Archive for October, 2009
Because I’m doing a blogger relations training on Friday, and because everyone loves a good Ten Rules piece, let’s do…
Ten Rules for Blogger Outreach
1. Know Your Targets
How do you know whom to pitch if you’re not following the right folks in the first place? Before you reach out, get to know who’s writing about your field, and if possible get to know the kinds of topics each author seems particularly fired up about. Even on big sites such as Huffington Post or Daily Kos, different authors tend to cover their own favorite topics, and if you don’t know who writes about what, it’s very hard to…
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October 29th, 2009
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A small example of the extent to which our political rhetoric has become completely unhinged: when my parents were flying to Virginia for my younger brother’s wedding last week, they ended up chatting with one of the flight attendants, a woman in her 50s. Somehow it came up that her own son and his wife were reluctant to have children, which in itself is nothing unusual, but their reason blew my folks’ minds: it was because they didn’t want their kids to grow up in a “communist” country.
My parents didn’t quite know what to say in response — Mom almost asked her to which communist country they were planning to move (are there really any left, with China in a full-on market frenzy and Mao no doubt shedding tears in heaven?), but basic politeness took over and they gently moved the conversation on. The scary thing was that the flight attendant seemed completely serious about the entire matter, as though the Obama era were the beginning of our inevitable slide into a world of commissars and work camps….
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October 26th, 2009
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New client site! Check out Vanishing Paradise, which I designed and built for the National Wildlife Federation and that aims to get hunters and anglers involved in saving Louisiana’s wetlands (hence all the guns — they don’t call this audience the “hook and bullet crowd” for nothing).
The site’s built in Wordpress and integrates with a DemocracyInAction account for list-building. It’s pretty straightforward overall, though dig the (client-requested) slideshow in the top banner, done with a publicly available Javascript. The site’s recently launched and is still a little shy on the content front, but the client is already working to expand it. A fun project all around.
– cpd
October 25th, 2009
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Time to update that list of open source software shops specializing in nonprofit/advocacy/political work — June of 2007 was a while ago. The companies assembled below all work with open source software and nonprofits or campaigns in some way, often pairing Drupal, Wordpress or Joomla expertise with other services like communications consulting. For instance, a certain Epolitics.com focuses on internet advocacy strategy and training for clients but also does design and templating (and some technology) in Drupal and Wordpress.
Developments since the first round? Primarily, the appearance of a lot more players distributed around the country, suggesting a healthy ecosystem of nonprofit clients (though inevitably a couple of firms seem to have disappeared, too). Also, slowly but steadily Drupal seems to be winning out over Joomla (food fight!), with Wordpress a solid presence at the lower end.
But wait, there’s more! Help build this list by suggesting other companies. Better still, add gossip, innuendo or even solid information about anyone below. Operators are standing by! (I.e., please leave your contribution as a comment). Thanks!
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October 19th, 2009
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Sure the internet might have put Obama in the White House, but can it get me elected mayor? Well, not me — I’ve spent the last 20 years disqualifying myself from any office involving the public trust — but how about someone with a real aptitude for politics and public service? As part of the Winning in 2010 series on state and local online politics, I’d love to get my hands on some outright success stories (though illustrative failures are also welcome).
Note that the “here’s someone who’s doing a great job” examples are always good to have, but I’m really looking for state-and local-level candidates who’ve either won or become seriously competitive because they used the internet to find support or to capitalize on it. Examples could include online organizing, social networking outreach, online advertising, online fundraising, blogging, Twittering, mass-emailing or just about anything else involving packets and pixels, but basically we’re talking about the kind of stories you could use when a traditional media consultant asks outright whether a significant and strategic online program is worth the money.
If you have any ideas, feel free to email me or to leave them in the comments below. I’m planning to incorporate the best/most educational examples in the final version of the 2010 series, and so would love to hear from folks within the next few days if possible. Thanks!
– cpd
October 18th, 2009
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Below are articles related to today’s presentation.
– cpd
October 15th, 2009
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Hey folks, you don’t have to have to be a bigshot candidate to have an integrated online presence. For a clear example, take a look at this email from Jill Miller Zimon, who’s running for city council in Pepper Pike, Ohio:
Subject: Zimon Wins Council Seat!
From: Jill Miller Zimon For Pepper Pike City Council
Okay - not me, but my fourth-grader. Still, he won with more than half the votes of his classroom and from a field of eleven candidates. We’re thinking that the ZIMON signs around town probably helped but … he didn’t share any of his fundraising proceeds to cover that expense!
Jill’s campaign isn’t as lucky - she needs to continue to raise money in order to get out her message on being the only candidate who is qualified to bring truly new and unique perspectives into Pepper Pike City Council.
CONTRIBUTE NOW if you like or read on….
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October 14th, 2009
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Here’s something for your calendar for next week: Suzanne Turner, Kira Marchenese and I are participating in a presentation/webinar hosted by OneWorld.net. The topic? New Communications Strategies for Nonprofits. Suzanne will set the stage by talking about the changed media environment from her perspective as an experienced political communicator, I’ll discuss the ways nonprofits can prepare to take advantage of new outlets both in the short and long term, and Kira will talk about several specific examples from her work at Environmental Defense Fund. Sign up now — $30 for OneWorld members, $60 for the hoi polloi.
– cpd
October 8th, 2009
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Just on The Colbert Report:
“…I want you to go to Conservapedia and make me a Biblical figure…”
What’s up? The Conservative “answer” to Wikipedia has decided to use crowdsourcing to combat “Liberal bias” in existing translations of the Bible — they’re asking readers to help them identify translated terms in common versions of the Bible that match their idea of a liberal interpretation. So, Colbert encouraged his viewers tonight to create accounts on the site and add him to the Bible wherever it seems appropriate…I bet a couple of site administrators are a little busy right now. Wonder if they can buy him off with a treadmill?
…yep, the Conservapedia site’s crashed, ten minutes after it came up on the show. Looks like they got a Colbert Bump of ISP-frying proportions.
Update: Here’s a link to the Colbert episode — the Conservapedia section starts at about minute 5:20.
– cpd
October 7th, 2009
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Hi y’all, here’s a bit of news: I’m now publishing on Huffington Post, with the first piece going live yesterday. Should be an interesting experience! I’ve been cross-publishing on sites like techPresident and K Street Cafe for a couple of years now, but those reach essentially niche audiences. Huffington Post is read by a lot more people, but since it also has a big family of contributors, any individual article can easily get lost in the clutter. It’ll be fascinating to see which pieces resonate outside of an online-politics-specific crowd.
– cpd
October 7th, 2009
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Part Three of How Candidates Can Use the Internet to Win in 2010
Once a campaign has the basic technology in place, it can begin to take full advantage of the internet’s ability to deliver donors, volunteers and voters. Much of a campaign’s online outreach will take place in the very public venues of blogs, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter, but politicians and staff can also reach out behind the scenes, for instance sending emails or Facebook messages to selected bloggers, Twitterers and activists, usually in the hope of creating connections that will lead to more public affirmations of support. Campaigns can target online advertising with a different kind of precision, reaching people with appeals and messages that match the content they’re reading or the keywords they enter into a search engine.
The variety of outreach outlets available to online communicators can be overwhelming, so let’s start with a few basic principles to help sort out the options.
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October 5th, 2009
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- Online Conspiracy Theorists Latch Onto Census GPS Units.
- Tracking Lobbyists’ Real Influence.
- Pawlenty Plants a Flag on Planet Internet, as he Locks Up Top GOP Talent.
- MoveOn.org Hits a Health Care Nerve, while Apple Blocks Health Care Advocacy App.
- The High Cost of White House Outreach.
- Cutting Congressional Staff = Huge Corporate Victory.
- Strategic Vision Polls Exhibit Unusual Patterns, Possibly Indicating Fraud.
- DSCC Chair Proclaims Hope in Texas Senate Race with Bill White.
- Drudge Has Lost His Touch: Technology, the competition, and the times have passed him by. Stay tuned.
- Rising Rightroots and Declining Netroots Now at Parity (or Better). Maybe.
- Joe Rospars on the Obama campaign and social media.
- Will clicking on all the ads help your favorite Web site? C.f. Ads are the new online tip jar (yes, this is a hint).
- Targeted Facebook Ads to Saturate Hill Space (on immigration). C.f. Revisiting Facebook for Online Advertising.
- Redistricting: A Preview.
- Interlaced: Email and Social Networks.
- Democrats Are Jarred by Drop In Fundraising: Complacency, Absence of Big Donors Cited.
- How Google Wave could transform journalism. C.f. HOW TO: Get Started with Google Wave.
- Report: Bing In Decline.
- Has Second Life Cut Its Mullet?
- Among the new features in CNN iPhone app: a price, via Margot Friedman.
- Secret Service Probing Facebook Poll on Obama. C.f. It’s Not Facebook, It’s the People Who Use Facebook.
- Republican base still wild about Sarah Palin.
- The dangers of social spam.
- 7 vital questions to ask your web designer.
- Blogger Profiles for Effective Pitching (free guide).
- Stinking It Up: Lessons From a PR Failure, via Shaun Dakin.
- Contest: Become a Washington Post pundit.
- A Start-Up’s Tale, Tweet by Tweet.
- Blogtalk: Palin, Death and the Olympics. C.f. Afghanistan and a Charge of Racism Lead the Blogs.
- Liberal Groups Raise Funds Off Baucus, Snowe Votes.
- RNC Chairman Compares Pro-Obama Song to Communist Propaganda.
- Joe Wilson turns GOP fundraising star (as in, he’s featured in an NRSCC mass email).
- Cyberbullying Bill Gets Chilly Reception.
- How LIVESTRONG Uses Social Media To Animate Its Community.
- TX-Gov: Perry Campaign’s Claims That Website Was Hacked Don’t Add Up, plus TX-Gov: The Perry Website “Political Sabotage” Explanations Don’t Match Timeline.
- U.K. Online Ad Spend Exceeded T.V. in First Half, Says IAB.
- Survey Shows Engaged Americans Talk Online, and Want To Know More.
- Gear Up For Giving: Social Media Tutorial Series for Nonprofits.
- Designing for Contagiousness.
- Slacktivism and the division of labor.
- Five Tips to Strengthen the Design of your Nonprofit’s Website.
- The Art of Getting ReTweeted.
- Gov 2.0 Summit videos.
- Reflections on Idealware’s Facebook Launch.
- NonProfit Website Design: Examples and Best Practices, via The Agitator.
- HOW TO: Create Videos for Your Nonprofit Without a Video Camera, a Budget of $0, and Little-to-No Tech Skills.
- The State of Online Fundraising, plus Five Things Your Nonprofit Needs to Know About Web 2.0 Donors and Online Donors: Why They Leave and How to Win Them Back.
- Raise Money on Facebook: Four Strategies You Need to Know About.
- Recovery.gov Launches (Again).
- Can Petition Tweets Change the World? An act.ly Quarterly Report meets MobsterWorld is spam!
- New Battlefield, Old Guard.
- Why 140 Characters Works, via TechRepublican.
- Why Twitter is not like Facebook, via Kerri Karvetski.
- Patrick Swayze: A Reminder That All News Is Going Social.
- Naked Female Zombies Running in Slow Motion: The subtle nuances of Zombieland. C.f. Fast vs. Slow Zombies.
- Why missile defense isn’t dead.
- Rolling out a Soyuz. Brute-force engineering at its finest (the train is a nice touch).
- Wanted: Puppy and Kitty Videos for Good.
- Turtle bridges: saving lives every day in New York.
– cpd
October 1st, 2009
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