Examples of Connecting
Jim Demit’s site is pretty darn good! It has a great volunteer page with about 15 different options, and tons of ways to connect to his campaign via Twitter, Friendfeed, MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. ~MT
Congressman Glenn Nye (VA-2nd)
This is an excellent example of connecting, through the use of hyperlinks to third party sites, with the main intention of validating the Congressman’s claims that his efforts (specifically a letter) fighting the White House on a controversial proposal to scale back health care coverage for combat injuries normally covered by VA, were instrumental in getting the White House to drop the proposal. This is especially important for Congressman Nye, who is a 1st term congressman representing a district (VA-2nd) with the highest concentration of active duty military personal in the country. It was a great idea to include the links to the Huffington Post, the Gavel, etc. because even as a supporter of Nye (he is my hometown representative), I initially thought that his office was probably exaggerating his involvement in getting the White House to drop the proposal in order to try and score points with Vet’s and military service members in his district. The links to the third party websites validate his involvement and keep his press release from looking like unsubstantiated spin. ~ethos
Marion Thorpe’s website for FL senator in 2010 may be just awful, but there is an interesting section for connecting, with links to childhood obesity and Alzheimer’s websites. Two groups that I guess he wants to show support for, as everyone knows a fat kid and an old person. ~Acta
A popular feature of many campaign websites is a news scroller on the front page that displays all favorable news the campaign wants. An example of this type of box which is widely used can be found on Paul Hodes campaign website. ~Acta
My long-time love affair with debbie wasserman-schultz is reaffirmed with her nice site and great news/connecting portion of her site. ~Acta
John Campbell for Congress campaign website permits visitors to “Connect with John” using “facebook, ” “YouTube,” and “flickr.” In addition Campbell uses links to John McCain’s Website and to the National Republican Congressional Committee website. ~Hellcat
Rob Portman for Senate Campaign
Rob Portman for Senate campaign website permits visitors to “Connect with Rob” using “facebook” and “flickr.” ~Hellcat
Mike Conaway for Congress campaign website permits visitors to “Connect with Mike” using “facebook, ” “YouTube,” and “flickr.” However, the “myspace” link is not active. ~Hellcat
US Senator Jim Martin (Georgia) has a place where he links to my.barackobama.com because he says you can go there and phone-bank for Jim from home. ~Lifting
U.S. Senator Kay Hagan has a blog section on her Web site where you will find an entry where a link is included where you can visit to find your voting location. It takes you here http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/PrecinctFinder.aspx and you can look for North Carolina voting information. ~Lifting
Dennis Kucinich (Kuchinich.us)
Like Kuchinich’s campaign and his supporters, his Website is a bit fragmented. There are many parts of the site that are not consistent with the look, feel and navigation of the main page. With that said, both the “volunteers” page and the “forum” are really great tools for connecting. ~MT
A super site demonstrating not only great Web design, but also easy access to “take action.” Though, this candidate really likes stickers—bumper and “Web.” ~MT
She has on her home page a story from Forbes Magazine “Can Meg Whitman Save California?” which provides a direct link to the Forbes story on the Forbes site. ~Magical
This site is connection crazy. On her home page is a section called, oddly enough, ‘links.’ What follows is exactly that- an unbelievable list of links. These include: Federal government sites; national, state, and local party sites; local TV, local and national print, and online media outlets; and think tanks. She ensures that her website is the place to be before you go anywhere else. ~Rush
This is a very impressive site, and I should have used this as an example of involving. Everything you need is under the heading ‘blog & news.’ On the right side of the screen is a list of links to various GOP websites, as well as a list of every blog that has made itself known to the Cornyn website, making each amateur voice just a click away. (this also includes links for facebook, youtube, blip.tv, twitter, flickr, and myspace- all involving). His news is presented in blog form; the two most recent are a link to a video of his speech at CPAC, which is preceded by a post advertising his upcoming speech with a link to the agenda on the CPAC website. This is followed by an article from moveon.org, and while he doesn’t link to the article, he includes a link for readers to respond to the article. Also, whenever there is a mention of a speech or event, it is coupled with links to local news coverage of that event. ~Rush
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