Mormon.org aggressive online recruiting….Romney induced?

I recently saw a banner for the LDS church site Mormon.org stating for their Truth Restored campaign. The call to action was ”chat with a Mormon”. I thought it was a little strange to see the message, but out of curiosity, I clicked through and was able to chat with a missionary about any questions I had regarding their site, and I assume faith. I think this is a fairly radical approach to growing the numbers in the faith, but during Mitt’s presidential run, not a bad time to leverage it. This is the first time I have seen a religion push online marketing to recruit and answer questions, maybe they are on to something.

I don’t know if this is going to help or hinder Romney, but I think there is a connection to the timing as Mormonism has become a strong topic in the political debates. If someone has an evaliant account, I would be interested to see where the ads are running and what the campaign details are. I never have questioned the church as being entrepreneurial, they make members where garments which they sell through church owned stores and make a nice little profit on.

I can congratulate them on taking an interactive approach to recruiting and teaching, but am a little shocked at the method.

Presidential Candidates slow to adopt search marketing?

I have been amazed recently how slow politicians haev adopted search marketing. They spend exorbitant amounts of money on offline marketing and campaigning, and so many people go online to find out more information about their values, beliefs and goals. I honestly believe that a politician that sees the power of the internet and creates an engaging website about what he stands for, and uses search engine marketing to drive traffic to it along with other methods, will be able to reach an audience that is otherwise unobtainable. I also believe it will be interesting to track local political campaigns to see if someone jumps on board the search marketing ship, and captures a large audience of undecided votes. Thus making a large ripple in the political campaigning arena. Just something to keep an eye on as they increase the marketing for ‘08.