – a platform which transforms any mobile phone into a terminal for a campaign call center.

Many of the high profile 2010 races aren’t using any text messaging outreach – after all, midterm electorates tend to skew older and turnout is usually lower.  But some of these campaigns offer a good preview for mobile campaigning for the 2012 Presidential election