Imagine you’re at a rally with thousands of your supporters. You ask them to join your effort by taking out their mobile phones and sending a one-word text message to a 5-digit number. They do so, and they immediately receive a message back thanking them for joining and telling them to expect periodic updates and action items from your team.

A few days later, Congress schedules a vote on an issue that’s important to your organization. You send a text message that contains a phone number to your supporters, who then make the call in just a few clicks. They hear your pre-recorded talking points audio message and are then routed immediately to the office of their senator or congressman.

These are just a few of the many ways that mobile can help you recruit supporters, provide them with information they want, and call them to action. Just as importantly, mobile can help you streamline your internal organizational processes. For example, politicians and other organizations concerned with getting out the vote will be interested to learn about mobile walk lists, which allow volunteers going door-to-door to easily update records and databases via text message.

These applications are available right now, and they are going to have a big impact on the 2008 elections. Before we get to that, though, we want to talk about some of the essentials that you’ll need to know in order to get started with mobile.

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