There’s a lot of hype that goes on when talking about the intersection of Internet & Politics. To many of us on this site, things like Myspace, Youtube & Facebook are the next best things since sliced bread.
Tonite, Chuck DeFeo offered an intuitive conclusion to my Internet Technologies Workshop. Below is a synopsis of his remarks.
He quoted former Kansas City Cheif's head coach, “the main thing is the main thing & as long as you remember the main thing is the main thing, it will be the main thing.”
To DeFeo, the main thing = getting 51% of the vote.
The main thing is not really about having the coolest widget, or the sweetest Youtube video. Instead, every action you take, every framework you put in place needs to answer the question: What is your organization trying to accomplish?
Your answer is these three things: Raise Money, Organize a Volunteer Base & Communicate a Message. It gets more complicated when you start to think about how the Internet will help you achieve those goals.
Today it’s all about tapping into the communities that exist out there and then deciding how to funnel them into your organization.
At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the smart candidates realized they needed to go where the people were as those people started to convene at work for the very first time.
Today, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace are communities where people are gathering.
What do you do to get attention when you are not the RNC or the President?
*recognize who your audience is in each and every social network.
*introduce yourself properly. talk to them. get to know them.
It’s like meeting someone at a bar. You don’t call them and ask for $15 the first call. NO, you ask them out for a drink first.
Liberals are beating us on the Internet & we don’t know what we’re doing.
Fundamental truths: There exists a much more energized base of support on the left — our base is demoralized.
In 2004 we had two Internet Campaign Models: Bush & Howard Dean
*Bush had the right model for an incumbent president.
*Howard Dean allowed comments on his blog & any Joe 6-pack could post. “You are the message, you have the power” said Dean
The Dean campaign used earned media & viral communities to bring people in and congregate on his website. (Myspace, Facebook, Youtube didn’t really exist)
Pros of the Dean Model — He was an unknown candidate trying to be the cool, hip place to hangout. Cons — At some point he lost message control, when he allowed people to create their own messages.
Howard Dean became who everyone wanted him to be.
On the flip-side, President Bush had a large, existing base of support already. The question for Chuck was how do we most effectively make use of that audience — going back to that 51% goal.
Chuck’s job was to get folks off that website as quickly as possible and offer unique visitors a set of goals, outline the presiden'ts record and finally, communicate a streamlined message. *empower grassroots supporters to carry president’s message*
1_ sign up to volunteer
2_give you a list of other people in your community to contact
You only get, at best, 7-8 minutes with a first-time visitor to your website.
What are you doing with your first 7-8 minutes?
