Kevin Rudd's digital election campaign is falling flat
* by: SARAH MICHAEL, OPINION
* From: news.com.au
* August 27, 2013 2:43PM
THIS morning Kevin Rudd posted an Instagram picture of his Syria phone call to US President Barack Obama. 
It was the latest step in Labor's digital election campaign;
a campaign that has fallen totally flat.
Sure, the PM takes a photo with any voter who comes up and asks.
Sure, his selfies have become such a "thing" now, even the Wall Street Journal is writing articles about them.
But selfies won't win marginal seats. And social media is not an effective tool to win voters in an election campaign. Nor will talking to school kids
It was big news when the Prime Minister hired "Barack Obama's digital attack dog" Matthew McGregor to help woo younger voters.
But it is difficult to see what this has achieved. The most viewed YouTube video Labor has posted during the campaign has received
just 16,243 views. Some days Mr Rudd only tweets once. The Kevin Rudd and Labor Facebook page has 108,139 likes.
A Labor campaign spokesman said party candidates use social media to answer questions from voters and to listen to their opinions.
Sure they listen...
"But there is only so much you can cover on social media, which is why personal communication is also very important," he said.
Television is still king
Veteran media analyst Steve Allen from Fusion Strategy said the "big guns" of Labor's election advertising campaign were being deployed to television.
"I think there is a bit of hoopla about the digital campaign. The whole social side has been a bit
over-promoted and it's been really under resourced and under-utilised. Labor has done everything to publicise 'We're modern, we're at the cutting edge' but it falls a bit flat," Mr Allen said.
"The attack dog in the four-week wonder of the campaign is, as it always has been, television. There is no website that can offer 1.5 million on a single night. But television like the X Factor, like Australia's Got Talent, can offer that and can offer it night after night after night."
Mr Popular
There is no denying Mr Rudd is popular with young people. same mental age perhaps..
New research released yesterday found Mr Rudd's return as Prime Minister gave Labor a 10 per cent boost among young voters. Thirty-three per cent of
17 to 24-year-olds now say they'll vote for the ALP compared with 23 per cent in May.
yet the voting age starts at 18...
The survey conducted by The Australia Institute also showed one third of young Australians remain undecided about who they will vote for.
A selfie with KRudd might convince an undecided 18-year-old to vote for him. But the Prime Minister can't take selfies with every young person in the country.
And they want to drop the voting age to 16...
And taking those selfies might be pointless, anyway.
One in five young Australians won't be voting on September 7. An estimated 400,000 of the country's two million people aged between 18 and 24 did not register to vote, according to Australian Electoral Commission.
Matthew McGregor, who is currently in Australia "helping the digital team" according to an ALP campaign spokesman, has a good reputation. He is credited with
raising money via social media and winning younger US voters by making Mitt Romney's gaffes go viral during the 2012 election. Before the election Mr McGregor was tipped to be working on a similar strategy for Tony Abbott.
There has been no need. The debate during this election campaign has been so meaningless that the media seizes on every gaffe and slip-up and makes it the lead story anyway. Mr Abbott's "suppository" and "sex appeal" comments are some of the election's most reported on moments so far.
And while debate between the parties is hollow, the internet is not its saviour.
When you talk politics online, you're either having an aggressive but totally pointless discussion with someone who disagrees with you, or
you're preaching to a choir of like-minded voters.
You're either commenting angrily on your ultra-whatever-wing friend's latest status update, or you're uploading your selfie with KRudd and getting likes from your friends.
It is a great place for Labor supporters to get together and bond over the fact they want Kevin Rudd to stay Prime Minister. But it's pointless in terms of winning votes. 
The internet is radically changing many things. But it's not changing Australian election campaigns.
