Obama to announce VP via SMS

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is planning to announce his choice of vice presidential running mate not at a press conference nor on nationwide TV. Instead he’s making this key declaration via text message.

In a text message and e-mail campaign Sunday night, Obama organizers alerted anyone who would listen that the candidate would announce his VP choice between now and the Democratic National Convention Aug. 25 through a text message to his supporters. To get on the distribution list, one only has to text the message “VP” to the Obama SMS short code number, 62262. The campaign is also allowing people to sign up for an email alert on its Website as well as receive notice through the microblogging site Twitter.

Obama is certainly no stranger to using new communications platforms to benefit his campaign. Though not the first to use the Internet as a fund-raising and organizing tool, he’s used it most effectively in the current presidential campaign, generating millions in small online donations. The VP SMS program isn’t even Obama’s first venture into the world of wireless. Much more than his rival, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, Obama has been tapping into the power of the mobile phone, not just to distribute his message but to generate buzz for his candidacy.

On Obama’s campaign Website is a section called Obama Mobile, where would-be supporters can download ringtones and wallpaper featuring the candidate’s voice and mug. Wireless users can also receive regular text updates on different policy positions such as healthcare or the war in Iraq. And for those that want it all, just send the word “hope” to Obama’s short code and become part of the campaign distribution network.

The VP announcement, however, goes far beyond any of Obama’s previous dabbling in the mobile medium. By making a major news announcement—or creating the illusion thereof--via SMS and e-mail, Obama not only controls the message he sends but distributes it directly to the presumably hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who opt in to the SMS campaign. In the case of the text alert, Obama also can get that message to supporters instantaneously before it has been filtered through the news stories and commentaries of the national media. He gets to bypass the middleman.

But there are other advantages for the Obama campaign. For each of the mobile or email lists users sign on to, the campaign collects critical phone numbers, email addresses and even postal address information on potential supporters. The importance of the Democratic VP choice will likely attract into the Obama network a great a deal of people who previously had no interest in receiving Obama’s more mundane campaign messages—all of whom can be hit up for contributions or volunteer requests later.