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Back in Action

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I've been finishing up an article for WireTap and haven't had time for much else. We're now returning to regularly scheduled programming.

  • Micah Sifry is asking if web 2.0 applies to local races. I would answer a resounding yes.

    FM regular Fred Gooltz used MySpace to organize young volunteers in a Yonkers, NY mayoral race. IPDI has a case study, but you've got to pay for the full publication (pdf). Check out my case study on CT Young Dems to see what YouTube can do in local politics. And as I write this, David All has also weighed in with more reasons why Web 2.0 matters at all levels of politics.
  • I love NY, but I miss a lot of good stuff that happens in DC. If you're down there, you might want to check out these two events in the next week:

    June 5th
    Winning Young Voters
    Young Voter Strategies will host a panel of experts to release our new publication, Young Voter Mobilization Tactics Volume II, which profiles the youth outreach strategies of seven high-profile 2006 campaigns. Panelists will also discuss the possible impacts of the 2008 youth vote.

    RSVP to info@youngvoterstrategies.org.

    June 7th
    The Future of Political Communications Conference - Connecting with Young Voters.

  • Finally, as a sign that I've lived in the non profit world too long, I'm ashamed to say that I found this funny.
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May 31st, 2007 6:48am
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Using social networking sites is a ton harder...

Submitted by Alex UA on Thu, 2007-05-31 11:36.

Using social networking sites is a ton harder for local races, primarily because it’s nearly impossible to target effectively for small races. When I did outreach for Philly Against Santorum we would add friends who lived all over the place, and while that may not have directly helped get the word out about Santorum, I do believe it go the word out about Republicans in general. I did outreach for Damon Roberts using both MySpace and Facebook, and the results were nowhere near as positive as when I did it for PAS- I don’t think I got a single volunteer using MySpace this time around, while I got quite a few for PAS.

I could see Facebook being useful in organizing around races where there is a college in the district.

However...

Submitted by Alex UA on Thu, 2007-05-31 11:38.

We did use YouTube for our videos, which we distributed (with pretty good success, imo) through blogs, myspace, etc.

You can target geographically

Submitted by Josh Koenig on Thu, 2007-05-31 14:21.

you can target geographically w/most networking services; the question may have more to do with how many in-district voters are actively on them. This question gets trickier as the number and variety of social spaces continues to grow. If I were trying to organize in the HC, tribe.net might be a heck of a lot more useful than myspace. College towns and facebook are another example.

Really, this isn’t all that different from offline social organizing hubs. Some places are strong union towns, other’s have active NRA chapters, and in others the PTA is where the action’s at.

However, I think as a best-practice, any campaign should be ready to add any supporter from any geographic locale: you never know whens someone’s going to have the critical connection.