Hillary Rodham Clinton has unveiled a “mobile-to-mobile text-messaging push” to garner support for her presidential campaign, reports the New York Post. “Clinton’s text-messaging initiative targets the 230 million American cellphone users - a sign the campaign is hunting for every possible vote in her bitter battle with rival Sen. Barack Obama.” It’s only a matter of time before campaign ringtones are sold. (via Textually)
Update: The SMS technology is with InterlinkedMedia, and supporters of Clinton who send “JOIN” to 77007 will receive updates and news, as well as personal messages and photos personalized for their area. Clinton sees the technology as a way to “provide personalized, local campaign updates to our supporters nationwide”. The campaign will also ask for voters’ input and encourage supporters to surf Hillary’s website on their handsets. (release)
The WSJ has a piece noting that John Edwards started using SMS in his campagin last year and Barack Obama plans to start soon. “So far, text-messaging doesn’t appear to be particularly persuasive. “It’s not as cheap as email and it’s not as easy to use as email…but the upside of this is if you really want to motivate your hard-core supporters, then you’re using a tool that’s with them all the time,” says Julie Barko Germany, deputy director at George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet.”