I'm a lifelong resident of the city of Detroit and on May 5, 2009 I will be casting a vote in an election highlighted by a Mayoral race. I've already decided to support the incumbent, Mayor Ken Cockrel. But setting that fact aside, this note is my unbiased view of the use of technology as I see it in this election.
While I was pleased to see that Dave Bing’s campaign is officially launching an online "social networking campaign," it seems a little late to the game. Bing’s launch will include a Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and YouTube account, in addition to a text messaging campaign.
This bothers me for several reasons. First, the election is May 5 and for a social networking campaign to be effective it should have been implemented several weeks, if not months, ago. In lieu of this, Bing’s "social networking campaign" seems more of a gimmick than an honest attempt at utilizing social media and technology to truly involve and inform voters. Unless, of course, Bing plans on running again after the May 5th election, a question he refused to answer in the WADL debate.
Follow me across the fold...
I have been following both Dave Bing’s and Mayor Ken Cockrel’s social media efforts since the end of the primary and have been thoroughly impressed by Mayor Cockrel’s. He is already up and running with a blog and has implemented Disqus - a great WordPress plug-in used to connect conversations across the web - into it. He even live-blogged the WADL debate. Meanwhile Dave Bing’s blog has one question and answer post, and was last updated October 27, 2008. As a blogger, I appreciate the effort, but sincerely doubt Bing’s social media/blogging know-how.
While perusing Dave Bing’s website, I also noticed "The Disclosure Clock," a countdown until Mayor Cockrel released his finances. Something I found eerily similar to the Republican gimmick during the presidential election - the countdown until President Obama would visit Iraq - or, worse, something Glenn Beck would do. Mayor Cockrel released his finances prior to the March 25th Mayoral debate. The "disclosure clock" is still ticking away.
Second, Bing’s attempt seems to be more of a reaction to Ken Cockrel’s efforts than a genuine attempt. Interested to see if Ken Cockrel’s social media effort would be sustained, and that each aspect would be integrated with the other (for example, tweeting about blog posts), I followed the WADL live-blog I had heard about. Once a blog post went up about some aspect of the debate, a corresponding tweet with a "tinyurl" followed, linking back to Cockrel's blog. When Mayor Cockrel was questioned about the budget, a blog post detailing the proposal with a direct link to the actual budget was up: someone was prepared. Since the debate, Mayor Cockrel’s twitter account (mayorken) has ballooned to 200+ followers, sports a new custom made background, and is updated regularly. Moreover, he demonstrates Twitter know-how by using # and @, whereas Dave Bing has not.
Now all of this was well and dandy, but what really impressed me (and reminded me, I dare say, of the Obama campaign) was when Mayor Cockrel rolled out the text messaging campaign (text "cockrel" to 29222) to keep supporters and followers in the know. Again, Dave Bing is late to the game.
You may be wondering how I found out about all of this? Simple. I went to CockrelforDetroit.com and signed up for his email list (right at the top of the homepage). Each email includes information about volunteer opportunities, events, and encourages subscribers to follow Mayor Ken on his Twitter and Facebook accounts, and to text "cockrel" to 29222.
As I write this I cringe when I think of how biased it sounds. Let me remind you, this is a simple comparison on how each candidate utilizes social media to involve and inform their supporters, not a research paper on the efficacy of their respective policy proposals. And on the social media score, Mayor Cockrel wins hands down.
So why is this important? Social media - if used properly - has the potential to increase transparency in government, promote good governance, and truly involve and inform citizens. If this general election is a precursor to how each candidate will implement social media in their administrations, I am very excited about Mayor Ken Cockrel.