Here in Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District, there is no sign of intelligent use of social media for campaigning, but times are changing in the rest of the nation…

“Each election cycle sees social media become a slightly more potent force in U.S. politics — but its effects are still relatively limited, according to panelists at an event organized by Politico and Facebook and held at the George Washington University.A recent GWU/Politico poll found 89% of respondents said they had never directly interacted with a politician through a social network — compared with 2% who say they did once, 7% who say they do it occasionally and 2% who say they do so frequently. GWU professor Matthew Hindman noted that he expects these numbers to increase by 2012, as more young people who grew up with social technology reach voting age.

But Facebook’s Adam Conner says asking about direct engagement is deceptive. Rather than asking how many people have directly engaged a candidate through a social network, Conner says it would be better to study how many people have gotten information about a candidate through their Facebook newsfeed because one of their friends supports that candidate. “That’s where you get the viral feedback loops,” he said.Most campaigns are spending less than 5% of their budgets on their online efforts, said EngageDC’s Mindy Finn, who served as Mitt Romney’s online strategy head for his 2008 presidential campaign– though for some ballot initiative campaigns, that number can climb as high as 15%.

Part of the problem is that right now most social-media efforts for campaigns are just “window dressing,” said Hindman. Candidates have Facebook and Twitter accounts just so they can say they have them — not so that they can accomplish any specific goals with them.That could change, however, as more candidates who are personally comfortable with social tools run for office, noted Finn and Conner. Finn pointed to Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who has a personal Twitter account, but also has an official campaign account run by staff. This allows Perry to have an authentic voice on the network. At the same time, his staff members have a channel for pushing out their updates in a transparent way.” Source: What’s next for politics and social media? | SmartBlog on Social Media

Personally, I’ve been very frustrated by the failure of the RNC, the RPW, and specific campaigns to embrace social media. I vented some of that frustration in a post on my political blog called “The Awesome of Roger Roth”. Until campaigns are willing to spend more than 5% of their budgets on social media, I think you can expect more of the same…