Hi y’all, I gave a social media marketing training in New York on Monday, and I developed something for it that you might be able to use. The training was for the web staff of the local chapters of a large national nonprofit, and we covered the basics of using tools like blogs, online video, social networking sites and email lists and discussion groups to promote their activities and help with membership and fundraising. As a takeaway (a trick I learned from Michael Bassik — if you can, leave a little something behind for the crowd), I created a cheap sheet that looks at the basic social media marketing tools, their pros and cons, and the essential considerations involved in a social media campaign. Here’s a link to the PDF; details are below.
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April 4th, 2008
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Post-Politics Online/pre-SXSW Quick Hits extravaganza.
- Does Good Design Matter? Todd Zeigler’s excellent follow-on to our Politics Online panel. C.f. lots of POLC coverage at Capitol Valley and Tech Daily Dose.
- Trusting Politics 2.0 Can be Difficult in Local Elections.
- Getting Duped: How the Media Messes with Your Mind.
- Online Video Audience to Hit Critical Mass in ‘08. “Nearly 80 percent of US internet users will watch online video at least once a month in 2008.”
- News and Media US Website Visits Up Sharply. Lindsey Lohan softcore locked in deathmatch with political coverage. C.f. Obama: Bigger than Britney.
- How-To: 6 Tips on Writing an Actionable Press Release. Basic but useful.
- Historically, Most Online Communities Haven’t Stuck. Facebook and MySpace: do not forget the lesson of Ozymandias.
- Crowd Enabling, the Obama way. A mighty bold claim: “Even if Obama fails to achieve his goal of becoming President of the United States, I predict he will have a deeper and more powerful understanding of the American people than anyone in the history of politics.”
- Did the Clinton Campaign Doctor Obama Footage to Make Him ‘Blacker’?
- Spying Fight about Emails, Not Phone Calls, DOJ Reveals.
- McCain’s Unfiltered Blog. Straight conversation.
- Hillary’s pop culture problem vs. Did SNL Save Clinton’s Campaign?
- Is the Obama Campaign Really Different?. Or is he the new New Coke?
- ObamaCycle: A Craigslist for Obama Campaigners.
- Hillary’s Classy Tweets to Ohio and Rhode Island. Not sure “Tweet” and “Classy” belong in the same sentence.
- Air Force Launches Recruitment Campaign Touting Cyber Command. Check out the gee-whiz landing page, and also the fact that the Air Force has blocked access to many (most?) blogs.
- Obama Reaches 1 Million Donor Mark. Check out the comments on Micah Sifry’s article about it.
- Obama does not read blogs. No wonder he has time to run for president.
- Quote of the week: “‘It’s a love tap compared to the Wu-Tang fist of fury that’s coming at this guy in the fall,’ said Rick Wilson, a Republican media consultant.”
- Heather Havriskey interview with George Carlin. A must-read for anyone interested in writing or the creative process.
- Facebook Launches Band Pages. “MySpace also might start to get worried — I’m sure I’m not the only one who uses that site solely for auditioning bands.”
- New Source for News Vetted by Scientists. A peer-reviewed take on social news.
- The Charms of Wikipedia.
- Are Liberals and Conservatives Different Species? The Answer is Yes.
- Extended rant against microsites. Not sure if I agree, but it’s worth reading.
- A Whole Toolbox of Contention.
- ETech: Lessig Calls for Geeks to Code Money Out of Politics.
- Wanted: A More Digital Congress.
- Inside Obama’s Ground Game.
- Hillary’s Rapid Responders.
- Obama Lawyer Crashes Clinton Call. With audio!
- Politico 2.0: Ruffini Blogs, Twitters, Crowdsources Obama Donations. Via tPrez. C.f. Josh’s take on the candidates’ post-Tuesday splash pages
- Flickr and TechSoup to hand out free Flickr Pro accounts to nonprofits.
- Facebook changes political affiliation choices. Michael Whitney and Nancy Scola are not impressed.
- Over 1 million people have seen Robert Greenwald’s anti-McCain online videos.
- Geeking out before checking out: Spacecraft photographs avalanches on Mars. Don’t miss the accompanying Earth/Moon family portrait, taken from Mars orbit — such a cute couple. And, dig the new European automatic robotic space truck. Finally, some good advice for the Coast Guard, and a Farewell to the Dungeon Master.
– cpd
March 6th, 2008
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- Update: Primary Season Signals Adoption of Online Ads by Political Campaigns. “Not only are those ads relatively inexpensive; they’ve allowed often cash-strapped campaigns to determine whether their dollars were well spent, before voters went to the polls.” Lots of details in this one.
- Politics and tax top US search league. Also note that Huckabee’s site outdrew McCain’s by 50% in January, and that Obama’s site had double the traffic of Hillary’s and four times that of McCain’s.
- Story on McCain’s Relationship with Telecom Lobbyist Sets Bloggers Abuzz. Nothing like a potential scandal to wake up the pajama-clad warriors — and set up a fundraising frenzy.
- John McCain Abuses Email. Lithe, blonde email in question denies all allegations.
- UK-Based Facebook User Figures Begin to Plateau. Facebook dons waterskis, prepares ramp over shark tank.
- The race online: Obama, rivals bring Internet campaigning to new level. Overview article from Frank Davies of the Merc News.
- Ralph Nader’s Bid for Presidency Meets with Negative Online Buzz. No love for Nader in the Lefty blogs.
- Googlebombing McCain. Via tPrez. Warning: he’s no stranger to flak.
- U.S. online search up 10% since last year.
- GOP politics in a nutshell. Dissecting a Republican online video.
- U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft. Juan Cole replies:
“The recent alarmism about terrorist activity in virtual worlds seems designed to prey on the fears of the Internet common among the Great Unwired. Most of the concerns are simply unreasonable.”
- Viva Obama!. Lots of citizen vids. But wait: here comes the inevitable online Obama backlash.
- Ad Age: Creatives Have a Crush on Obama. One reason that Obama-supporting citizen media is so good — plenty of it is created by professionals. Via ReelPop.
- How much millet can a cellphone buy?.
- Lost in Wisconsin. “Again and again, following Super Tuesday, the Clinton campaign failed in basic on-the-ground organisation.” Also check out this reader comment about “Camp Obama,” Deconstructing an Obama Victory and Clinton on the ropes: How she got there (the last a Burt Edwards suggestion).
- “In Canon” Voter-Generated Content. Interesting model for considering citizen media.
- How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love Domestic Wiretapping.
- Email best practices: What are the best days and times to send bulk email?. And, Using Images in Email.
- Map of the Political Blogosphere. Via Technology Evangelist, who argues that it shows the continuing value of having original content.
- Two Articles on Political Online Advertising. Eric Frenchman adds to Kate Kaye’s excellent Clickz reporting.
- EBay Boycott Ends Today; Impact Disputed. Online activism ain’t just political.
- Grassroots organizing online, post-Ron Paul. Top-down vs. bottom-up — the battle continues.
– cpd
February 25th, 2008
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Cross-posted on techPresident
Writing in the NY Times Magazine a couple of weeks ago, Matt Bai evoked a vivid picture to describe how political campaigns should, in his eyes, harness the internet:
In the new and evolving online world, the greatest momentum goes not to the candidate with the most detailed plan for conquering the Web but to the candidate who surrenders his own image to the clicking masses, the same way a rock guitarist might fall backward off the stage into the hands of an adoring crowd.
Powerful image! But some pictures hold less than meets the eye, and this might just be one of them. Are the presidential campaigns missing the boat, or do they know something we don’t? Let’s hear more from Matt first:
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December 27th, 2007
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Ron Paul and his band of online insurgents did it again — they mobilized online support to gin up tons of cash (a cool $4.2 million) and make the mainstream media take notice. Outside the Beltway has a good wrap-up of news coverage, and of course the online politics crowd has weighed in as well.
Writing in tPrez and his own site, for instance, Patrick Ruffini argues that:
Candidates like Paul and Huckabee are better able to capitalize on offline momentum because of the vibrant grassroots ecosystems that exist around them. These campaigns deliberately nurture these ecosystems not by bringing them in house, but by giving them prominent placement on their Web sites and access to inside dirt that was previously the province of finance staff only.
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November 6th, 2007
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Ad contests have become a bit passé of late, but MoveOn’s recent solicitation of scripts for radio ads stands out as a good example of social media in action — as well as an online/offline mixed-media performance from the organization that invented crowdsourcing of political ads. I risk being labeled as obsessed with radio, but audio seems like an excellent channel for citizen contributions, in this case ads to be run against Republicans blocking changes in Iraq War policy. The MoveOn contest requires even less technical ability than video, since anyone with a feel for words can try his or her hand at writing a script. I’d love to see them open the production process to member contributions as well — let people submit their own MP3s and see what comes out. But this script competition will be determined in part by member vote, and overall it looks promising. Update: A Loyal Reader (thanks, Mom) points out that this competition is also being heavily pushed on the John Kerry list, which she still reads but whose messages I am apparently all too likely to delete.
– cpd
July 29th, 2007
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Cross-posted on techPresident
Something interesting just dropped into my email inbox — an invitation to join a Democratic Party online rapid response team. My mission, should I choose to accept it:
This special PartyBuilder group will help serve as the eyes and ears of the Democratic Party during the campaign and will allow us to share information on the Republican candidates as it breaks. Please, only use the listserv and blog for rapid response purposes.
From the invitation email:
As a member of the PartyBuilder rapid response group, we’ll send you important information about the 2008 Republican presidential candidates — when they mislead voters, completely change positions on the issues, or pander to special interests. Then, you can help get the word out to your friends, family and neighbors.
You can also contribute to the research effort by fact-checking their statements, studying their records, and watching for campaign gaffes.
This is a group effort, and this work is essential for showing the American public the true nature of the Republican candidates.
Looks as though Kos isn’t the only person asking peeps to record everything — no doubt, a bunch of large-membership organizations or sites with big audiences will end up doing the same. Candidates under a microscope! More political crowdsourcing! Pretty soon, no one will be able to run for office but big cute happy puppies….
– cpd
June 13th, 2007
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