Reports are beginning to come in of political campaigns harnessing the power of mobile technology. It was only a matter of time. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and John Edwards are two national political figures starting text messaging campaigns.

John Edwards#039 One America Committee launched his text message campaign Thursday. Users can sign up on the Web site and give their name, email and cell phone number to receive periodic updates of his campaign trail. Not the most original thing in the world but its a start. And I know it has great promise to evolve because it is being managed by Jed Alpert and Politxt who has had several successful SMS campaigns both in the States and abroad. Hear Jed and myself on a Podcast during last months Personal Democracy Forum conference here.

Santorum debuted his SMS campaign at a Women For Rick breakfast last week hosted by Mary Matalin, who demonstrated the new technology for the open event. ... [In what Emily from Textually.org correctly portrays as an amazing mis-perception and a sexist comment, ] Internet director Mindy Finn said they chose the all-female crowd because women tend to be busier and use their cell phones in more creative ways. Riiiiiiight.

Anyways, starting in July, the campaign plans to use more of the technology with issue-based messages, such as a text on Santorum#039s work on immigration. They also have plans to integrate SMS into their direct mail and perhaps television and radio ads. As Finn put it, the opportunities are "limitness."

The article points out some interesting concerns, however, which campaigns should pay attention to if they want to use mobile right.

Primarily, will voters reject a message from a politician that they must pay for on their cell phone bill? And will only core supporters, i.e. not undecided voters, sign up for the messages?

This is an important point. SMS is not email and should be treated as such. Mobile needs to be utilized a little bit more differently then these campaigns have starting using it. Its important to remember that the "international" examples that they so often refer to are viral campaign that are more on the side of activism then they are a top down campaign strategy. Read this to see what I am getting at.

The article also points out that "the platform is more expensive than e-mail, both in startup and transaction fees." Which is true when you are comparing SMS to Email. But SMS is not email and any attempt to use SMS as a simple "alert status" update type thing is doomed to fail. SMS is worth the startup and transaction fees when it is used they way its supposed to be used... as a mobilizer of viral communication while on the ago and effect people the way they are meant to be effected while on the ago.

What does this mean... well as a consultant I cant give everything away but you can look to already successful US examples like TxtMob during the RNC or PFAWs Supreme Court mobile venture.

And what is all this talk of SMS. What about Ringtones, Wallpaper, Bluetooth, Camera Phones and Mobile Internet?

[Hotline via Textually]

Technorati Tags: campaigns, edwards, mobile, mobilists, oneamerica, santorum, sms

Campaigns & Elections | Mobile
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