Democracy for America

Democracy for America has created its own application and online GOTV campaign on Facebook. The application creates a contact list of your friends that you invite to pledge to vote for Obama and is based on the online peer-to-peer model.

Here is the introductory email DFA sent:

Kevin -

This week we launched our innovative Get Out The Vote campaign which focuses on each of us getting the people we know to vote for Obama by Election Day.

Today, we're making it even easier to reach out to friends using the nation's most popular social networking site: Facebook.

FACEBOOK MEMBERS CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED!

NOT ON FACEBOOK? USE OUR WEBSITE INSTEAD!

We all know peer pressure works. When you ask someone you know to commit to do something for you, they won't want to let you down. Now you can leverage that energy to help elect Barack Obama.

That's why our Get Out The Vote campaign focuses on mobilizing your social network. Pledge to vote right now and commit to getting at least 3 of your friends to the polls by Election Day. Together, we'll get 3 million votes for Obama in 30 days and everyone who votes will get a free "I voted for Obama" bumper sticker too.

Get started right now!

ARE YOU A FACEBOOK MEMBER? CLICK HERE TO MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN

NOT ON FACEBOOK? USE OUR WEBSITE INSTEAD!

No matter what the polls say right now, this election is going to be close. Don't leave victory up to chance. Take action today and keep it going until every poll is closed.

Thank you for making change happen.

-Charles

Charles Chamberlain, Political Director
Democracy for America

I was impressed at the level of horizontal segmentation used by DFA in this campaign. They are using their email list to recruit participants in their online GOTV program which is available both on their website and through Facebook. There are not that many campaigns or organizations that are doing this yet.

The application itself is robust, though it is hindered by Facebook's policy to limit the number of application invites to 20 per day. You invite your friends that you think would vote for Obama, and DFA emphasizes that with limited invites you should focus your attention on your friends that you aren't sure will make it to the polls without a little prodding.

All of the friends that you have invited show up on a contact list that shows whether they have accepted your invitation and how many friends they have invited. It will also track your contact efforts with your friend, with scripts and options for face-to-face, phone, postcard, and Facebook message contacts. Here is the built-in script for a phone contact:

The one thing that could make this better would be utilizing Facebook's phonebook feature to show the phone number of your friend on the page if they have one listed, though this may not be possible based on Facebook privacy policy.

The application has a few additional elements to boost its potential to spread virally. You can give the application permission to post a status update about the application. You can also add a badge to your profile that links to the application page. The application will also include an item in your mini-feed when you invite more friends to join.

To sweeten the deal DFA is offering a free bumper sticker to each person who signs up and provides a mailing address.

If you want to check out the application click here.

What are your thoughts on this online strategy? What features do you like or think or lacking? What other organizations are engaging in similar efforts? Let us know in the comments.

In 2004, there was very little going on within the Democratic Party in terms of reaching out to young voters, and a lot of new blood entered the system and started up their own organizations. Very little happened within the party infrastructure (the revitalization of YDA being the exception). This outsider boom in youth organizing is the heart of what my book is about.

More and more, I don't think we'll see a similar dynamic this year. One reason is that organizations that garnered funds from wealthy donors over the past four years will continue to reap those rewards and scale up those programs, many of which the donors are invested in. The second, and equally significant reason, is that the Obama campaign is sucking up all the oxygen in youth activism this year. I don't mean that in a bad way at all. Merely that the entrepreneurial, grassroots youth activism that happened outside of the party in 2004 (particularly after the collapse of the Dean campaign), is happening inside his own youth operations this time around.

But what happens after that? What happens when Obama is no longer on the ticket - either because Clinton wins the nomination or because come November 3rd the campaign is over (or good or bad)?

When Dean lost, his army of followers created a new organization - Democracy for America - which has continued to do the work that Dean started in revitalizing local Democratic grassroots and eventually took over the party when Howard Dean was elected chairman. When the election ended in 2004, many of the youth organizations didn't quit, but carried on into the midterms and some are still with us today. They have become institutions, relevant beyond any one election. Will the Obama campaign morph similarly? Will all these new young people get fed into existing institutions such as the Young Democrats, The League, Campus Progress, Young People For, and more? Will they start their own organizations to keep Sen. Obama accountable to his campaign promises and to assist him in passing his policy proposals long into his administration?

That, I think, will be the true test of Obama's movement. Does it understand itself as such and will it create new (or join existing) institutions necessary to keep that movement alive. Or is it about an election, and will it fade as soon as its standard bearer is off the ticket? Obama's amazing online/field operation is empowering people and building an army of a campaign like nothing we've ever seen. But can that be sustained, and how can it complement or join the existing movement that is also dedicated to changing the Democratic Party?

I don't expect anyone - even the campaign - to have an answer to this yet. But it's something they (and we in the youth organizing sphere) need to be thinking about.