The Web in Politics

In every election cycle web technologies and online campaign strategies become increasingly effective. The web has created unprecedented access to the candidates and the issues; over-night online contributions in the multiple millions of dollars; and viral campaign messaging that spreads to massive audiences through video and social networking sites.

Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy on her website, indicating how important the web would be in her strategy. A viral music video ‘I Got a Crush on Obama’ has had over 6 million plays on YouTube. Both candidates raised over 6 million dollars a piece in the two days following Superbowl through their sites.

There are many web strategies that can be used to propagate momentum behind causes. Some of which are highlighted in the article “11 Web technologies political campaigns should consider” posted at TechnologyEvangelist.com.

Now, following the launch of our "Political Mutual Funds”, NPC's marketing strategies will leverage the web to maximize the impact of each fund on its core issue.

The Art of Being Read

This post by Seth Godin about simple writing is something we’ve been trying to do at NPC. I think we’ve made good progress seeing as our tagline went from “Wiring the progressive movement to turn progressive potential into political reality” to “Your political giving advisors.”

An Uninterrupted Customer Experience

I read this NY Times article over the weekend. Many concepts struck me, but this quote left the biggest impression:

"We want to find a way to enhance the experience and services, rather than looking for a way to interrupt people from getting to where they want to go,” said Stefan Olander, global director for brand connections at Nike. “How can we provide a service that the consumer goes, ‘Wow, you really made this easier for me’?"

That is exactly what we are trying to create with our products at NPC. Think about how people are often "interrupted" to make a political contribution. They receive an urgent email, a desperate call from an organization, or hear from a friend scrambling to raise money for an event they agreed to host.

Everyone has access to political information now, but rather than helping people make better decisions, it has paralyzed them, and frustrated them.

Here at NPC we want to create a customer experience that allows individuals to be proactive, instead of reactive, in their political giving.