A reported 258,000 people have donated money to Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. This number is greater than the combined total of people who have donated to either Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain, according to the Washington Post.
Senator Obama has utilized social networking and social media as part of his fundraising strategy. More than $10 million of Obama’s second-quarter contributions were made online, and 90% of these donations were only $100 or less.
What is significant about so many financial contributors donating $100 or less?
Senator Obama has now actualized the economic concept of The Long Tail in the world of political fundraising. The Long Tail was first written about by Chris Anderson. Long Tail economics is what drives sales to iTunes, Amazon.com, NetFlix, eBay, & other virtual stores profiting from product selections that wouldn’t generate enough sales to be included in a traditional store’s inventory. Traditional stores only stock the items that either sell most frequently or have the highest profit margin.
Senator Obama’s campaign staff created an efficient system to collect relatively small dollar amounts from a large number of eager supporters. Though other candidates did not have had efficient methods of securing small donations from so many individuals, collectively these donors represented a significant share of total contributions to Obama’s campaign. Targeting the Long Tail of political donors allowed Senator Obama to raise a greater contributed sum than had Obama primarily only sought larger donations from major financial contributors.
Longtail Fundraising Creates Increased Commitment From Voters
It’s fairly obvious that people who financially contributed to Senator Obama’s campaign intended (at the time of the donation) to vote for him in the upcoming presidential election. But election day is still a long way away, and there are still plenty of opportunities for new information to surface that may effect voters’ decision at the ballots.
By pursuing small donations from large numbers of voters, Senator Obama will also benefit from increased political commitment from these thousands & thousands of donors. Voters who make any level of financial contributions to Obama will most likely remain loyal to Obama’s candidacy, despite whether future information surfaces that might have otherwise affected these voters’ decision by election day.
What’s Your Experience
Can any candidate successfully secure donations from Long Tail fundraising?
Are social media & social networking innately linked to Long Tail fundraising?
Are there buckets of political donations waiting to be collected by candidates in untapped sources, or is Longtail fundraising simply a fad?
