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The Third Call concentrated on the topic of "Social Networking" with two experts, Jason Springer and Raphael Vega tackling the vast arena of "all things internet".
Jason began his remarks with all the things you can do "with the touch of a computer key you can instantly access lists that would have taken hours and days to contact lists of people for a campaign".
The internet creates an ability to organize contacts for events, fundraising, office volunteers and GOTV instantly. In the 2004 and 2006 cycles this was done by the "meetups concept" but by the 2008 cycle technology took a giant leap to contact individuals directly and use their contact trees effectively, efficiently and cheaply to gain a greater circle of potential donors, workers and supporters for the campaigns. This give you the flexibility to make the best use of your volunteers to spend their time more effectively on other jobs for the campaign. The most effective message to potential voters is to receive a personal message and contact from a friend or neighbor that they trust for information and recommendation. It is far more impressive and resonates more with t voter to have a friend tell them how great you are than a robo call, mail piece, ad on TV or radio. The use of this mechanism provides the most valuable tool for any candidate, THEIR OWN LIST of supporters and donors. This will decrease your need to rely on other political people for their lists that will be out dated and loyal to the originator.
It is important to remember that "social networking" does not replace traditional modes of messaging but rather amplifies the message. One needs to learn to meld the use of technology with traditional methods.
Streaming and Twittering, two types of "social media" that are online anytime, are like having a giant cocktail party with many conversations going during the course of the campaign. It is a great way to float sound bytes (BUZZ) or get people to come to an event.
Jason encouraged us to sign up with platforms that you can use to engage in Plaxo, Linkedin and Facebook as examples of sites that connect business and friends of supporters. Some good platforms are: Ping.FM, Ning, and Joomla. These will link all other types of listing and or contact groups to create a larger potential voters, supporters and donors.
Raphael urged us to use these tools for branding, voter registration drives,fund raising, organizing and GOTV efforts. It gives a campaign flexibility and fluidity to organize and coordinate activities without it being the time consuming task of communicating by phone and the follow up calls needed to get people to work, show up, walk, phone bank etc. It helps to stay on message and keep everyone informed of changes instantly. It will make voters, supporters and donors feel closer to the candidate and therefore give the perception of being powerful tool for friends and associates implicit making it look like they are close the candidate and staff. Make sure that you ASK people to sign up and come on site and line SPAM is not helpful to any campaign.
3 Parts of list making are: to Organize Ideas (Message and events to get out the message), Organize Money (use ACT BLUE), organize people (walking, phoning, GOTV, office work, scheduling). This will create a fluid yet solid strategy with positive messaging for a winning campaign!
Use the Voter Activation Network (VAN) to access invaluable research of 2008 and 2006 cycles of voting patterns and types. THIS IS A MUST DO NOW to carefully examine the viability of races.
Finally, Raphael asked how we improve Democrat Unity's network so that we effectively enhance the possibility of increasing our odds of winning races for Democrats up and down the ticket?
We want to increase the numbers of Progressive Dems that are seeking to participate in the Democratic process. It is our goal to educate and inform prospective candidates and staff with information obtained by experience, technical knowledge and common sense that is shared voluntarily to improve the possibility of running winning campaigns.
D. Anne Wolfe
Democratic Nominee for Congress (NJ-05) 2004 |
