The folks at the Bivings Group have done a nice survey report looking at the use of the internet in 2006 Senate campaigns, covering a total of 77 campaign committees (30 incumbents and 47 challengers).
The big picture will not surprise you: while almost 100% have live websites, most use them mainly as online billboards to broadcast their candidate’s message (with news, bio and contact info) and to pull in money and volunteers. Few are using the web to interact with their supporters in a more meaningful way (only 23% have a blog, and even fewer–4%–are offering team building tools or using their sites to help supporters create their own house parties or fundraising campaigns).
Among the most interesting findings:
-Democrats are far more likely to offer Spanish versions of their websites than Republicans (22% vs 8%).
-Democrats are twice as likely to use RSS feeds (24% vs 13%).
-Challengers are far more likely than incumbents to use interactive and cutting-edge tools like blogs (32% vs 10%), podcasts (9% vs 0), and RSS (28% vs 3%).
Looks like conventional wisdom is still dominant in the campaign consulting world. Kudos to Bivings for a job well done.