Robert Bluey likes Mitt Romney's most recent Internet-related hire, Mindy Finn, who will serve as Romney’s "director of eStrategy," who Bluey calls "the key piece of the puzzle."
Finn brings to the team much experience, having worked for Sen. Rick Santorum’s re-election effort, the Republican National Committee and Bush-Cheney ‘04. What do each have in common? A savvy web operation that tied together strategy, finance, communications and political components.
Finn "brings experience to a campaign that is only scratching the surface on the web," he says. The Romney campaign already has a staffer for blogger outreach.
What can Romney supporters expect? Plan to see a holistic approach that includes more synergy to the campaign’s online message, money-raising and mobilization efforts. In short, if Romney’s to compete in Iowa and New Hampshire and other early primary states, he needs to build an organization of volunteers, raise lots of money and cultivate a legion of supporters in the blogosphere.
David All at techPresident also praises the hire. So does Teresa Valdez Klein at BlogBusinessSummit, saying:
One thing I like about Romney’s campaign Website is that he has a "Word on the Web" section that links to blogs talking about his campaign. I just wish he didn’t put that particular widget so far below the fold on his Website. The top half of his site look just like an old school campaign site. It’s only at the bottom that the social media elements come into play.
The Romney campaign is certainly savvy about the blogosphere and social media. Whether that will translate to victory remains to be seen. You can have all the media and online talent in the world but in the end you gotta have a message that resonates with both the conservatives who will decide the Republican nomination and the conservatives, libertarians, moderates and centrists you need to win the White House as a Republican.
Howard Dean had the bloggers, too, after all, but in the new world of social media a message that's little more than a scream is still just a scream.
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