The Tolbert Report

Mike Huckabee’s Presidential campaign achieved success beyond what most political pundits would have predicted. There are many reasons surrounding this but certainly not the least of which is the online strategy deployed by his web strategic team LCM Strategies. Huckabee’s campaign manager Chip Saltsman worked with LCM during their work for Bill Frist’s political action committee VOLPAC and brought them in shortly after his second place showing in the Iowa Straw Poll. By developing a complete web strategy, not just a one size fits all website but also building strategic relationships with independent bloggers and websites such as Huck’s Army, Huckabee’s campaign was able to create a dominate web presence on a lean budget.

Politico put it this way, “The Republican Party didn’t have any serious losing primary candidates in 2004, and the only mainstream candidate to emerge from the 2008 election with a robust online operation was Mike Huckabee. Despite facing the scorn of much of the organized conservative online establishment, the former Arkansas governor has built a rapport with smaller bloggers, nourished a community on his own site and built an e-mail list that an aide, Chris Maiorana, said numbers more than 100,000.”

Now the Republican Party of Arkansas is hoping that the LCM team can work the same magic for them. You may have noticed the increase in activity on the RPA’s Facebook page and recent creation of a twitter account. A tweet from Wednesday promises, “New website under development! Will update you on launch date soon.”

I am very excited to see the RPA making this important step. The strong web presence will be essential for the state party to develop its network around the state and compete in the future. Good move Doyle Webb!