Online Organizing

A listserv I'm on has had a very interesting thread about Tweeting recently beginning with a piece from Politico that says more GOP electeds are on Twitter than are Democratic Elected Officials almost 2:1 - 100 to 56 according to Tweet Congress.

"A total of 261 Dems are ignoring the new technology (Claire McCaskill ain't one 'em) compared to 119 non-Tweet R's."

This broke into a discussion that questioned the demographic of Twitter and its usefulness to the political youth movement as well as its effectiveness for advocacy and/or outreach.

According to the Nielson Wire

"Twitter’s footprint has expanded impressively in the first half of 2009, reaching 10.7 percent of all active Internet users in June. Perhaps even more impressively, this growth has come despite a lack of widespread adoption by children, teens, and young adults. In June 2009, only 16 percent of Twitter.com website users were under the age of 25. Bear in mind persons under 25 make up nearly one quarter of the active US Internet universe, which means that Twitter.com effectively under-indexes on the youth market by 36 percent."

What Jason Pollock from The Youngest Candidate remarked was that early adoptors of Twitter were already middle aged, where early adopters of Facebook and MySpace were in their teens and 20's. Twitter was more of a technology phenomenon when I began using it, but it has grown from there to become more of the social network people see it as today.

The major focus for me has been with search engine optimization. You hear this thrown around a lot but, essentially it means that the more sites you promote your blog posts to, the more ways people are able to find it, and the higher it will climb in a google search.

My example to the list was something we orchestrated earlier this year during the Kansas Legislative Session. A number of my friends were early Twitter adopters, and have talked it up so significantly that everyone we know is now on Twitter, creating a predominantly progressive following on the site in Kansas. So while nationally there might be more GOP elected officials on Twitter than democrats, in our state, progressives dominate the pool and use it constantly to promote progressive blogs and bloggers, causes, and candidates, while also waging major hits online to GOP electeds at the federal and state level.

We suffer from a profound lack of transparency in our state Capitol. There are no video or recording devices allowed inside the chamber or committee rooms. If you want audio you have to go get the day's tape and search for the quote you want. Then basically put the audio into a video that just features the member's photo. It sucks. But, this past session we had progressive lobbyists and bloggers live tweeting the legislature and committees with our offensive network of retweeters prepared to spread the word.

Early in the session then Governor Kathleen Sebelius (now Secretary of Health and Human Services) had proposed solutions to the budget difficulties Kansas, like many other states, was having. The GOP lead legislature wasn't interested in pushing the Governor's plan and as such threatened to shut down the government. We knew there was going to be a throw-down throughout the day and had primed our group to be prepared to Tweet and drive traffic all day about how the GOP didn't care about regular people in Kansas.

It began early with a few blog posts on Kansas Jackass , and a clever name PayCheck Gate. Then the tweet storm began. For a few hours we tweeted and encouraged other to do so about the controversy, we encouraged people to call elected officials, we crossposted blogs, and everything had the tag #ksgop.

People made fun of us, asking why we were promoting progressive values like getting paid all while labeling it with KSGOP? It seemed silly. Until about three o'clock that afternoon when a google search for KSGOP reveled our blogs as the #1 search. Second, was the thread on search.twitter.com for our hashtag, and third was the KSGOP's website, which by the way, is www.ksgop.com.

So, while I agree that there are limits and flaws to organizing with Twitter, you can build a powerful social media advocacy movement that young people can participate in via smart phones and sometimes while at work or in class. Further, it doesn't require youth to give money, write a letter or email, or make a call. You can create the movement, activate it, then do a process story about it followed by fundraising around it's success. You can use it to tear down and build up, depending on your agenda or your org's strategy and goals.

Best Practices

Many of you have heard me say that my real job at Mixed Media is to just cause trouble on the internet all day. But its something everyone can learn, develop, and foster if they have the time and energy to do so.

My suggestion, particularly to those organizations or campaigns working in the states or in specific cities that are smaller (like Atlanta vs Chicago and NYC) is to do a workshop for your members on Twitter. Show them the practical applications, how they can use it to help, and network them in with your movement. Use it to promote small things first like blogs or news pieces. Watch via search.twitter.com or BackTweets how the branches of the tree work, if it's not working build your base with more workshops, or consider doing blast emails or facebook messages asking folks to RT @Whoever or change their status update.

Your result will be a following much more powerful than someone who has 40,000 friends - it will be hundreds of people that will retweet and advocate for your causes.

You can build local and regional movements quickly and easily then use them to promote your organization, have friends help cultivate small donors, promote online outreach, and give your members some form of consistent participation that they feel is meaningful without having to donate money all the time.

Twitter - USE IT! If you ever have any questions feel free to email me - my information is on the about page.

Progressive Exchange is one of the largest - if not the largest - email groups for progressive activists. It's a public list run by M+R Strategic Services, a progressive communications consulting firm, and has over 4,200 members. If you are not on it, you should be.

A discussion arose this week on the topic of "Slacktivism." In short, slacktivism is a short-hand, derogatory term used by some in the organizing community to mischaracterize online organizing. The discussion arose in response to two pieces: a short blog post at the Global Fund for Children blog questioning the effectiveness of social media in organizing for change, as well as this piece in Foreign Policy.

This is a huge topic, and one that we've addressed before here on Future Majority. I don't think I'm going to change any of your minds here by writing out a laundry list of problems with the term and the corresponding reasons that online organizing can be effective. But I did want to repost what I wrote at Progressive Exchange as I think it's worth repeating:

First, I'm super uncomfortable with the term "slacktivist." Along with Tom Friedman's "Generation Q," it's a term that has primarily been used to tar and feather Millennials for not conforming to a Baby-Boomer view of activism, and it implicitly ignores all the real-world activism that today's young people do in their communities (see high volunteering rates, Teach for America, etc.), as well as in the political realm (see all Jon's examples plus a group like Energy Action Coalition/Power Shift/Power Vote). You are not convincing anyone or doing anything constructive by painting with such a broad-brush term for a generation or a style of activism (and to be clear I'm talking in generalities here and not pointing a finger at anyone on this list in particular).

Second, it's not at all clear to me that people who do engage in "slacktivism" would have become involved AT ALL absent the opportunities presented by the magic of the interwebs. Looked at in that light, isn't it the job of the people on this list to figure out how you convert that new-found pool of loosely/active connected individuals into a project that does accomplish real change? So rather than say "this is bullshit activism and these people suck," maybe it would be a bit more productive to put a greater onus on ourselves to figure out what to do with this giant new pool of potential supporters rather than deride them for taking a step in the direction of positive action for social change.

Lots of stuff today hitting on the relationship between technology and democracy. Enjoy!

• Sam Stein details the rise of thirteen year old Jonathan Krohn, the latest excuse for the GOP to not have to do anything to court the youth vote. Check him out here.
• Micah Sifry's post on the complexity of user rights on Facebook.
• At tech President, Nancy Scola examines the governing tension inherent in Facebook's relationship with its users and vice versa.
• Adam Green argues that Facebook, in order to become the ultimate organizing tool, needs to eliminate a few self-imposed barriers first. One of those involves the group mass-email policy.
• More Micah: Sifry examines the larger, philosophical questions regarding the 'net's impact on democracy.
• "Youthanized" is a documentary short from Project Youthanize that examines something which we discuss on this blog quite frequently -- the transition from youth-led, street protest-based activism in the 1960s to youth-led, digitally-inspired activism today.
• Glenn Hurowitz's discussion of the Powershift Conference, focusing on one member of a group of young climate activists that Glenn Beck describes as "Hitler youth," Meg Imholt.
• Rock the Vote announces the premiere of Rock the Vote Radio -- a weekly 30 minute, roundtable discussion centered on politics and current affairs, with a rotating panel of young adults. Check it out!
• More testimony to the "parasitic nature" of student loans.
• Rev. Lennox Yearwood sounds a call for action among America's youth, given the increased importance in governance over elections. I wish Tom Friedman sounded more like this.
• Where is Obama's CTO? A Politico article asks the question and searches for the answer.
• Mayor Daley of Chicago has a YouTube channel.

Bloguette Meghan McCain had an interesting article in the Daily Beast yesterday that addresses the techless nature of the GOP.

During the campaign season the only youth outreach I could find coming out of the McCain campaign was Meghan and her friends that traveled with the campaign and reported on the goings on.

Since this seems to be the week of children of the GOP coming out to tell all it is fitting Meghan wanted to talk about her experience as well. She says that the whole idea of the blog and project about being on the trail "was met with confusion and resistance" to begin with. "A few people even asked me what's a blog."

For the record, what you're reading right now.... is a blog.

She also said that she got the idea that people thought she was wasting her time, "The Republican party isn't exactly Internet savvy," she says.

I would argue that there are many people in the GOP that are very tech savvy. The College Republicans developed a nice little social network site that no one really uses, if you're a frequent reader of FM you know we know all about that site. And there are a hand full of remarkable tech savvy guys (sadly they're all men) who do some good work for a party that has little to no support for them. Meghan's lament isn't an isolated one.

"Unless the GOP evolves as the party that can successfully utilize the Web, we'll continue to lose influence. I think nothing confirms this fact to be more true than this recent election. I don’t claim to be an expert on mobilizing voters, but a significant number of the readers on mccainblogette.com, my blog, were between the ages of 18 and 30, a key demographic that either party would want. Many of the established Republican strategists told me that young people would not visit my web site."

So, Meghan started calling around asking people about the kind of outreach that happened online from the GOP to see what people's opinions were. Her findings?

"Instead, they told me that not having enough money was a huge factor in our loss—not our misuse of the Internet. Others were just plain angry, blaming the liberal media, and not the party's shortcomings online. Of course, there is truth in some of this. But denial only amplifies the stereotypes about Republicans being disconnected."

I live in the heartland, Meghan... I feel you're pain. No one here really gets the internet either. They think we're liberal because we blog - gotta love it! Her friend Rob Kubasko who helped develop mccainblogette.com tells her that it isn't the technology so much as having a message driven system that I guess includes the technology. He goes on to say that people want to be on Twitter because its cool but their tweets are lame making them part of the disconnect not the solution.

Another friend Becky Donatelli says that more and more people are getting their news from the Daily Show and SNL and spending the day on their Blackberry and laptops. She says that old school political operatives are aggravated by this (I agree but don't isolate it to the GOP) but it makes you wonder if these operatives are just choosing not to evolve simply because they don't like what the alternative is: Uncontrolled renegades unbridled by strategy and message campaigns wildly submitting whatever their thoughts online for the world to see.

Sounds like a party!

Meghan says "Until the Republican party joins the twenty-first century and learns how to use the Internet, its members will keep getting older and the youth of America will just keep logging on to the other side."

I would argue that technology is a big part of this because its where we spend our time, but I think having a message, political philosophy, and strong outreach in person as well as online is key to capturing the youth of America. That was the problem with STORM - its not enough to know that youth are on SN's its about knowing them well enough to understand where they are

CBS news commentary via Katie's notebook all about young voters and how they can be influential in impacting their community if the Obama Administration continues to use new technologies to inspire them.

It's a HUGE pet peeve of mine that so much reporting on technology and the youth vote boils down to "Obama has more friends on social networks, giving him a lock on the youth vote." That's really the equivalent of saying that "Obama gave out more bumper stickers than McCain so Obama will win the youth vote." It totally misses the fact that Obama's success with youth is much deeper, rising from his campaign's ability to convert those friends into online donors, virtual phone-bankers, and self-organizing, offline activists.

As an antidote to that kind of reporting, I want to point everyone to Sarah Lai Stirland's excellent Wired News article about Obama's use of technology. It's one of the best pieces I've read this year describing how the campaign's technology infrastructure informs and amplifies traditional campaign field work.

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.

According to the Oklahoma University paper, students are coming together to help US Senate candidate and FM Youthy Candidate Liveblog guest Andrew Rice online using Facebook to mobilize young voters in Oklahoma.

"Matt Tepper, field director for the Andrew Rice for U.S. Senate campaign, taught volunteers how to use the Rice for Senate Volunteer Center application and spread Andrew Rice’s message. The Facebook application offers another way young people can get involved in a grassroots campaign, he said.

“We’re one of only three campaigns in the country using this,” Tepper said during his demonstration.

Volunteers can add the interactive application to their Facebook profiles. The application provides users with a name and phone number, and they are expected to call the person on the list and follow one of three scripts."

Thomas Friedman eat your heart out....

LINK TO THE APPLICATION (must be logged in)

They were developed by the folks at Nico Networks who are responsible for such things as the Got Tuition? Facebook Application and the Rock the Vote Action Center on Facebook.

News you can use:

• According to research commissioned by EMILY'S List, Obama leads McCain among women aged 18 - 27 by 30 points (62 - 32%).
• If you haven't seen it already, The Washington Post has a very good piece profiling Tripple O: Obama's Online Operation.
• Allison Fine on why oldschool nonprofits need Millennials, but Millennials don't necessarily need them.
• Rachel Maddow needs help coming up with a name for her new show. Go give her good suggestions.
• Ashwin Madia, one of the youngest congressional candidates in the country, blasts Joe Lieberman on Iraq. Ashwin is one of the young candidates endorsed by the Young Voter PAC.
• Rock the Vote is teaming up with X Box Live to register voters who use the game console. Next time you get booted out of Halo for betraying the jackass flinging insults at you, go to the Dashboard and get your vote on.
• The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the format for each of the three debates. Some free-form discussion periods could be interesting. The internet stuff sounds lame. I'm sticking to my original review: wasted opportunity.
• Heather Smith offers a brief history of Texting in Rock the Vote's voter registration campaigns.
• Howard Dean was in Nevada recently trying to rally young voters around the Democratic Party.
• Check out this widget from Progressive Future. Pretty cool:

According to Colin Delany's ePolitics.com

IPDI Book Discussion on Online Politics 101 with Colin Delany - Wednesday, August 13
Noon-1:30pm
The library of the Graduate School of Political Management
4th Floor
GWU’s Media and Public Affairs Building
805 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052

RSVP REQUIRED to julie@ipdi.org

Should be a hoot and a half, and I’ll see if Julie will let me record it on one of those new-fangled video devices I hear are all the rage.

See also the new cut version of mine and Colin's mutual interview (upper right) which pretty much keeps the camera on the person who is talking the whole time... its fun for the whole family.