Stepping back from the email precipice for a minute (that Cap Ad study has been stirring up some BIG waves in the online advocacy world), ealier this year the Bivings Report conducted a study of how campaigns for U.S. Senate were using the internet that’s worth checking out.
The findings: virtually all campaigns had some online presence, most had bios and contribute features, many were posting multimedia files, but few were using more advanced features such as blogs, RSS and podcasts. Except in the areas of RSS and Spanish-language versions, there were no significant differences between Republicans and Democrats, though challengers in general were more likely to be mounting aggressive online campaigns. The study was conducted before social networking had become such a buzz topic and doesn’t cover it, though other coverage would suggest it’s still rare.
– cpd