The reviews are in: Senate candidates Web sites aren't good.
Greensboro blogger Ed Cone took a look at the sites for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole and three potential challengers, state Sen. Kay Hagan, Chapel Hill investment banker Jim Neal and John Ross Hendrix.
He says Neal has the "early lead," Hagan's is "underfurnished," Dole has a "placeholder" and Hendrix "looks like he rolled his own."
Cone, something of a political technogeek, says candidates need to keep their sites fresh with regular updates, make videos shareable, use Facebook and MySpace and use the Web as an organizing tool.
"Don't trust traditional party/campaign operatives to really get this stuff; you need them, too, but be alert for turf wars and lip service," he writes.
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Re: Reviewing the Senate sites
Each of these sites definitely have a lot of room for improvement, starting with just the general design. This is going to be a huge race with national attention, it's surprising that no one has a better presence when the race is only a year away.
I work with a Carrboro company named New Media Campaigns (www.newmediacampaigns.com), and we specialize in building political campaign sites. At our site, we frequently update the "Articles" section of our website with tips on how to maximize a campaign site. I think our tips could help these candidates and other candidates across the state.
In today's political culture, it's imperative that you have a top-notch site. It'll be interesting to see how these sites evolve throughout the race.
-Clay Schossow
New Media Campaigns
919 485 4118
www.newmediacampaigns.com