Central Oregon campaigns go digital, social

This political season, more Central Oregon candidates will be using social media to get their message out, and one political campaign has hired someone to manage all of it.

Campaign managers told NewsChannel 21 Monday that social media have played a vital role in the way they reach out to voters — and with smartphone technology, the phone seems to become the most important tool a campaign has.

“You have to have an online presence in order to be a modern, successful campaign,” said Dallas Brown, campaign manager for Oregon Senate candidate Geri Hauser.

Brown is hoping to run just such a modern, successful campaign, recently hiring someone just to manage their social media.

“It’s a position that you have on modern campaigns these days,” Brown said. “It’s what you have to do to compete.”

The campaign has been using Facebook extensively.

“If you had 1,000 friends, 1,000 ‘likes’ for a candidate, those people, come election time, put just in their status update, ‘Vote for Geri Hauser for Oregon Senate’ — those thousand people end up reaching 50,000, 100,000. It’s really a multiplier effect,” Brown said.

The campaign also has been using smart phone applications.

“On the phones, you receive email,” Brown said. “You’re constantly up to date. (Users) Twitter what you are doing, post a video online, take a video with your phone.”

Jordan Conger, who helps run the campaign for his father, state Rep. Jason Conger of Bend, is also familiar with the impact of social media.

“Campaigns are all about messaging and reaching voters and communicating with voters,” Conger said. “And trying to not only get your message to them, but also hear about issues that are important to them.”

Several applications help the candidates as well. The apps act as a digital planner and directory, and keep track of the places the candidates has visited.

“There’s been a lot of new and exciting things that I think in the future will change the way that campaigning is done,” Conger said.

Conger said the impact that social media has on campaigns is profound, and people tend to underestimate how important it is to reach voters in these new ways.

“Campaigns really need to acknowledge the fact that there are people that they are not reaching, if they’re not on Facebook, and they’re not on Twitter, and not on some of these social media applications,” Conger said.

Conger said using social media has made it easier for their campaign to promote more of their events, including an upcoming town hall.

For Hauser, social media has helped her raise some money through websites like Act Blue, receiving $1,000 in small donations through the site.