Holiday Spirit and Online Activism

Guest today on the Digital Politics podcast was Steve Daigneault, Vice President, M+R Strategic Services talking about challenges advocacy groups face raising money in tough economic times.  Steve emphasized that the most successful messages are those that are simple and seem relevant to the outside world as much as to the needs of the organization.  He also notes those advocates willing to take more chances with messaging and digital media are showing the most progress.

Steve understands grassroots organizing and particularly the power of email.  I do challenge him a bit on the definition of ‘volunteer’ and how advocacy groups are dealing with the social media world.

Check out this discussion with an experienced online strategist.

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Social Platforms for Pursuing Activists Online

Guest on the Digital Politics podcast this week was Peter Slutsky, Strategic Relations Manager at Ning. This privately held company founded in 2004 by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini was ahead of it’s time.  With tools to set up custom branded social net sites, political candidates and advocacy groups can quickly deploy tools to sign up volunteers, support a field operation, and motivate supporters.  The growth of social networks has changed the expectations of activists and Ning is seeing increased interest from political and advocacy organizations to use their tools in innovative ways.

Ning has recently rolled out virtual gift-giving functionality.  Stay with the interview to the end to hear how Peter thinks virtual gifts, prizes, and rewards will find a place in motivating contributors and volunteers.  Disruptive technology like Ning will be one of the solutions that will influence the political landscape in 2010.

Listen to this interview with a political insider who really understands the emerging social platform world.

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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.

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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.

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Figures Don’t Lie

Digital Politics podcast this week features guest Shabbir Safdar, founder of Virillion.  Shabbir talks about how the true metric of success is the real world result of an advocacy or political campaign and not just how many online friends or followers on Twitter.  He made me promise to stop using the term ‘viral’ in 2010 as he contends that viral is now “baked into” the online world and that is just the way it works.  I can start doing that now as I totally agree with him.  Shabbir has always been ahead of the curve.

Check out this insightful conversation which also includes Shabbir’s 3 rules for rapid response.

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Civic Engagement

Topic of the Digital Politics podcast last week was how the web is being used to energize state and local government.  Guests were Jason Kiesel and Kurt Daradics from Freedom Speaks, a site that aims to transform civic engagement.  This site lets people find their elected officials at all levels and enables them to communicate quickly about issues and concerns.  In addition to being useful to citizens, there are applications for advocacy groups to help mobilize constituents.  Check out the interview.

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Water Water Everywhere

Here in San Diego, mandatory water restrictions took effect on June 1.  On the Digital Politics podcast from June 4 with guest Sara Katz, founder and president of Katz & Associates, we hear how the public agencies and businesses involved in water conservation and desalination are thinking about the web.  Sara says that the situation is so dire in Southern CA that there is no time to discuss the problem of water shortages, people just need to go to the web to find out what they can do to save water.  I suspect there are many ways for the web to enhance outreach and conservation efforts by engaging community members through online tools.  Suggestions?  Listen to the interview.

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Emergence of Ad Networks

Podcast on Thursday with Jeff Dittus, CEO and co-founder, CampaignGrid, got into the details about targeting voters using online ads.  CampaignGrid worked with a range of Republican races in 2008 and is working with a number of advocacy groups.  They have also developed expertise in helping non-profits take advantage of the Google Grants program to raise money and awareness, and are growing the number of sites in their network.  Jeff has some great price comparisons between online and traditional media for reaching voters.  They are also using NING to manage their site—eating their own dog food as Jeff puts it.

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Online Branding of Candidates and Causes

Digital Politics Podcast today focused on the increasing tendency to employ branding techniques developed for consumer goods and business services to sell political and advocacy campaigns of all types.  Guest was Brian Keeler, VP for Politics and Advocacy for VShift, New York.  Brian agreed with me that voters have become much more brand savvy and that political consultants are starting to realize how important it is for candidates to focus on the details of a branding campaign (online and off) and not just the message.

Brian is currently working with some candidates running in 2009 and of particular interest are his efforts for the re-election campaign of Jon Corzine for Governor of New Jersey.  While Brian was not going to reveal any secrets about the soon to be re-launched site JonCorzine09.com, he did hint at some techniques to integrate content across multiple web locations.  The few Governor races in 2009 will certainly be a chance to test, at a state level, many of those lessons learned from the 2008 campaigns.

Hear the entire discussion.

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The Permanent Campaign

While candidates are beginning to build relationships with potential supporters in 2010, on my Digital Politics podcast today, Ben Katz, CTO, Aristotle, says the real developments in the use of online tools are going to be by advocates, PACs and other organized groups who have a multi-year agenda and supporters across all states.  Seems like a great time for grassroots activities and testing of the power of online social networks. Where are you seeing increased activity by these groups on the Internet?

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