Howdy folks! Hope you’ve been enjoying Wal-Mart Manager Madness — the second round of voting started today, and the whole world is holding its collective breath to find out whether “A Man’s Job” will beat out “Worthless Broad” to advance from the Sexist Sixteen to the Egregious Eight.
In other news, Online Politics 101 continues its domination of the digital politics how-to space, with more than 4000 downloads since the new version came out at the end of January. Woo hoo! And there’s more to come, since I’m in the process of revising that sucker to reflect some of the lessons of the social media-enabled revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. I’m hoping to wrap up the changes this weekend, so keep an eye out for the announcement. Onward, through the fog!
Busy times around the old e.politics bunker lately! The day job in particular has been keeping me on my toes, but now you guys get to share in the fun.
So head on over to the latest project from the National Women’s Law Center, Wal-Mart Manager Madness! What do you do when you have a bunch of sexist statements attributed to Wal-Mart managers in a fair pay/sex discrimination case? Why, form them up into March Madness-style brackets and get folks to vote on ‘em! Join in and you can help the Center whittle the Sexist Sixteen down to the Egregious Eight and the Foul Four over the next few days, with the final vote to crown the winnah and champeen to be held on Fair Pay Day on April 12th.
Good fun all around, and also note that we’re using this contest as an opportunity to bring some attention to a very serious issue on which the Center has done some very serious work, starting with an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of the plaintiffs in the case. For more info, head over to Wal-Mart Manager Madness — when you’re done voting, you’ll have plenty of time to read more, watch video clips of the Center’s Marcia Greenberger on television news, and of course sign on to our action to Congress. Integrated campaigning, much?
True fact: a website can be a pain to keep up-to-date. A recent example in our own august pages? The list of “Highlights” in the sidebar was looong overdue for some housekeeping, as in about two years overdue, with some articles hungry for a rest and plenty of newer ones begging for their chance in the sun. Mission accomplished! Scroll down the right-hand column of any page on the site (readers via RSS, you’ll actually need to click through for once) for links to some old favorites, some new friends and a couple of examples of those man-if-only-people-had-listened moments. And while you’re click-happy, why not tap on a couple of those ads? Yummy, yummy advertising….
A Politician’s Role in the Twitterverse, Part Three: Megaphone vs. Telephone
It all began with a tweet from a college friend – and so began our Twitter discussion on the role politicians should play within the greater Twitterverse, and how they may view their own roles as part of the greater community.
Politicians are just like other tweeters, are they not? They use Twitter to share and disseminate information, while also striving to stay current and absorb additional news. Twitter is also a new way to hear from district and national constituents on specific issues that are being discussed. The real issue is that every politician approaches their use of Twitter differently, some don’t even utilize it at all.
Megaphone vs. Telephone
Obviously, today’s politicians see the Twitterverse as an asset, but there is still a disconnect in how it should be used. More than 70 members of Congress, including almost twenty sitting U.S. Senators, tweet. Candidates for public office, whether gunning for a position on the school board, state representative, or U.S. Senator use Twitter in a variety of ways – some more effective than others.
Most politicians these days (and businesses) use Twitter as a mouthpiece, instead of a tool for conversation. Too often, social media tools are seen as megaphones to blast a message, not telephones to foster engagement. The secret to using Twitter as a telephone is the same as any other basic community relationship: you have to listen as much as you speak. Engaging the community is the best way to communicate and have influence on Twitter.
It’s an online politics celebration! Good friend and regular Epolitics.com contributor Henri Makembe is leaving Blue State Digital to join Shana Glickfield and the rest of the crew over at The Beekeeper Group (where they keep the buzz going, get it?). He’s joining as a Partner, which is very cool, and will be heading up their technology side. Congrats to all involved! Don’t forget about us little people on your meteoric rise to the top.
This just in from a good friend and progressive activist:
gop has a new hashtag going #hcrcostsjobs
you know what to do right?
Translation: Republicans are trying to hype the idea the health care reform is a job-killer, and they’re employing a Twitter hashtag (“#hcrcostsjobs”) to organize the online conversation about it. So naturally, Democrats spread the word about what they were doing and hijacked the hashtag, using it in messages IN FAVOR of the new health care law. As of a few minutes ago as I write this, they were succeeding — most of the users of #hcrcostsjobs over the past couple of hours have been progessive hijackers, not conservative activists. A sampling of the results:
Conservatives may have dominated the use of that hashtag yesterday, but at least for now, health care law-supporters have now pretty much taken it over. Welcome to trench warfare, Twitter-style.
After waxing rhapsodic yesterday about the Digital America state-level social media roundup, I must point out another clever digital critter that struck the local fancy this week: Slate’s ongoing “Don’t-Tread-on-Meter,” which measures that enlightened publication’s view of how well Republicans in Congress are pandering to, er, fulfilling the desires of their Tea Party backers. Plus, it’s embeddable:
Slate’s made a practice of creating this kind of visual representation of political wisdom, conventional or otherwise. Long-term Epolitics.com readers might remember the Hillary Clinton Deathwatch Widget, which alas seems to have sunk beneath the waves. Give me portable content or give me death!
Back In The Day (i.e., last year) when I was at a certain online communications firm here in the DC area, we fielded a request from a client that turned out to be impossible to meet: they wanted a list of state politicians’ Facebook and Twitter feeds so that they could start targeting them with advocacy messages. Considering that there are something on the order of 7500 state legislators in this country, the lift was a bit heavier than we could manage — even Facebook’s DC office couldn’t help (they wanted the list if WE could find it).
Enter the DCI Group, new professional home of friend-of-e.politics Julie Germany, which has put together a terrific state-by-state breakdown of state officials’ social media presences. The new Digital America site uses a nice Flash U.S. map interface and has some fun ranking features (Texas ranks 19 on Facebook and 13 on Twitter!), but the really useful feature from a political communicator’s point of view is the listing of every state-level politician’s Facebook and/or Twitter feeds (man, I’d hate to be the poor bastard who has to keep THAT up to date). Plus, it’s stupid easy to navigate. Both cool AND useful — perfect technology in my book. Good work, y’all!
All activism depends on the belief and hope by participants that acting together will make a difference. With increasing debate and rhetoric around the influence and power of digital activism, what will the future be for this form of mobilisation if misinformed commentary or ill-conceived use of digital tools and networks attempt to undermine it?
A Politician’s Role in the Twitterverse, Part Two: Popularity vs. Influence
It all began with a tweet from a college friend – and so began our Twitter discussion on the role politicians should play within the greater Twitterverse, and how they may view their own roles as part of the greater community.
Politicians are just like other tweeters, are they not? They use Twitter to share and disseminate information, while also striving to stay current and absorb additional news. Twitter is also a new way to hear from district and national constituents on specific issues that are being discussed. The real issue is that every politician approaches their use of Twitter differently, some don’t even utilize it at all.
Be inspired! And learn how social media tools helped people to overcome psychological barriers to acting against the government, to report human rights violations, to counter official messages, to collaborate and ultimately to overthrow an entrenched regime. Viva La Revolución!
