Monday, April 25, 2011

Race for Selectmen moves from door-to-door to online marketing

online marketing
The battle for Board of Selectmen is usually carried out through lawn signs and meet-and-greets. This year, Grafton's candidates are taking their campaigns to a whole new arena: online.

With five men competing for two open Selectmen seats in the May 2 election, each candidate is attempting to get the message out in whatever format is available. This marks a first for Grafton: in previous races, only Mary Ann Cotton used a website to campaign.

"You have to go with what's happening now," said Bob Lewis, who said his children urged him to create a site. "I had to learn to text to keep up with my kids, and now I have a website for the campaign. You can't stand still -- you get run over."

The sites, like the candidates, vary in personality. Dan Pogorzelski said he wanted to keep his as simple as possible -- that's why it's only one page.

"I didn't want to make it complicated and there's something that's missing from my page that's intentional: there's no 'click to donate here,'" Pogorzelski said. "Asking for donations just doesn't sit well with me. If someone wants to give me a donation, I'll accept it, but what I really want is a vote -- and that, I'll ask for."

John Dowling said a website is a way to respond to the town's shifting demographic.

Read More

No comments: