A campaign management tool is software that facilitates the launching and coordination of

political campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracy, democracies, political campaigns often refer to election, electoral campaigns, by which representatives a ...

s across multiple

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

platforms. In the past,

s were conducted using traditional methods of personal contact, such as

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

and

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

media purchasing, print advertising and direct mail. However, the rising popularity of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

has changed how campaigns talk to voters, and also how campaigns maintain communications between staff members, volunteers and

political consultants Political consulting is a form of consulting that consists primarily of advising and assisting political campaigns. Although the most important role of political consultants is arguably the development and production of mass media (largely televisi ...

, and getting the campaign message out via the web,

e-mail Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

and interactive web forms. Campaigns are also utilizing an increasing number of tools that assist with accounting, contact management, and handling increasingly complicated government regulations. The exact best implementation of these sorts of tools is under debate. Politicians in many states have started websites and

weblog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

s (or "blogs") with a variety of degrees of success. Social

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

has been used to benefit politicians. However, at the same time, companies are offering tools that push the edge of social responsibility, including those for publishing

spam Spam most often refers to: * Spam (food), a consumer brand product of canned processed pork of the Hormel Foods Corporation * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ...

. Other companies pretending to be legitimate polling agencies, attempt to influence voters through

leading questions A leading question is a question that suggests a particular answer and contains information the examiner is looking to have confirmed. The use of leading questions in court to elicit testimony is restricted in order to reduce the ability of the ex ...

, in so called "push polls". Some of the tools are those which enable the formation of local groups. These rapidly forming groups give citizens the confidence that they are not alone, and inspire

collective action Collective action refers to action taken together Advocacy group, by a group of people whose goal is to enhance their condition and achieve a common objective. It is a term that has formulations and theories in many areas of the social sciences ...

s. As

Reed's law Reed's law is the assertion of David P. Reed that the utility of large networks, particularly social networks, can scale exponentially with the size of the network. The reason for this is that the number of possible sub-groups of network partici ...

predicted, tools that enable group formations at the edges of the network (Edge Tools), deliver measurable value, as can be seen by the use of

Meetup Meetup, headquartered in New York City, is a social media platform and social networking service for hosting and organizing in-person and virtual activities, gatherings, and events for people and communities of similar interests, hobbies, and pro ...

and

Get Local Get or GET may refer to: Businesses and brands * GetTV, an American television network * Get AS, a Norwegian cable and Internet provider * GET-ligaen, a Norwegian ice hockey league (now ''Eliteserien'') * Get 27, a French mint liqueur Educat ...

on the

Howard Dean Howard Brush Dean III (born November 17, 1948) is an American physician, author, consultant, and retired politician who served as the 79th governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 20 ...

campaign. While many

activists Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

and technologists see great value in these tools, many campaign professionals fear the loss of control. The value of these tools to campaigns below the Presidential level also remains uncertain. Other kinds of internet tools for campaign management do not have such specific methods of organizing people. There is an increasing number of companies providing web-based software to replace database systems that require a specific computer or network. By making databases for

GOTV GOtv is a pay television terrestrial service in sub-Saharan Africa owned by broadcaster MultiChoice and launched on 5 September 2011. It mainly consists of African and international programming. History The terrestrial TV service was founded ...

/voter tracking, fundraising, accounting and campaign management accessible from any location, these vendors are allowing campaigns to take advantage of resources that many individual volunteers and campaign staff have available at home, expanding the use of distributed campaigning techniques.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Management tools, Campaign Election campaigning Political software

See also

References