Digital Design Blog

The Social Web and the Rise of Ron Paul for President

As an amateur political junkie and digital design advocate, I can’t help but get excited about the role the Internet is playing in this year’s U.S. Presidential Race. Last week I predicted that the Web will play a larger role than most pundits — and pollsters — think in shaping this year’s election. And this weekend, I spent time doing a bit of research on the dark horse, Internet-fueled campaign of Ron Paul.

Paul, who is this year’s more radical version of Howard Dean, has a strong following of libertarians, free-thinkers and digital mavericks online. And his campaign manager, Justine Lam, comes off as a true new age campaign manager — er, eCampaign manager at least, who has worked hard to cultivate the social web like no other.

The Ron Paul donation widget (left) is priceless — as are the banners that supporters can embed on their sites. Paul’s reach across the social web is truly impressive. From Justin.TV to StumbleUpon to Twitter to Digg and more. This goes well beyond what we’ve come to expect from a political candidate, let alone socially-driven brand.

See below for proof:

It’s an ambitious strategy that has paid off handsomely for Paul who has pulled in more than $18 million in the past quarter (nearly on par with the Clinton and Obama fundraising juggernaut, respectively) and set a single day record of $6 million. While carrying 10% of the vote in New Hampshire isn’t about to put Paul in the White House, his digital campaign deserves our full attention. It’s simply the most ambitious and, dare I say successful, bits of social marketing we’ve ever seen. Traditional brand and product marketers should start taking notes.

And besides, what’s not to love about a candidate with his own iPhone website.