Video: Talking 2012 Digital Political Trends with Call2Action

Archive for July 24th, 2012

Video: Talking 2012 Digital Political Trends with Call2Action

It’s hard to believe that just a few months ago a bunch of us online political nerds were camped out in Austin for South by Southwest Interactive, an experience that damn near killed your Loyal Editor. Besides the audio recording of our Occupy/Citizen Journalism panel and a fair amount of liver damage, the conference also yielded the discussion below, with Aiden Livingston of Call2Action (disclosure: Call2Action is an occasional consulting client).

In the video below, Aiden and I touch on a ton of good topics, including the power of data for microtargeting in general, for cookie-based voter-file targeting, for multi-variant email fundraising campaigns and for tracking supporter actions, including social sharing. We also talk about the new NGP/VAN Social Organizing tool, the importance of trained staff, differences between Democrats and Republicans online and kinds of content that work online. Check it out:

For more on key 2012 tech trends, see also the series I cranked out a couple of months back for Campaigns & Elections. Delicious and nutritious!

– cpd

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How a Twitter Rapid Response Campaign Helped Susan Sarandon ‘Get’ Paid Sick Days

Guest article! The latest from our old friend Beth Becker.

How a Twitter Rapid Response Campaign Helped Susan Sarandon ‘Get’ Paid Sick Days

By Beth Becker

A coalition of diverse organizations in New York City has banded together to escalate the conversation regarding paid sick days for workers, with an emphasis on getting the NY City Council to pass legislation mandating paid sick days. So far, Council Speaker Christine Quinn has not called for a vote on this issue. But now, it just may happen — after the coaltion (with a little help from their friends) gave us an impromptu course in how to run online rapid response.

Last Wednesday morning, the coalition announced that they were teaming with Gloria Steinem to ramp up the pressure in this campaign. Speaker Quinn must have realized she needed a powerhouse of her own. So on Thursday, Susan Sarandon (aka, a celebrity activist who often ends up on the progressive side of things) tweeted this:

Sarandon Tweet

Shortly thereafter, the coalition sprang into action. Using other online tools such as email and Facebook and even offline tools like phone calls and text messages, they urged supporters to ask Susan to use her relationship with NYC Council Speaker (and expected candidate for NYC Mayor in 2013) Christine Quinn to allow the council to vote on paid sick days legislation.

What followed? A firestorm of over 100 tweets within a few hours:

(more…)

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