e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Online Advocacy Tools: Social Networking/Social Media

July 3rd, 2006

Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites can be a good way of reaching a new audience, though they’re no substitute for an actual website for most campaigns. What is a social networking site? They’re websites on which people and organizations set up a profile page with basic information about themselves and then link to other people’s pages — it’s that simple. Readers can browse profiles by searching by keyword or by following links from one person to another, and they can also leave comments behind as they go.

Getting “friends” is as easy as going to a profile and requesting a link. You can also use social netorking profiles as a mass communications tool by sending a message to all of your friends at once. MySpace and Friendster are the best-known social networking sites, with MySpace (which originally started as a place to promote bands) as by far the more popular — by some measures, it became the most-visited site on the web in July, 2006.

Setting up a MySpace page or a Friendster profile only takes a few minutes, and many advocacy organizations (and corporations) are experimenting with them. Social networking sites’ users tend to be younger, so they’re particularly handy tools if you’re trying to reach high school/college students and recent graduates (though some newer social networking sites focus on more adult adults and senior citizens). MySpace pages also automatically include a blogging function, so they can be an easy way to get into blogging if you’re not ready to set up a standalone site. Technorati has recently begun indexing Myspace blogs.

Often, your MySpace page will be simple “brochureware” — little more than an online business card and a chance to get your name in front of potential supporters. To get more out of it, try adding links to your individual campaigns (if you’re an advocacy group) or to more information about each of your issues. Always include a link to join your email list, a donate button wouldn’t hurt, either. Many MySpace sites are garish and assault readers with sound and flashing graphics (hello, late-90s Tripod and Geocities sites), so you’ll probably want to use pictures or other graphics to illustrate your links, but be sparing — having a “clean” site will actually help you stand out.

A few other things to keep in mind:

• MySpace and Friendster users are a diverse bunch and many people use the sites for dating and self-promotion. You may end up with some “friends” with an exhibitionist streak, so try to decide in advance how to handle friend requests from less-conventional parts of your audience. This consideration is probably more important for a candidate than for other types of campaigns — just imagine how your opposition might use that “friend” of yours who loves her some bikini shots.
• Friend lists tend to build exponentially (the more people who see you, the more people who are going to link to you), so try to build a healthy list right away. If you have an email list or newsletter, mention your MySpace page to your readers when you launch it and invite them to become friends. Also, look for organizations that work on related issues and request friend links, since being shown on their site will put you in front of a friendly audience right away.
• Use MySpace to promote your action alerts! Send a mass message out to all of your friends and also post notice of it on your site. Readers are more likely to sign up for your list if you present them with a specific action to take.
• Ask your friends to post your alert on their sites. If they really care about your issue, they’re often eager to help out. Plus, it gives THEM some interesting (you hope) content for their site.
• As with every other website, don’t let your content slip out of date. If you’re afraid that you’re not going to have time to keep your profile updated, stick with evergreen content.
• Finally, don’t just assign some random intern or junior staffer to create and run a social networking profile because “they’re young and know about these things.” A MySpace site is just as much a part of your campaign’s public front as your main website is, and it must be on message. Make sure that it meshes with your overall communications strategy.

Building Social Networks on Your Own Site

Several vendors are now offering to help organizations set up MySpace-like functions on their own sites. I haven’t worked with any of them yet, but it’s a tactic that definitely shows promise. For an example from the corporate world of how such a feature might work, look at this article about the Washington Post’s use of social networking and social media.

Social Media

Social media is a broader concept than social networking — it refers generally to content that is created by site users rather than by a central person or group. YouTube and Wikipedia are great examples, as are blogs that allow comments. Besides the obvious example of blogs, how can political campaigns use social media?

Carefully, as MoveOn.org discovered during the 2004 presidential campaign. If you’ll recall, early in 2004 the group encouraged its members to create anti-Bush ads that it would then evaluate for actual use on television. Hundreds of ads were submitted and placed online, but one used historical footage to associate the Bush administration with Hitler and the Nazi party. Oops — that one ad gave MoveOn.org’s enemies fodder for days of attacks on the organization. An ad that never ran got plenty of media coverage and took attention away from the issues on which the group wanted to focus voters.

Any time you open the floodgates to user-generated content, you take the same risk, so good gatekeeping is essential. That being said, allowing your members or readers to generate content has some real strengths as a tactic. For one thing, it allows you to capture the brainpower of far more people than you could reasonably hire — you can leverage the collective intelligence of a chunk of the internet. For another, it’s potentially a terrific tool for community building, which we’ll discuss in more detail in the section on building and keeping an audience.

As an example of both aspects, in the summer of 2006 the Ned Lamont campaign in Connecticut made great use of user-created video. For instance, Lamont supporters shot clips of opponent Joe Lieberman’s campaign appearances and uploaded them to the Lamont site. Minor gaffes that would have passed unnoticed in the past could thus be preserved for all to enjoy, and those behind the cameras could feel that they were an essential part of the campaign. Lamont supporters also amused themselves and their comrades endlessly by cleverly editing Lieberman footage into their own online ads and “documentary” clips.

Besides video, a campaign could solicit slogans from supporters, ask them to contribute their own personal stories or essays to an online presentation, provide them with photos to embellish with captions and speech bubbles, or ask them to vote or comment on ads, speeches and position papers, just to name a few uses. Any of these tactics can motivate your supporters and get them to help push your campaign over the top.

See also:

• Ten Commandments of MySpace Advocacy
• Fickle MySpace Audience; Google Courts Advertisers
• Digital Graffiti as a Social Media/Social Expression Tool
• Facebook as a Political Organizing Tool
• RNC vs. DNC Online: Precinct-Walking or Social-Networking?
• Did MySpace Win a Maryland Election?
• Using Social Networking and Social Media for Politics in the Midwest
• Social Media/Social Networks/Podcasting How-To eBook
• Don’t Miss a Chance to Recruit a Volunteer; Microtargeting/Voter Registration on MySpace
• Update: Person-to-Person-to-Person Now Available
• The Washington Post, Social Media and Audience-Building
• AP Article on Political MySpace Sites
• Seattle Times: YouTube is Making Waves in Politics
• Displaying an RSS Feed on a MySpace Site: Elegant Hack

Next: Video and Animation

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Entry Filed under: Blogs, Social Networking, Marketing/Promotion, Social Media

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