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When President Obama was elected in 2008, much of the credit went to his campaign’s use of youtube.com, online social networking, email, text messaging and other technologies to reach out to voters.
Now, a Hilton Head company, Jester Communications, has created a way for politicians to bring all of those technologies to supporters in one simple app called “Stumpmate.”
Basically, Stumpmate is a cutting-edge smartphone application that aggregates social media and website content about specific politicians or government bodies.
S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley is one of the politicians currently offering Stumpmate on her website. After accessing her website (www.nikkihaley.com) from an iPhone, Blackberry or Android device and adding the app, users can access her biography; check out volunteer opportunities and photo galleries; monitor Facebook and Twitter feeds; watch speeches and youtube.com videos; make contributions; take part in poll questions and read up-to-the-minute news.
The app also provides politicians with the ability to communicate with their constituents in real time, to easily manage their social media feeds, and to examine how their constituents view various issues and more.
Stumpmate was initially created to help U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., in his 2008 campaign bid. “I actually saw growth in how folks were using social media and how it helped Obama to get elected,” said Jared Jester, CEO of Jester Communications. “So, we approached Joe Wilson’s satellite office in Bluffton and told them we’d like to do an app for them. That was a trial run, but we realized we had a business model.”
And it quickly caught on.
Today, in addition to Wilson and Haley, the following are also using Stumpmate: S.C. Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, U.S. Reps. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., and Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., the Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Jester said they have also had strong interest from current presidential, senatorial, congressional and state-level candidates. He added that the company also expects to branch out to the municipal level next year.
“With this app, people don’t have to turn on their TV or their radios. They just have to have their phone with them,” said Jester, “and we all carry our wallets, keys and phones. Stumpmate really empowers constituents to communicate with their representatives.”
For more information, call 843-321-4035 or visit stumpmate.com.
