e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Quick Hits — May 7, 2008

• Update: The Obama Camp Dials It Forward. Post-primary conference call plays it subtle, while all is well in ClintonLand.
• McCain Launches Spanish-Language Website. Wonder how the Minutemen (no, not THE Minutemen) will feel about THAT one?
• Bury bad news with online press releases. Somebody forward this to Hillary Clinton. C.f. Craigslist Ad Of The Day.
• The critical technology, for the early phase of the industrial revolution, was gin. From gin to sitcoms to lolcats, via Henry Copeland.
• Bunches o’ Studies and Stats on Nonprofit Marketing.
• How-To: 10 Tips for Launching a Solid Podcast.
• Two new guides to presidential online advertising from Clickz, Online Presidential Display Ads Leading to the 2008 Primaries and All Primaries Are Local: 2008 Presidential Campaigns Buy Local Online.
• The Tale of the E-mail. Hillary and Barack’s constrasting post-Indiana/NC notes. C.f. She’s Still In, And She’s Still In To Win.
• Pew Study Confirms Cell Phones Rule.
• Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth.
• Right now, I’m watching the President of the Utah State Senate on my desktop. Julie, you had me at “desktop.”
• Google Reader is becoming more of a social networking application.
• Twitter Post Rescues Jailed Journalist, but Egyptians ignore Facebook call.
• How the White House lost 5 million e-mails.
• Jailed Chinese Journalist Shi Tao’s Poem Follows Olympic Torch’s Route Online.
• Matt Stoller on how liberals rule the web, and The Baltimore Sun on how Matt and friends raised 400K for Donna Edwards. Via tPrez.
• Phantom Obama Vote Appears on NJ Voting Machine.
• Web Ads from Left and Right Advocacy Groups Signal More to Come.
• Media criticism in context: “Yes, it would be nice if the press spent less time on inanities and more time on how candidates planned to actually run the country. But this view of the media is just too simplistic.” Via Salon.
• North Carolina Radio Host Reports Anti-Obama Chain E-Mail Distortion As Fact. C.f. Pennebaker: Clip Doctored, about the Mickey Kantor video distortion. (also via tPrez).
• Union-organizing emails get employees of a social networking site fired! Sent around by Michael Whitney.
• Clinton’s and McCain’s Gasoline Tax Holiday Reimagined as a Phishing Scam.
• National Intelligence Agency Breaks Out RSS Feed.
• 6% are Natural Born Clickers.
• Twitter frenzy! Using Twitter for Your Organization, Use TwitterFone For Easy Voice-To-Text On Twitter, and Political Junkies Congregate and Comment on Election Results Through Twitter. Plus, 5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence and The Bivings Group Does Twitter.
• Yes, a Montana cattle ranch is using banner ads combined with search ads to sell their premium beef via the internet.
• 10 Valuable Tips for Shooting Web Video. Via Frogloop.
• Google, YouTube and the city of New Orleans try to host their own presidential forum. Via Mike Allen.
• Video: how primary-season attacks have been amplified in the general election.
• FBI Targets Internet Archive With Secret ‘National Security Letter,’ Loses.
• Harold vs. Markos. Not everyone wants a unified Dem ticket.
• META Keywords are Legally Dead.
• Be very afraid: Engineers find ‘missing link’ of electronics. Robots take next step toward world domination.
• A minute and a half with Shana Glickfield…is enough to spark any man’s dreams.
• Clone-tool war on nipples continues. Complete with tragic casualty figures.

– cpd

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Quick Hits — April 28, 2008

• Adding Video to Turn Dead-End ‘Thank You’ Pages Into Viral Marketing Campaigns. The Obama campaign finds yet another sweet spot for online recruiting.
• The Post Is Having A Rough Day. Spam attack!
• Reluctantly, a Daily Stops Its Presses, Living Online.
• Rev. Wright Baits the Soundbiters.
• The Internet Goes Green. The growth of the envirosphere, via Micropersuasion.
• Space war would leave destructive legacy.
• McCain: It’s “clear who Hamas wants to be the next president.” Fruits of a blogger conference call.
• Google Earth Outreach Aides U.N. Track Refugees and Save Lives.
• Beyond Bittergate, Barack Yields Success to His Supporters.
• Obama’s Database Will Make Him the Power Broker. Another persistent political following! “Like Mussolini/ And Kennedy…”
• The chummy relationship of campaign professionals and journalists in Washington. Or, getting scolded for making fun of McCain on Facebook.
• Schism Grows Between Obama and Liberal Bloggers.
• Were Mesopotamians the first brand addicts?
• Subject Line, ‘From’ Address Crucial to Email Marketing.
• Who Stole the Plans for iRobot’s Battle Bots?
• YouTube vid inspires Obamacrombie t-shirts.
• Facebook as Weekly Evil.
• McCain on FriendFeed: “Considering the McCain campaign’s sometimes uneven online strategy, this is a step in the right direction.”
• Social Applications Dominate the Web.
• Gays, Lesbians More Receptive to Blog Ads than Heterosexuals.
• An overview of web mining in societal benefit areas.
• Top 10 Wireless Marketing Mistakes.
• 3 Top Tips to Improve Your Online Writing.
• Henry Copeland of Blogads: “As the social media winter looms, the winners will be the folks with strong relationships, low overheads, a strong commitment on innovation rather than coat-tail riding, and, most of all, a indelible passion for the business. We’re looking forward to seeing you after the bust.”
• Sorry Disney, But You’re Kind of a Skank Factory.
• DNC’s national cable ad buy. The RNC’s not so hot about it.
• Web Site Blames Sen. McConnell for Quorum-less FEC.
• The Twitter Disconnect. An introduction and how-to. Also, glimpse a hardcore Twitter-using life.
• Things Really Were Different Before Clinton-Obama. Time keeps on slippin’ slippin’ slippin…into the future.
• Which Government Agency Should Be Your Computer’s Firewall? HAL 9000 or black squirrels?

– cpd

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Quick Hits — April 24, 2008

• Espionage Against Pro-Tibet Groups, Others, Spurred Microsoft Patches.
• New Freedom, and Peril, in Online Criticism of China.
• In every measure, Obama clobbers Clinton online. Also, Barack Obama Takes Lion’s Share of Online Video Viewerships.
• Obama Uses YouTube To Lobby The Public After Losing Pennsylvania.
• Notes from the eCampaigning Forum 2008.
• Cuddle Parties: When Touchy Feely Goes Goofy.
• Why Democrats Rule the Web.
• Smug Alert in SF. Thanks, Slate
• Lost in the Smoke-Filled Room: Unexpected Talent. On the benefits of a primary process. C.f. The Primary ‘Bounce’.
• Government to Seek Terrorists in World of Warcraft: The Full Proposal.
• Welcome to the high-tech age of consumer jihadists. Suggested by Burt Edwards.
• Look Ma, I’m on CIA.gov.
• Anti-war site lets you spend $3 trillion your way.
• Obama’s GOP Shadow.
• Laughing Baby vs. the YouTube Commenters. C.f. The vile state of Internet discourse knows no borders.
• Colbert Snags Clinton, EdWORDS and Obama in One Cast.
• Fight, prefrosh, for social justice — via e-mail.
• Newspaper Ads Drive Online Research, In-Store Purchases.
• Online Advocacy — Using Petitions for List Building.
• Obama Talks About (Internet) Rumors.
• MTV News Still on the Edge of Political News. Kurt Loder rides to the rescue one last time.
• Twitter Away Your Life With Social Networking. And, Is Twittering Sustainable?
• The Twittering Class and the Primaries.
• Tips for success in a Web 2.0 world.
• Do Progressive Techies Have a Google Blind Spot?
• Drive additional web traffic with email.
• Facebook Chat — distraction or benefit?.
• Sick Profits Video Contest. User-generated content goes to the doctor.
• Despite Negative Press, Facebook Is a Powerful Agent for Social Change. But wait: 51% of Donors ‘Not At All Interested’ in Social Networks.
• The New Guards: The Players. A look at potential Republican MoveOn equivalents. C.f. MoveOn.org Asks McCain To Drop Pastor Who Blamed Victims For Katrina.
• EEN’s Avatars Campaign Brings Online Marketing to Life. Online/offline connection.
• Huckabee to follow in Robertson’s footsteps? Yet another independent audience?
• Radiohead Launches Social Network.
• Nerd alert or sublime beauty? Full Earthrise and Earthset in Hi-Def, from the Japanese Kaguya lunar orbiter. I can see my house from here! Via Space.com.

– cpd

Add comment April 24th, 2008 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Notes for Knight Digital Media Center Presentation on Congressional and Local Campaigning

Along with Dennis Johnson, Karen Jagoda and Morra Aarons-Mele, I had the pleasure of giving a presentation this morning on congressional and local online campaigns for the assembled journalists at the Knight Digital Media Center’s symposium, Election ’08: Unleashing the Cyber-watchdogs (i.e., after a week of luxuriating in the California sun, it was time to sing for my supper and justify the trip). My notes are below; if they’re too cryptic, drop me a note for details.

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Add comment April 24th, 2008 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Quick Hits — April 9, 2008

• Update: Bloggers, DIY Filmmakers Capture S.F. Olympic Protest.
• F.B.I.: Lieberman 2006 Crashed Its Own Site. “Cyber-attack” was friendly fire episode.
• Queen Rania of Jordan opens communication with the West via Youtube.
• The Invisible Negative Campaign. Conference calls pour bitter acid in reporters’ ears.
• Truckers are Organizing Online: Is a Nationwide Shutdown Coming? 10-4.
• Charlton Heston Dies; Wikipedia Beats the Major News Sites to the Story. Via Micropersuasion.
• RNC Out-Twittering DNC. DNC too busy raising money.
• P.O.W. to Power Broker, A Chapter Most Telling. A fascinating look at a critical period in John McCain’s life.
• Five-Step Strategy to Market Your Nonprofit Online.
• The Fall of the Report of Drudge.
• Google AdWords for Nonprofits: 10 Tips About Keywords.
• Al Gore’s $300 million. Some of it’s going for blogads.
• What’s ahead for social advertising?
• Presidential Yahoo Buzz: Nationwide, PA, NC.
• Leno apologizes for ‘gayest’ gaffe. Was pursued by an outraged squirrel, plus a lot of online activists.
• Lost in McCainSpace.
• Write like a blogger. Only don’t die in the process.
• Stoners in the Mist. Flash presentation is modern-day successor to 50s anti-everything “educational” films, also has user-generated content angle. Via Wonkette.
• House Staffers Livid Over Web Site. LegiStorm founder defends himself on NPR.
• Jake Tapper’s smoke detector goes off at ABC News. “That fact simply highlights a growing narcissistic disease within the campaign press corps in which members increasingly see themselves as central players in the unfolding political production. Specifically, with regard to the Democratic primary, the press clearly views itself as the third candidate on the stage.”
• Lefty bloggers get free trip to Israel.
• Mapping Content to Better Tell a Story: Refugee Camps on Google Earth.
• Scientists Unveil High-Res Map of the US Carbon Footprint. Google Maps version would kick ass.
• Hillary Tries Grassroots Budgeting. Clinton’s choose-your-adventure fundraising tactic.
• New Clinton Radio Spot Goes After Obama on Energy Policy. Dig the tag cloud.
• Zombie Computers Decried As Imminent National Threat. Zombies now teaming up teaming up with their natural allies; genocidal robot/zombie war against humankind looms.
• How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse. We gotcha covered.
• Citizen journalism and capacity building.
• ‘Congress Has Given Up On The Actual World.’ Daily Show takes on the Second Life Congress.
• U.S. Webcasters Have It Easy (Compared To China).
• Creepy… I’m Sorry, But it’s Just Creepy. McCain girls finally break Alan Rosenblatt’s will to live.

– cpd

Add comment April 9th, 2008 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Online Politics Goes Local (Or, E.politics is Huge in Jersey)

This just in from Bergen County, New Jersey: online politics has hit town and the locals are taking to it with gusto, like a guido to gold chains. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and blogs all make an appearance as North Jersey Record reporter Matthew Van Dusen interviews area politicos attempting to use the internet to influence policy or elect a candidate. It’s up to e.politics to put it all in context:

Some viral campaigns have proved effective at the national level, said Colin Delaney [sic], the founder of e.politics, a Washington, D.C.-based Web site about online political advocacy. For instance, Republican Sen. George Allen of Virginia lost his seat in 2006 after a video surfaced of him calling a man “macaca.”

Delaney believes that candidates at the local level, however, will still be able to win races through traditional campaigning for years to come.

“I don’t think it’s going to be something that every local candidate will do,” Delaney said of the viral techniques.

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1 comment April 6th, 2008 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Friday Fun: The Best YouTube Video of All Time

Some may disagree, but I have truly found the best YouTube video ever — it’s funny, it’s clever, it’s cute, it has a good song, it’s well edited, it’s short, and it anesthetizes or distracts small children (specifically, my two sets of toddler nieces when they’re on the verge of exploding). Finally, a real use for YouTube! If you have not seen it before, and even if you have, allow me to ask you to consider the artistic validity of the following, the legendary Kitty Cat Dance:

Seriously, it’s been seen millions of times now, CONTINUES to pick up views and notice more than two years after its release, and it has to be among the most successful YouTube clips so far. Listen to the song: it’s tight, develops well, is a little twisted in parts, and the punkish chorus is genius, since it helps keep the whole piece from becoming too repetitive or too cutesy. And the use of stills works great, since it lets you edit super-tightly to the music while also creating that immediate sense of unreality. You can learn a lot about what works on the web from watching this one. Again and again and again and…

– cpd

1 comment April 4th, 2008 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Social Media Marketing Cheat Sheet

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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1 comment April 4th, 2008 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Getting Ready for the CNN/YouTube Debate

Here at e.politics world headquarters, I tell ya things are HOPPIN’! We are PLUMB FIRED UP! Tonight’s the REVOLUTIONARY, GONNA CHANGE EVERYTHING presidential debate, sponsored by CNN and YouTube — with questions submitted by YOU, the great unwashed masses….

Okay, okay, it’s another presidential debate, basically in a town hall format, but with questions submitted by video rather than in person. A game-changer? When you think of it as a town hall, probably not. And as has been widely discussed, CNN is still vetting the questions, so there’s always a chance that we’ll end up with the same Washington-consensus questions that dominate the regular debates. But Jeff Jarvis quotes debate moderator Anderson Cooper as saying about the questioners: “These are people that are very passionate about this topic. I want to make sure that this debate honors them, and honors the time they took to make these questions.” So perhaps we’ll get some good questions and some video presentations that really take advantage of the medium — responding to Jeff’s piece, Troy Scheider says that the debates, “while still far from perfect, are an encouraging sign folks are trying — and that we’ll find that new sweet spot eventually.”

The e.politics “team” (me and the cat) will miss the live broadcast — I’ll be at a previously scheduled dinner and she’ll be napping — but my colleague David Newland will be watching from the safety of his new home, Los Angeles. He’s been a web video producer at National Geographic as well as a screenwriter and an all-around video guru, and he’ll be evaluating the video questions from a film-guy’s point of view. I’ll catch the rebroadcast at 11 and take in the whole spectacle from an online communications perspective. Together we shall be an unstoppable force. If you’re looking for more, besides Jeff and Troy’s pieces, Josh Levy’s Daily Digest at techPresident has links to some good preview articles.

– cpd

Add comment July 23rd, 2007 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Video: “I Got a Crush on Obama”

This one’s all over the place today, and for good reason — it’s sheer genius. Barak Obama has a new fan, and she’s willing to use every weapon available to get his attention. Check out these soon-to-be-classic lyrics:

You’re into border security
Let’s break this border between you and me

Universal health care reform
It maaaaaaaaaaakes me warm…

Oh, my. See for yourself:

Kate Phillips has more details at The Caucus. I gotta tell ya, politics in the age of citizen media is going to be fun as hell — what’s next? Thanks to Burt Edwards for the tip-off.

Update: Two good techPresident pieces about the video:

• The Long Tail of Online Political Video (Micah Sifry)
• Obamagirl Video as a Teaching Moment (Alan Rosenblatt)

– cpd

2 comments June 14th, 2007 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us