Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Lobbyists Advertise Positions on the ‘Net.
The article entitled, “For Activist Constituents, Click Here,” revealed the power of the Internet as a useful tool that is used by lobbyists. "The Internet can be a very useful tool both to identify and to motivate people to express support to members of Congress." Lobbyists are using interactive advertisements that enable people to contact members of congress and include them in a congressional debate.
The Roundtable, a group of lobbyists were able to track how many people its ad had attracted. They were also able to identify what they were willing to do on the issue’s behalf and where they resided by Zip code and therefore, by congressional district. This information allows lobbyists to pursue the people who have participated in the congressional debate and ask for their opinion “on similar issues for years to come.” Lobbyists could see which ads were working by looking at how much traffic its Web site receives. Only the ads that attracted the most clicks continued to run. The other ads stop running because they received fewer visitors.
Despite the benefits of these interactive ads, there are some downfalls that prove that this new method of lobbying does not replace the traditional methods of lobbying methods. For example, “the Internet ads attracted constitutes primarily from the East and West coasts,” not many people from the middle states, which was where the Roundtable needed them the most. Lobbyists will continue to use these interactive advertisements to get people to participate in the congressional debate but lobbying will always be lobbying. The Internet makes interaction easy for people who live in different parts of the world but direct personal contacts are still needed.
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