In a sign that Mitt Romney's campaign is serious about digital innovation in politics, it used this past week's Republican National Convention to do a major roll out of its branded version of Square, the mobile credit card processing app and iPhone/iPad/Android accessory already popular with small businesses which the campaign is using for fundraising.
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Square-carrying Romney staff and volunteers were in full force during this past week's Republican National Convention, taking donations and processing payments for Republican swag.
While the Romney campaign won't be releasing any precise numbers about how much they've raised with Square until after the election, one staffer at a convention campaign store told Mashable that the readers had been "very, very successful."
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It's not just Romney employees that were equipped with the lego-sized card readers: the candidate's crew showed up to the convention with 5,000 of them to give to supporters in the hopes they'll go off and use them to collect donations for the Romney campaign from their friends and family.
Zac Moffatt, Romney's digital director, told Mashable that having supporters use Square to do fundraising for the campaign is one way his team can engage voters with technology, a core element of his digital strategy.
When asked if Square readers were too technical for most people, a member of Romney's campaign said that "it's about as complicated to use as any other smartphone app, and only people that already have a smartphone will be grabbing them."
The campaign has a proprietary Square app and branded attachments complete with the new Romney logo. The campaign has to report the name, address and other information about any donor to the Federal Elections Commission, the same as with any other donation received by the campaign. Square takes less than 3% of every donation in fees.
While the Romney campaign didn't give away all 5,000 Square units at the convention, the leftovers were sent to Romney's campaign offices across the country Friday morning for other supporters and staff to use. Romney supporters can also get a free reader by signing up online.
Both the Romney and Obama campaigns have been experimenting with the idea of using Square since January.
What other mobile technology should politicians be using? Share your ideas in the comments.
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Image Credit: Alex Fitzpatrick
This story originally published on Mashable here.