Campaigns Embrace Use of Text Messages

CAMPAIGNS EMBRACE USE OF TEXT MESSAGES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz Amy.Schatz@wsj.com]
Text messaging went mainstream as a political tool yesterday as Democratic candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton launched a service asking supporters to sign up for regular text-messaged campaign updates. Sen Clinton isn't the first 2008 presidential candidate to embrace text messaging -- rival John Edwards began in December and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama plans to start soon -- but her use of it signals how widespread the technology is becoming for political campaigns. Many presidential campaigns are now experimenting with how to use the service. Political campaigns generally lag in adopting new types of advertising or technology, but with so many candidates vying for the presidency, all of the top-tier aspirants are elbowing each other to get ahead -- or at least not get left behind. They're posting videos on YouTube, creating profiles on social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook and posting messages on blogs.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117918406231802526.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
(requires subscription)