Author Archive

Campaign Messaging and Social Media

July 6, 2010 Political Relationship Management, Social Media and Fundraising with Tim Vickey, President Level 671.

Bookmark Us

The Narrative

Guest on the Digital Politics podcast is Kelley Moran, Moran Associates, a public affairs and political consulting firm in California.  Kelley shares his insights about how political and advocacy stories are created and the impact they have on voters.  Kelley wonders how the expected $100 million dollars Meg Whitman is projected to spend on her run for California governor will drown out the stories of other candidates.

Why the picture of Lassie?  Kelley talks about the role a spokesdog can have in a campaign–he actually used Laddie, Lassie’s successor.

Listen to this interview with an expert political storyteller.

Bookmark Us

Political Humor in Trying Times

Guest this week on Digital Politics was Stu Kreisman, Emmy award winning writer/producer and blogger on HuffingtonPost and MediaCurves.  Stu reminds us that we gotta laugh in the tough times and that politicians who show a good sense of humor will come across as more engaged in their jobs of trying to solve the problems.  Stu also takes us through the different kinds of political humor that work and we both agree that we haven’t seen any funny health care ads yet.

This interview with an entertainment industry insider made me laugh.

Enjoy.

Bookmark Us

Engaging the Community

Guest on Digital Politics podcast this week is Phil Noble, founder, PoliticsOnline.  Phil gives an update on South Carolina elected officials Governor Sanford and Rep. Joe Wilson, the impact of transformational technology on politics, and how people outside the US understand or don’t understand the real changes brought about by the Obama campaign.

Phil Noble at work in Charleston, SC

Listen to this interview with a true political insider.

Bookmark Us

Growth of Online Experience

Digital Politics podcast this week features David Kralik, California Director, Engage.  David moved to Silicon Valley a few years ago to work with Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions to be a scout for new technologies that could be used in campaigns and government.  David talks about his wildly successful online petition drive, Drill Here Drill Now Pay Less as well as his insights about how important peer-to-peer efforts will be in future campaigns.

Listen to this interview with a political insider.

Bookmark Us

Politics as Contact Sport

Guests on the Digital Politics podcast this week are Colin Delany, founder and chief editor, epolitics.com, and Ben Chodor, president, Stream 57.

Can webcasts help candidates reach a broader audience?  Can they provide an easier way to moderate a public forum than in a live townhall meeting? How can social nets and Twitter help drive attention to candidate appearances?

Listen to this explanation of webcasts and views from 2 experts in the business of helping clients communicate with their constituents using web tools.

Bookmark Us

Influencing Public Opinion

Guest this week on the Digital Politics podcast was Paul Goodwin, partner, Goodwin Simon Strategic Research talking about rapid response and how candidates and advocates can influence public opinion.  We also talk about President Obama’s speech last night on health care reform and the rapid response from all interested parties.

Paul points out that there are many more ways for people to get information which might influence their opinions, which makes it increasingly hard to respond to myths and untruths.   He also suggests that social nets are a proxy for the old face-2-face techniques candidates used in the past.

Listen to this thoughtful discussion.

Bookmark Us

Email Strategy

Digital Politics podcast this week features Ben Katz, CTO, Aristotle talking about best practices for email campaigns and how to maximize the impact of messages. Ben provides insights about SPAM filters, subject lines, and building email lists. He also emphasizes the importance of mixing up the kinds of emails sent —long form, short form, embedded video of the candidate– and the need to test messages to increase the likelihood that the target constituents will respond.

Listen to this interview with an industry insider.

Bookmark Us

Grassroots and Astro-Turf

Guest on the Digital Politics podcast this week is David All, president, the David All Group.  David’s TweetTheWhiteHouse initiative is a great example of online activism with a current focus on health care reform.  We talk about how valuable passive activists can be when encouraged to use web tools like Twitter. Just spending 5 minutes posting a tweet or retweeting something of interest can have a huge multiplier effect and costs the campaign nothing.  David is ahead of the curve.

Listen to the interview.

Bookmark Us

Health Care Reform Advertising

Digital Politics podcast this week with guest Glenn Kessler, CEO, HCD Research, looks at the question of anti and pro health care reform advertising.  Are the advertisers missing an opportunity by not encouraging viewers to take more action such as texting or sending email to their elected representatives? Will consumers get further clarification of the issues by competing ads or turned off by extreme claims? How effective are those official efforts by the DNC and grassroots Twitter campaigns representing all sides? What about those Harry and Louise ads?

Listen to the interview with Glenn about this timely topic:

Bookmark Us