How Scott Brown Used the Internet to Change the World of Politics

Tomorrow it will be the one year anniversary of Republitech and thus one year since Obama has been sworn in. It is rather fitting that today is the special election in Massachusetts to replace Senator Ted Kennedy. A Republican named Scott Brown looks like he might beat Democrat Martha Coakley in a state that has not sent a Republican to congress in well over a decade. While we won't know until later tonight who will win, it is an excellent lesson on how Republicans have an opportunity to seize the moment and leverage technology.

We have been hearing a lot about Brown's campaign. However, there are some things his campaign has been doing quite well that have not been highly publicized. The first comes from a CNN article that caught my eye - http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/15/first-on-the-ticker-gop-candidate-saturates-google-with-ads/. It was last month that I talked about the power of pay-per-click ads, specifically Google's tools (See post here). There are two things I want to highlight with Brown's Google ads. First, he started early. It got him name recognition, traffic to his website, and most critically donations in the early stage of his campaign. Second, his campaign clearly has spent time developing a pay-per-click strategy. They have a focused keyword strategy going after those searching for "Martha Coakley." Since Coakley is not buying advertising on Google at all, Brown has had free reign on both his name and his opponents. In other words, you are going to get pro-Brown ads no matter if you are searching for Brown or Coakley.

There is one "mistake" I noticed after doing some quick searches on Google. While the campaign is in Massachusetts, the race has become a national sensation. I could not find any ads on Google for either candidate. This is most likely because Brown has limited his ads to the state of Massachusetts (I am in Ohio). People all over the country have been motivated to lend support (money, phone banking from their house, etc). Why not reach out to them through Google ads? The only thing I found was this:

It is an ad with a link to a form to allow you to donate money to support Coakley (albeit somewhat indirectly through the DSCC). There should be Republican ads popping up.

The second facet of Brown's online strategy I want to discuss is that of social media. I read this interesting blog post just the other day written by Professor William A. Jacobson (Cornell Law School) - http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2010/01/brown-massacres-coakley-online.html. The charts Jacobson provides are quite telling. Brown is a topic that people are finding very interesting and talking about. Some of this is probably due to the recent national attention the race has been given, but there are two candidates in this race. Voters are finding Brown's social media efforts to be engaging, helpful, and motivating. Coakley appears to be uninteresting. Interestingly enough, in the previous CNN article Coakley's campaign's excuse for not running Google ads was to focus on social media. Clearly her campaign has failed. I also want to point out that so many people have taken interest in Brown's social media outlets that he is receiving positive and free grassroots advertising. Take a look at the YouTube videos at the end of the blog post that were created by average citizens mocking Coakley's campaign strategies.

Don't get me wrong, Scott Brown is a great candidate beyond what he has done with technology. He is active, motivated, respected, thoughtful and unlike his opponent, he is gaffe free. Even so, in a state like Massachusetts a Republican is going to have to be way above and beyond their opponent. The lessons from Brown's campaign are clear. Online campaign is not a theory. it is not a fad. It is a communication tool that gets the Republican's message out and it has put Obama in a very awkward spot.

Below are some of Brown's online resources. Please check them out!
Website - http://www.brownforussenate.com/
Twitter - http://twitter.com/scottbrownma
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scott-Brown/178795233167
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/scottbrownma

The next post will be February 2nd.

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 the Mobile Phone

Last Saturday there was a Tea Party in my home town, Wooster, Ohio. The problem was that I was on the other side of the state in Oxford. While I was disappointed I was not able to attend personally I was still able to see a lot of the afternoon's events. How? With Facebook and many mobile phones.

While I will admit that it is better to actually be at an event in person, logistics tend to get in the way. The next best alternative is to use social media to be connected. During the Tea Party, many of my friends, family, and co-workers took pictures on their mobile phones and submitted them to Facebook during the event. It was moving seeing downtown Wooster filled with people sharing a common belief in limited government along with all their witty signs. There was even the occasional Twitter update sent via the phone.

The point is, anyone in the world had access to experiencing the Wooster Tea Party in pretty close to real time. I did not have to wait until a newspaper report was made. In fact the next day when our local paper reported on the Tea Party, http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4696290, it did not capture the event's atmosphere (although they did include a nice slide show) as did all the first hand accounts I saw during the Tea Party.

Mobile phones with a camera and Internet capabilities are quickly becoming a standard. Moreover, individuals are utilizing these resources more and more for personal and political reasons. This means that the connection I had to a distant Tea Party is going to become common place. We should not only be aware of the fact that at political events there will be people taking pictures, videos, and texting (Twitting, Facebooking, or otherwise), but encourage it. Thousands of people got to hear the message of the Wooster Tea Party loud and clear even though they were not in attendance. We are seeing a shift of importance from the number of people at the event to the number of people that can see the event. I am by no means saying we should not work on bringing more people to political events, my point is simply that you can make a big splash with a little event.

I would also like to make an important differentiation in the posting of material on social networks. I did not look at anything the organizers of the Tea Party posted (I hope they did though). All of my information came from people I trust: friends, family, and co-workers. I can relate better and place a higher value on the campaign when my Facebook friend news feed is stuffed with people posting comments and pictures about the event. It is the same concept of seeing a campaign sign in your friend's yard versus a total stranger. Republicans need to realize that web 2.0 is not just about what websites can do, it also means what mobile phones can do.

The next post will be November 10th.

Jim Renacci and Ohio's 16th Congressional District

Earlier last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Hutson, the campaign manager for Jim Renacci. We had a good discussion on the direction politics is taking in terms of technology. But before I get to those details let me introduce Jim Renacci first.

Jim Renacci is a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 16th Congressional District (Canton, Media, Wooster, and Ashland areas). He has an impressive resume as Mayor of Wadsworth, accomplishing 100% of his goals and left office with a budget surplus. He is a CPA who started his first company when he was 24 years old. Renacci has owned and managed a wide array of businesses from car dealerships, to nursing homes, to arena football teams. This is a man who knows how to add value to an economy and create jobs. I have met Renacci a couple of times and continue to be impressed with his openness and honest concern for his constituency. Renacci has a deep commitment to serving the American people with a long line of successes in business and politics to pull insights from. Coming from a simple coal mining town in Pennsylvania, Renacci epitomizes the American spirit while remaining humble. I can think of no other trait that a candidate for Ohio's 16th district needs to have. Jim Renacci is the best man for the job hands down.

After a conversation with the campaign manager Matt Hutson, I have become convinced that this is one campaign that at least understands the fundamental shift in communication that has occurred due to the Internet. Mr. Hutson loves using social media to build a following of Renacci supporters. He points out that social media is less intrusive then more traditional campaigning methods. Some times voters get annoyed with phone calls and knocks on the door. With social media, it is easy to send out multiple campaign updates that simply show up in voters Facebook and Twitter feeds. Every night Renacci personally updates Twitter and Facebook on the status of his campaign including events he goes to a people he sees. It is a great way to show activity and remind voters that he is working hard to represent his constituency.

Mr. Hutson also describes the personal nature of the Internet. Whenever an individual signs up to the Facebook group, Mr. Hutson replies with a personal email with some suggestions as to how to have a positive impact on the campaign. He suggests that each of the recommendations (there are four if I remember correctly) will take under a minute. The reason they take less than a minute is that, for the most part, they focus on inviting other friends to join the group. The thinking behind this tactic is that people are more likely to respond positively to a friends suggestion than someone they do not know as well. Mr. Hutson is looking for individuals on Facebook to help promote Renacci as it is more meaningful to other voters.

Renacci understands that his voters are his boss. He also realizes that it is a challenge to effective communicate with every singly constituent. As Mr. Hutson put it you "must figure out how to reach your bosses" and he sees social media as just that. Renacci has a commitment to being open and approachable. His campaign has built up these social media communication channels not just to promote his campaign, but to listen. Too many candidates use the Internet purely for self promotion. This turns potential voters off and leads to "defriending." Renacci wants to sincerely engage his constituents and wants them to know they have a voice. Using social media ensures that he is reachable through as many methods as possible.

To ensure engagement, Mr. Hutson frequently encourages individuals to blog and/or post comments on either the campaign's material or what other voters have said. He wants voters to be involved and to be engaged because to the campaign it matters. He checks blogs daily to follow what the local opinion is. He wants to engage the local community for ideas, thoughts, and discussion. Renacci has been a resident of the district for well over 25 years and is interested in a campaign for Ohio's 16th, by Ohio's 16th, and of Ohio's 16th. Residents of the 16th may notice this as a different approach.

Finally, Mr. Hutson discussed how he sees the campaign's online resources shifting in purpose if Renacci were to be elected. He points out that not much will change. Renacci will still use social media to reach out, engage, and listen. Mr. Hutson really emphasized the word "hear." Renacci wants to know what voters' issues are. Renacci would ensure that he could get discussion and opinions on bills being proposed in the House. Mr. Hutson claims that this type of communication aids in accountability. He believes that there is too little accountability of representatives at any level of government and that the Internet provides a reasonable solution. He also suggested that it could be a platform to help sway other representatives. For example, if there was a close vote with a few representatives on the fence, he could post their names and office numbers to encourage voters to call in and voice their opinion.

Jim Renacci's campaign to be the Representative from Ohio's 16th Congressional District should be exciting to watch. Renacci has hired a top notch campaign manager who has a good grasp of how to leverage the Internet to be a more competitive campaign and a more responsive legislator. I again thank Matt Hutson for taking the time to share his insights with me. Below are links to some Renacci online resources.

The campaign's home page:
http://www.renacciforcongress.com/

Renacci's Wikipedia page which I helped get off the ground:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Renacci

Renacci's Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=113705578897

Renacci on why he is running:
Part I - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWnMlZIN4Rs&feature=youtube_gdata
Part II - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQn3zecpGhY&feature=related

Renacci on health care:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y17Hm7RX5ls&feature=related

The next post will be October 27th.

Republicans and New Media

About a month ago the Ohio Erie County GOP Chairman Mathew Old asked be to put together a document with my ideas on how Republicans can leverage new media. My hope is that this document can help campaigns begin to think about new media and ask important questions. Below is the link to the document and the summary.

Republicans and New Media (pdf)

Many will argue that "traditional" media has evolved over time. In many ways, it has. From the written word, to the radio, to the television it seems the dynamic of media is on a continuous and steady march. However, in the past few years there has been a fundamental revolution in media. It is the advent of the Internet. Traditional media is all one way communication; the advertiser has all the power, controlling the information while the public is at the mercy of billboards and commercials. The majority of the public does not have the resources to broadcast their thoughts and opinions to millions of people. With the arrival of the Internet, individuals have just as much power as the advertiser. They can write a post on a blog that will reach just as many people, if not more, than a TV ad. They can tweet and Facebook their friends about their positive or negative opinions. Many organizations fail to understand the multidirectional nature of communication on the Internet. They are stuck in the traditional media mentality and end up annoying customers with spam and failing to address complaints that are instantly shared with millions of fellow users.

Corporations are just now realizing that the Internet has given their consumers more power than their own PR departments. For the most part, political campaigns are even farther behind. The 2008 election gave rise to one political organization that clearly understands and respects the complex and powerful nature of the Internet: the Obama team. Obama’s new media campaign demonstrated that these technologies are relevant but no single organization can control the discussion. To be successful, a candidate must participate in the discussion, not lead it. They must use the opportunity to listen, not shout. They must sincerely engage voters, not spam them. A candidate must genuinely understand the paradigm shift, rather than simply jumping on the band wagon without understanding where the band wagon is going.

Republicans and New Media (pdf)

The next post will be Oct 13th.

Conversations from the Wayne County Fair

This past weekend I returned home to attend the Wayne County Fair. I spent a significant amount of the time at the Republican's booth discussing politics and technology. While I could write a post on each of my conversations I am going to give a broad overview of some of the things I discussed that I think are relevant to share in this blog.

The first candidate I ran into was Craig Sanders who is running for Wooster City Council At-Large. His concern was that his website,http://www.craigsanders.net/ , still advertised he was running for Ward 1, which he did in the past. The problem was his campaign had no way of directly changing content. They had to call up their provider and ask that they change it, who were not very responsive. I checked today and it looks like they managed to change what is advertised on the site. However, the title tag still says "Ward 1." While no organization should tolerate this kind of dysfunction, the demands of a political campaign require responsiveness. This is why campaigns need to be very careful about how they set up their site. If Sanders was using a content management system (CMS) he could change it himself without worrying about time delays and contacting a programmer. All the intricacies like the title tag would be fixed instantly and automatically.

The next candidate I talked to was Ron Amstutz. He is currently the chair of the budget committee in the Ohio State House of Representatives and is from Wayne County. Amstutz seems to always be experimenting with technology. Here is what he tried and had lots of success. First, Amstutz created a short survey about state issues designed to be released around the time of the fair. Then he got on Facebook and created a list of all of his constituents. Finally, he invited all of his Facebook friends on that list to take his survey online. He also had paper version at the Republican booth at the fair. Just in the first few days he got a ton of feed back and there are still three more days left for the fair.

Now that you know what Amstutz did, let me walk you through why it was awesome. First, Amstutz reached out to his constituents through an online survey. He is able to ask his roughly 110,000 constituents to directly participate with him on state wide issues. Voters will take note of that kind of interaction and will feel more valued by the candidate. Furthermore, Amstutz leveraged social media by reaching out to his Facebook friends. He didn't just send them a message, he invited them to a week long event (the fair survey). He also did not send it to everyone. He targeted his own constituency using Facebook's list feature. With a different project he may want to target a different group, such as his Facebook friends in Columbus. This use of the list allows him to only get the group he wants and cuts down on spam. Too much spam and messages about things that do not apply to the individual will always result in "defriending."

Finally, I had a short conversation about Internet tools with Jim Renacci's campaign manager Matt Hutson. Jim Renacci is running for the Ohio 16th District for US House of Representatives. This is the same district that State Senator Kirk Schuring ran in last year. His website is http://www.renacciforcongress.com/.Even though I had a short discussion with Matt, I feel pretty confident that this campaign understands that they have to use all these new and exciting online tools. First, he recognized the importance of having YouTube videos show up under certain search terms. In this case, they managed to have a positive video of Renacci as the top result when you search "Boccieri" (Boccieri is his Democrat rival). He was also very interested in integrating social media into their new website. Right now Renacci's Facebook and Twitter accounts have a long way to grow, but the campaign is putting effort forth 14 months before the election. Finally, Matt recognized the value of bloggers. He pointed out a positive post that was written just the other day and is excited about connecting Renacci (not a campaign staff member) directly with other bloggers.

There are a lot more to discuss on each of these candidates. The basic point however, is that there is a lot going on in the world of political technology. Candidates are realizing there are problems and opportunities associated with the Internet. This is a topic of discussion that we must always engage.

The next post will be September 29th.

The Public versus Private Solution

Recently, Audra Shay got into a bit of trouble leading up to the National Young Republican elections. Shay was running for the chairman's position and was favored to win. However, a few days before the election, a leftist blogger allegedly discovered what was described as racist comments on Shay's Facebook page. You will not find any of the comments on Shay's profile. The leftist blogger claims she cleaned her profile up after the contents became public. Whether or not Shay's Facebook comments were as "ignorant and racist" as the blogger claimed, there is still a lesson to be learned: the Internet, specifically social media like Facebook, is public.

Our society has faced difficult issues between the Internet and privacy. Politicians have also struggled with the public's right to know and privacy. By campaigning online, those two struggles have combined to create a tangled mess of ethical and moral issues. That is, is Facebook a private communication channel? But, if so, does the public have a right to see the contents of a public figure's Facebook? This post is not about what should be public realm and what should not, it is about risk management with your online resources. After all, an answer to the debate of politicians' rights to privacy and the public's right to knowledge has been waging long before the invention of the word "politics."

So what is a good risk management strategy? In my view it is actually pretty simple. If you are a politician, assume everything online is public. If you work for a politician, assume everything online is public. If you are related to a politician, assume everything online is public, et cetera. Traditionally, family was considered off limits and this was generally respected by opponents and most media outlets. However, bloggers are a different story. They are individuals who can say whatever they want. In the week leading up to the Young Republican elections, one of the top results on Google for "Young Republicans" was a blog post entitled "Young Republican Leader Audra Shay Is Crazy, Illiterate, Racist." Even the left wing media would not be so bold in naming their articles.

This problem also relates to a post of mine not to long ago about search engines, Be Seen With SEO. These blog posts were everywhere and a lot of them made it to the top search results for "Young Republicans." Even if what Shay was accused of was not true, it is still embarrassing to the organization and to the Republican Party. It is true that after a while most of these posts will lose their position in Google searches, but some will still linger. For example, The Huffington Post has enough traffic and enough weight for Google to continue ranking it's anti-Young Republican post about Shay pretty high.

Really you should consider the Internet and public speech the same thing. This goes for all forms of online resources: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and even email. Just as a private written letter can be leaked, so can an email. In some ways the Internet is even more dangerous then the other forms of communication as it automatically creates a record of every little thing you do. The point is: pay attention to what you and those around you say and do online!

This post should not discourage you from using the Internet. If you have considered your risk management strategy for the Internet, it should be no more harmful then when you give a speech. I have stated before that the Internet is a wonderful thing for politics. It helps you engage and interact with thousands of people you would have otherwise never met on the campaign trail. You just have to be responsible online.

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

Twittering Towards the Future

I have a public apology to make to Ivan Sugerman. Ivan was another programmer I worked with at The Ohio State University. About a year ago, he got a Twitter account and tried to convince every one in the office that they needed an account too. He went on and on about how awesome it was. We all wrote Twitter off as a fad with no practical use. I have since made a Twitter account and I have to say that my original assessment is way off. Ivan was right, Twitter is not only useful, it is awesome. In fact, I believe Twitter is something Republicans can make their own and establish a strong and unique presences in.

Twitter is actually a very simple website. A user makes an account and then leaves short, 140 character long messages called "tweets". You can see other users' messages by visiting their profile or by signing up to "follow" the user. All the users that you are following will have their tweets sent to your profile automatically and the list of tweets you see are ordered chronologically. In other words, when you sign on to Twitter, you will see a big newsfeed of all the users you are following.

So what is the practical, political application of Twitter? It is another way to reach out, network, and inform. Many users are out there sharing articles, ideas, and opinions. Of course you will see people tweet about their day, but you will also see people sharing concerns and ideas on politics. I have discovered some pretty interested articles by means of other users tweets. I was even able to follow the recent GOP Tech Summit through Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis' tweets. I also found the link to the live streaming video from the summit (which is now posted an you can and should go check out at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/510132).

Twitter is also an excellent way for news to circumnavigate the biased media. One of the most active users of Twitter, Republican Representative John Culberson from Texas, even stated "Every time I send a tweet I'm shoveling more dirt on the old media." To find out what is going on in politics, we no long have to wait for the New York Times to write an article on what they think is going on or see CNN splice what they think are relevant clips of news together. We can get it straight from the source. Rep. Culberson goes further and believes that it is the best way to place accountability on elected officials. He stated in a recent tweet "Social media network is our best hope to take back the out of control federal gov't but we must hold officials accountable at election time." He often takes advantage of TwitterBerry, the Blackberry application for Twitter, to tweet what is going on from the floor of the House. He even used it to inform the public what was going on after the Democrats turn off the lights and the camera while the Republicans were protested cutting short debate on the energy bill last August. Another Republican Representative, Bob Inglis from South Carolina, used it to inform his followers of what was happening when President Obama meet with Republicans on the stimulus bill. Twitter being mobile has enabled us to get information straight from the source as the news is happening. It is somewhat ironic that Republicans are making such use of the Blackberry while Obama is being hailed as the greatest Blackberry wielder.

The number of Twitter users in Congress is still a minority. A recent ABC article stated that there were 50 congresspersons using Twitter. However, the good news is that Republicans out number Democrats 2 to 1. This is an advantage the Republicans need to build on. They should get more of the their members, and not just in Congress, in all levels of government and party structure, to use Twitter more. It can be a social media that Republicans have a specialty in. It gives users finesse and flexibility to communicate with the world. Republicans should take a serious look at Twitter and start applying its usage to political strategy.

Here is a list (in no real order) of some users that I am currently following:
John Boehner, Minority Leader in the U.S. House http://twitter.com/johnboehner
Kevin McCarthy, Chief Deputy Minority Whip in the U.S. House http://twitter.com/kevinomccarthy
John Culberson, Rep. from Texas http://twitter.com/johnculberson
Jeff Flake, Rep. from Arizona http://twitter.com/JeffFlake
Bob Inglis, Rep. from South Carolina http://twitter.com/bobinglis
John McCain, Sen. from Arizona http://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain
Saul Anuzis, Michigan Party Chairman http://twitter.com/sanuzis
Kevin DeWine, Ohio Party Chairman http://twitter.com/KevinDewine
Ron Nehring, California Party Chairman http://twitter.com/RonNehring
Karl Rove, Former Deputy Chief of Staff http://twitter.com/KarlRove
Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the House http://twitter.com/newtgingrich
The Republican National Committee http://twitter.com/RNC
…and finally, myself Brian Boyer http://twitter.com/BoyerBL

If you are interested in looking to see who in the Congress has a Twitter account you can go to http://tweetcongress.org/. It also provides all kinds of statistics on who is using Twitter and how often. Highly recommended.

The next post will be March 3rd.

References:

Twitter -
http://twitter.com/

ABC article on Republicans using Twitter -
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/Story?id=6790352&page=1