The Sharing Network

Technology has change how we gather information. It used to be slow and cumbersome, but now it seems we can just type in a few search terms on Google and get an answer. As easy as that sounds, information gathering may be become even easier - by outsourcing that responsibility to your friends. A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle caught my eye discussing how Facebook is becoming a larger referrer than Google. More site traffic is coming from links posted on Facebook, than searches in Google. In other words, sharing is becoming more popular than searching.

Let us take a look at what I mean by sharing a link. On Facebook, this could be a status update, message on someone's wall, or a post on a group/fan page. Yes, it is really that easy. Just by putting a link somewhere in a message you will create interest. Why will you create interest? Simple, by posting a link you are claiming it is interesting and relevant. Voters who are interested in your campaign will then interpret that message as something that needs read. If they like it then they will repost it making a claim to their friends that it is interesting and relevant. This chain reaction can go on to infinity.

This does not mean whatever you post will get read and shared. You must have something that is actually worthwhile. No one likes spam, especially on social networks. You do not annoy your friends offline with constant talk about yourself, so why would you do that online. However, posting your links to you website with your press releases or upcoming events is perfectly acceptable. Furthermore, sharing goes both ways. If one of your constituents shares an interesting link with you, you can go ahead and share it with all your online friends. In that case make sure you give credit.

With a lot of my sites (both political and non-political) this trend seems true. While I would still say Google tends to be the largest traffic generator, Facebook still counts for a high percentage. Facebook is also a lot easier to spread the word. I have noticed spikes in traffic from Facebook and other social media site shortly after a post. However, this spike only lasts a day or two until the message becomes "old". Understanding how sharing works on social networks is a must.

The next post will be March 1st.

Lessons from "Ellie Light"

Just the other week, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) discovered an interesting pattern with letters to the editor. Numerous newspapers from around the country were posting letters with nearly identical language all signed by "Ellie Light." The only real difference was that the author claimed a local address (in West Virgina, Ohio, Maine, California, etc.) each time. The letters were in support of Obama and asked America to be patient while he tries to solve tough issues. Here is The Plain Dealer's original story. After a week of rumors, theories, and some excellent investigation work done by Sabrina Eaton at The Plain Dealer it was discovered that Ellie Light was actually a man named Winston Steward from California. Here is the updated story.

There are still plenty of rumors flying around about Steward. Some think he is actually an operative for the Obama administration trying to plant grassroots support around the country. After all, Steward has gone through several lies to cover his tracks (at one point he claimed his name was Barbara Brooks) so there may yet be more to this story. However, I want to focus on the role technology played in this story and provide a lesson for campaigns.

Some are questioning the newspapers that published the letters for not insuring that the letters to the editors were authentic. Even the paper that broke the story, The Plain Dealer is guilty of this failing. The only reason the reporter at The Plain Dealer investigated Ellie Light's identity was because she happened to have had an old co-worker by the same name and wanted to see if it was the same person. The point I want to focus on is that whether this letter writing campaign is part of a larger conspiracy or not, it was going to be discovered no matter what.

The pattern of Ellie Light's letters was easy to discover. All it took was a quick search on Lexis-Nexis (online database of newspapers) to show the same letter by the same author in different papers across the country. In a matter of a few seconds Ellie Light was busted. Steward came up with all kinds of excuses but at the end of the day credibility was lost and he ended up doing damage to Obama's reputation.

I want to go back to a point I have talked about, especially when it comes to social media: honesty. Letters to the editor are nothing more than a primitive social media tool. Steward chose to send letters to newspapers, but he could have just as easily chose to set up a blog, Twitter, or Facebook account with the name of "Ellie Light." The result would be the same either way. When voters want to engage in a discussion they want to do it openly and honestly. If you are faced with losing your job, struggling with student loans, or just worried about the general welfare of your community and country, the last thing you want is a fictional person telling you what to think. There is a big difference between engaging the community and supporting grass roots organizations, and faking its creation. Technology has opened up opportunities to fake an identity, but it also has created a bunch of tools to catch those schemes. I cannot emphasize this enough: DO NOT TRY IT!

I have no doubt that this type of thing will be tried again. There are probably some cases where the instigator was never uncovered. However, the cost of being caught greatly outweighs any potential benefits. Ellie Light got national attention not because the original letters were well thought out or inspiring, but because the secret plot was discovered. While there is no official connection between Ellie Light and Obama to this date, just think of the real damage that would be done if a connection was confirmed.

The next post will be February 16th.

Technology Resolutions for the New Year

Keeping with tradition, I would like to set a few resolutions for Republicans in terms of technology. With 2010 being an important election year, these goals become even more critical. Below I have 3 simple resolutions which I hope your campaign will adopt.

1. Master at least one social media platform
I have talked about many different social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Many campaigns have adopted social media, but I feel that a good number of those campaigns need to develop their strategy more. There are often two mistakes campaigns make: one inexcusable, the other slightly more understandable, but should still be remedied. First, the inexcusable mistake. Many feel that "if you build it, they will come." Social media does not work this way. You must engage and build a community. The second mistake is having someone on your staff post content. It is understandable that candidates are extremely busy people and sometimes they will not be able to directly engage everyone who responds to them. However, the most ideal situation is to have the candidate engage social media. Voters will appreciate it more and take more interest in the campaign if they know they are interacting with the candidate (after all, that is the point of social media). Both of these mistakes can be prevented by mastering at least one social media. Know how to use it, follow the changes in that platform, and engage users and build followers.

2. Keep website content fresh
This is a challenge for any organization with a website. Adding content can be time consuming and tedious. However, visitors to your website expect to see up-to-date information. I have even seen sites that advertise the candidate running for the wrong position when they used their old campaign site for a run at a new office. This will only frustrate and annoy voters. On the other hand, voters will revisit your site if they know new information will be there. The site becomes a resource and will get bookmarked. Big campaigns especially need to keep their sites fresh, but it is important for even local candidates. A great example of a local candidate with lots of fresh content is Ohio State Rep. Ron Amstutz, http://www.amstutz.org

3. Develop a comprehensive online strategy
Too many campaigns do not have a comprehensive strategy for the Internet. In my experience, campaigns approach new media in bits and pieces without looking at the big picture. They also do not sit down with their staff and draw up a plan. Technology still is treated like an afterthought. I strongly recommend developing a plan, and then revisiting the plan every now and then. Analyze your options, discuss pros and cons, and decide the best way to execute the plan.

I hope you take these three resolutions into consideration, and above all else...have a happy New Year!

The next post will be January 19th.

Impact of Social Media

Today I would like to share with you what is perhaps my favorite video of all time. It was created by the blog Socialnomics which is managed by Erik Qualman. The video is called Social Media Revolution:


The stats which you see are well researched. I have seen similar numbers from multiples sources and Socialnomics does provide a list of citations if you would like to look them up.

While the video focuses on business, many of the same principles apply to campaigns. A campaign's "product" is the candidate and his or her platform. Finding people to volunteer and work for the campaign is not that much different from finding potential employees (although you are looking more for a specific passion rather than a specific skill). All this information should at the very least show the vast opportunities that lay out there in social media.

I could go into detail about each statement the video made, but that would create a ridiculously long post. I have in the past touched on many of the specific issues, but I would like to address an important concluding point of the video. It states "We no longer search for the news, the news finds us..." That, in summary, is the point of social media. Campaigns have the ability to send out information and news through social media and deliver it straight to the voter. And if that does not happen, then someone's friend, family member, or co-worker will forward those news items to them. Part of any social network, even off-line and in person, involve sharing ideas and opinions. The Internet has just enabled this to happen effortlessly on a massive scale.

I do want to end with one word of warning. Consider demographics before buying into social media. Know how your constituency reacts to various social media outlets. Additionally, those voters on Facebook, Twitter, etc are going to have a different demographic make up than your district in general. A couple of years ago I would have said the main difference is age. Today that is a difficult claim to make. Some polls suggest that Twitter is having difficulty being popular with teenagers because too many of their parent's generation are using it (thus of course making Twitter "uncool"). In any case just be aware that the audience on social media may be different.

I encourage you to visit Socialnomics, read some of the posts, and watch the other videos.

The next post will be December 8th.

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

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.