Hillary Clinton Starts a Conversation

Posted on January 25, 2007

Senator Hillary Clinton entered the 2008 presidential race this past weekend with a video posted on her website titled, "I'm In". She has continued with a new video each day this week. The videos have all carried the title "Let the Conversation Begin." Phrasing a campaign as a conversation is a smart way to reach out to voters. It also manages to appeal both to audiences of talk shows like Oprah and to the tech savvy crowd -- blogs are often described as conversations.

Hillary Clinton is also inviting people to guest blog on her website.

Soon we'll launch the official blog of HillaryClinton.com, a crucial part of our exciting national conversation about the direction of our country and the place to go to learn more about Hillary.
We know our readers are going to have a lot to say, so we want to give you the first word.
We're looking for your ideas on how we can work together for change. If you'd like to write the very first guest post on the HillaryClinton.com blog, submit your entry in the form below. And if you already have your own blog or other website, please post your entry there and let us know about it. We'll select one entry as the first guest post on our blog.

Hillary Clinton's use of online video followed video announcements by Senator Barack Obama and former Senator John Edwards. Senator Barack Obama's statement about his decision to run can be found on his website. The Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar provides analysis of Obama's video announcement in this post. John Edwards also been using video and made a pre announcement on YouTube. He has more videos on his johnedwards.com website.

It still seems very early to be thinking about the 2008 elections but what is incredibly obvious from this early standpoint is that video is going to play a huge role in the campaigns. The candidates can post videos on their websites and bypass the media. If they can get enough traffic to their websites millions of people may watch their videos. Political pundits, political bloggers and journalists will all have to watch these videos to keep up to speed on the campaigns. The Washington Post has an article about the electronic campaign trail. The Bivings Report also has an interesting post about campaigns as conversations that includes a roundup of links to more posts discussing the recent presidential candidate announcements. Lisa Stone has a round up of what women bloggers are thinking.