The Wayne County Young Republican Website

One of the many organizations I am part of is the Wayne County Young Republicans. WCYR was formed early in 2009 in response to the high level of Democratic youth votes in the county. My role is the Marketing Chairman which means my challenge is to find young Republicans in the county and get them to join a new organization. My first task was to put together a website and online strategy for the organization. We recently completed the first phase of the website at http://www.WayneCountyYRs.com and I wanted to share a few key elements of the website.

First, take a look at the home page. We have a large image that shows something the organization has done. Right off the bat, the organization looks active. Then, we have two columns on the top right: Events and the Twitter Feed. Visitors can keep up to date on what the organization is doing and are invited to follow the organization's events and Twitter feed. To further reinforce the concept of staying connected, just below that area is a form to sign up for the email newsletter and a cluster of links to all the WCYR's social media.

On the topic of social media, we can now look at the organizations strategy for social media. We have included a number of social media elements including YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, blogging, and Twitter. These are all possible points of contact with the community which mean possible points of recruitment. They also each serve a different function. Facebook events have been a great way for WCYR to organize and advertise events. Flickr will be the main repository for pictures of events. This will help show how active and involved members are in events. The blog helps focus on the ideals of the organization. I could go into much more detail on each element but the point is we are providing multiple ways for members to find us and interact with the organization.

Another important part of the site is the Committees link. This page has a list of all the current executive committee members and information about each. The idea was to try to break down the "stranger" factor with joining a new organization. If there was a young Republican who wanted to join, they could become familiar with some of the officers. Not only would they know what they look like from the pictures, but also certain information about the person. This makes the officers more relatable and approachable. Just think about how much easier it will be at the first meeting you attend to start up a conversation with Doug Deeken when you know he is the guy who is not only an engineer, but also is a stay at home dad in Doylestown who often calls into the Matt Patrick show to talk about issues Doug brings up on his YouTube channel.

There will be more to this site in the future. More connections to local campaigns, more information on events, both past and up-coming, and new features. The site is to the point where we can advertise it heavily and it provides a good resource to members. Hopefully, some of the ideas and tactics that went into building this site can be easily transferred to other political organizations.

The next post will be Nov. 24th

The Power of Social Networking Sites

The other day I was browsing around on Facebook when I thought it would be fun to see what State Senator Kirk Schuring was doing with the Facebook network and tools I had built up for his run for Congress. The fact that his fan page no longer existed did not surprise me. The fan page was for his run for his Congressional campaign and not him personally. Since the election was several month ago and he lost it seemed appropriate that it was removed. The thing that did shock me was the fact that Kirk Schuring's Facebook profile was also gone. If I did not know better, the assumption would be Sen. Schuring is leaving politics all together.

As of writing this I have not heard back from my former contact close to Schuring on the topic. However, I feel that this is a very important topic that needs discussing. I do not mean just Sen. Schuring's Facebook page, but all politicians and all social networking sites. "Networking," the meeting and greeting a wide variety of people who typically hold important positions, has been a keystone to a political career since the beginning of time. Pessimists often call this "knowing the right people." However, I want to point out getting to know people in your constituency personally not only helps one get elected, it is also responsible governance. Our political leaders should have a well established communication line with business, labor, and other organizations who are all stake holders of government in a democracy. Not too long ago this meant picking and choosing who to talk to on a regular basis to form specific points of contact within a constituency. The realities of time and resources limited politicians to just communicating frequently with those in key positions like business executives, union leaders, and other politicians. When you are competing for a constituency as large as say a U.S. House of Representatives' seat, it does not make sense to ask hundreds of thousands of people "What do you expect from your government?" You would get more meaningful and useful information by talking to those who represent various interesting within your constituency.

Within the past few years, the very definition of networking has changed. Of course talking and getting to know those traditional points of contacts are still important. The Internet, however, has allowed the politician to make everyone a meaningful point of contact. Again, this is not just a great way to get elected, but a responsible step for a politician to take to better represent his constituency. Take Facebook for an example. As described before, Facebook allows an individual running for office to reach out to anyone else with a Facebook profile. Multiple individuals can describe to you very quickly and efficiently what is on their mind and how they feel towards certain policies. You can also send out information on your campaign, activities you are currently engaged in, or what ever position you currently hold. It gets everyone in your constituency involved.

Now, I understand that there is a concern with the perceived generational divide. The younger generation uses the Internet and does not vote, while the older generation votes but does not use the Internet. Let me briefly touch on that issue. The fact that the younger generation uses the Internet but does not vote should be viewed as an opportunity. Think of them as a massive group of undecided voters. If you want to bring them in, why not reach out using a medium of communication they enjoy using? Spark an interest in politics, and you may have a life long follower of your future campaigns and the Republican party itself. The second problem, of the older generation voting but not using the Internet, probably deserves more credit then the first problem. The Schuring for Congress campaign did have individuals complain that too much was being done via the Internet and not traditional mailings. Stories like these motivate campaigns to dismiss bold new ideas with technology, especially ones that have very limited resources and man power. Why not do what has worked for them in the past. To just say times have changed would be unfair, even if true. I have seen the older generation begin to give in to these new technologies, especially those on the Internet. To give anecdotal evidence, last week while in a hotel an older gentleman asked if I could help him with the computer set aside for guests to use. His problem was that the screen's resolution was set way to low. It was an easy fix for someone who frequently uses computers, and understandably confusing for someone who does not. When he began to use the computer, I could not help but notice he did not know how to type. It was very obvious that this man has rarely used computers (or typewriters) in his life. However, after all this, the older man's only goal that evening was to check his Facebook page.

So, now that we have a good cause for a social network online, how do we go about creating one? First, do not use just one online medium. I talk a lot about Facebook, but that should only be the foundation. Facebook is a great way to draw people in and organize your supporters (typically you search Facebook for an individual before you do on other sites) but you should do more. Try branching out. Create a YouTube page and post videos of speeches, events you have been to, or just a homemade video to help voters get to know you better. Set up a Flickr account to host photo galleries to show just how active in the community you really are. Start Twittering (see February 17th, 2009 post) to show how much time and thought you put toward governing. There are so many options, there is no way I could list them all in one post. Make sure that all your social network resources are tied together. That is, advertise your Facebook account on your Twitter, and vise versa. You want people to have reason to be engaged with your campaign, spend time at your sites, and most importantly, have a reason to keep coming back to revisit.

Another thing you absolutely need to do is start early and commit early. In the race between State Sen. Kirk Schuring (R) and State Sen. John Boccieri (D), one man started early and the other did not. Sen. Boccieri (now Rep. Boccieri) had his Facebook page built up before most Republican candidates even announced they were running in the primary. The Schuring campaign was just starting to dabble in Internet campaigning when I started working for them in the early part of that summer. There was never any excitement in the Schuring campaign about the Internet. Even the website was frequently neglected. Very rarely were the online resources used in conjunction with what was going happening on the ground. Every week I asked that the Internet sites, especially Facebook, be mentioned in the email newsletter. I wanted to advertise in many locations as possible to help build up a community of Schuring supporters. But every week, the newsletter lacked that information and frequently encouraged people to go to events that had already happened. The Internet was just too low of a priority for anything useful to get off the ground. On the other side, Boccieri's sites always seemed to be buzzing with activity. There were links to things such as the YouTube video of Ohio Governor Ted Strickland endorsing him and photos of his tour in Iraq. He had many "friends" on Facebook and frequently interacted with them. There were reasons to visit Boccieri online. His followers were with him from the day he announced his run all the way to when he won the election. His resources are still online as of writing this post.

Once the election is over, the next thing to do is continue to build the network. As a responsible leader, you can use the network to get opinions on issues facing your constituency. It helps you stay connected to the average person within your constituency. You should continue to meet and greet leaders in the community personally, but you should never forget who you work for, everyone. Even if you lost and do not hold an office, it is still important to hold on to that network. Those people believed in you once and will probably believe in you again. The next time you run, you will have already had a base built up that you can activate with a click of a button. These networks are great sources of donations and volunteers, not to mention, again, helping you better relate and lead your constituency. We should think twice before throwing a whole network away.

The next post will be on March 31st.

References:

Facebook -
http://www.facebook.com

Boccieri for Congress Facebook page -
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/John-Boccieri/8919181490?v=info&viewas=7725102

Twitter -
http://www.twitter.com

YouTube -
http://www.youtube.com

Flickr -
http://www.flickr.com

Rob Portman's Electronic Campaign

I met Rob Portman for the first time on the day before the election in 2008. He was giving a speech to College Republicans at Miami University. At the time he was not running for any office but he was the chairman of Ohio's Future PAC. The remarkable thing about Rob Portman, from this blogs stand point, is that he is a Republican who understands how to use the internet. In fact, after talking to him for a while about my concerns with the Democrats' plans affecting small businesses in a negative way, he introduced me to the two assistants he had brought along with him. Both of them do web work for Portman at various levels. Not only did Rob Portman hire assistants who have an understanding of the Internet, but he thought them valuable enough to bring with him!

So why all the fuss about Portman now? He has ran in the past representing the Cincinnati area for 12 years in the U.S. House and was eventually appointed as Bush's trade representative and budge director. Rob Portman has now announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate to replace the retiring Sen. George Voinovich (R). The interesting thing is that Portman is starting off strong with the web side of his campaign. Take a look at his campaign site: http://www.robportman.com/. As of right now there is not much content (it is after all two years before the election and he did just announce), but look at what the site has. Right under the Rob Portman for U.S. Senate we see a form for "Join Rob's Team."


This allows voters to sign up for Portman's newsletter. His newsletter comes in the form of an email and the service is provided by Constant Contact. This is a common provider. In the last election I saw it being used by several organizations and candidates running at various levels of government.

Next we see three boxes, "Meet Rob," "Volunteer," and "Contribute."


The "Meet Rob" is a page that contains information regarding Portman. The "Volunteer" page allows individuals to sign up to help out the campaign. This is a very important page. I know politicians have told me time and time again that one of their biggest obstacles is getting people to volunteer. It is not that there are no voters who are interested, it is that when you are having so many events (especially the week or two before election time) coordinating volunteers can become a logistical nightmare. How do you find supporters to turn out to a rally planned with short notice when you have people going door to door and walking in a parade on the same day? Having a volunteer database makes the situation much more manageable. You can do a quick query of the database and in less then a second you should have a list of phone numbers to call of people in the area who are interested in helping out at rallies. This makes it easier for voters to volunteer (they just submit a simple online form and only sign up for things they are comfortable doing) and easier for the campaign staff (more names of people genuinely interested in helping with contact information). And finally, every campaign needs funding. The "Contribute" button is perhaps one of the oldest and most common features on a campaign website. Supporters can easily donate to the candidate they believe in.

What has been mentioned so far is nothing that revolutionary. It is the bottom row on Portman's website that is really exciting. It is "Connect with Rob on:" with links to Facebook and Flickr. Portman has both a Facebook and Flickr account.


His Facebook account contains both a page and a profile. A profile in Facebook is, well, a profile. It contains personal information and allows users to communicate with each other through various means. You can personalize your profile with many features such as posting photos and links. When you "Friend" someone you are connecting to another person's profile by granting them access to see yours. A page is more of an informational section for entities that are not a person. Portman's page is for his campaign. Individuals can sign up to connect to a page by becoming a "Fan." This may be confusing to the non-Facebook user, but the basic point is that lots of information is being transferred on Facebook which is a social networking website. This means that the people sharing information tend to have very high levels of trust and credibility with each other since a lot of "Friends" are real life friends. And the most important point is that Portman is not new to Facebook. I was "Friends" with him before he announced his run for the Senate. In fact it was Facebook that first told me he was running through a posting.


Portman's Flickr account is also an unusual thing for a Republican to have. Although, Facebook allows users to create online photo albums, Flickr focuses on this task. It allows for really professional and dynamic albums with nice captions and organization.

In my opinion Rob Portman has the right understanding of these emerging Internet technologies. Even before running for the Senate his PAC had a very informative and modern website with a presences on Facebook. He is starting in the beginning of his campaign to find supporters and to spread his message. His is also a proponent of using the Internet more in campaigns. When the Dallas Morning News asked shortly after the Republican's sound defeat in the 2008 election what Republican's must do in the future, Portman responded in an op-ed. He cited Reagan's success in two points: the message and the delivery. The message focused on classic conservative policies and the delivery focused on the ability to relate to the voters. The former are time tested values, but the later is ever evolving. Portman pointed out that in order to better relate to the voters "...we must put more effort and resources into communicating our policies. This includes better use of modern technologies, an area where the Obama campaign broke new ground." As of the time of writing this post, Portman had no announced opponents, Democrat or Republican, but I can guarantee you his opponents will find they will have an uphill battle with this kind of digital infrastructure already in place.

References:

Ohio's Future PAC -
http://www.ohiosfuture.com/

Portman for U.S. Senate -
http://www.robportman.com/

Portman's Facebook page -
http://www.facebook.com/robportman/

Portman's Flickr account -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robportman/

Portman's op-ed in the Dallas Morning News (you have to scroll a little) -
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-GOP_09edi.State.Edition1.3043cfd.html

Link to Constant Contact e-newsletter service -
http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp