Can a Professional Twitterer Save Rep. Joe Wilson's Rep?

Earlier this week we mentioned the impact Representative Joe Wilson’s outburst had on the Twitter zeitgeist following President Obama’s health care speech; 13% of all the related tweets mentioned the South Carolina Congressman’s “You Lie!” accusation during the address.

It appears that Wilson’s chosen defense strategy involves heavy usage of social media, including the reported hiring of a professional Twitterer. Along with reformed burglar, professional Twitterer is probably one of the more coveted jobs out there.

Forget Gen Y: Gen X is Making Real Change

Sometimes even the best researchers forget that the answer you get depends entirely on who you ask. A new Forrester survey of 2,000 information workers has revealed that despite the hype, it's not Gen Y that's getting business to adopt collaborative technology. Gen X, those who are 30-43, are the ones leading the charge for social computing.

Forrester's analysis is that despite their different view of technology, Gen Y, Millennials, or whatever you want to call those 29 and under, don't yet have the clout within organizations to make real change. The same Gen X employees who are the fastest growing demographic in Facebook are the ones getting management to accept new technology as more than a fad.

Why You Build Ahead of Time:  Wilson's Outburts Turns ActBlue Tap on for Miller

Rob Miller is a man who can spot a moment he sees one, it seems. South Carolina Democrat Miller -- also a man lucky enough to be set up as the main challenger to the guy who happened to shout "You lie!" at Barack Obama during Wednesday health address to the assembled House and Senate, has redirected his official campaign site -- RobMillerforCongress.com, so that it now jumps directly to the fundraising hub ActBlue.

I have a lot of Facebook friends. 1,200 or so.

I bet you're in the same boat.

The one thing I'm really sick of receiving are invites to events and gatherings which are meant to raise money for DEMOCRATIC candidates. And, of course, every Democratic baby bundler uses ActBlue. Natch.

For example, here's a reminder to an event I received yesterday helping to bundle $50 contributions for the Democratic Nebraska Senate candidate at a fun bar in DC:

Quick reminder that Boots and Beer with Scott Kleeb is on Wednesday.
(no boots actually required) We are all looking forward to an awesome
event and can't wait to see you.

If you haven't already, please go to http://www.actblue.com/page/bootsandbeers
and make a $50 contribution. You're welcome to write a check or make a
credit card contribution there, but this is SO MUCH EASIER!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Alternatively, last night there was a fundraiser for John McCain (actually the RNC Victory Committee and a slew of other committees) on a rooftop -- typical Republican fundraiser.

I tried to get the crew organizing the event to use Slatecard for their fundraising efforts, letting them know about our referral mechanism which would give them credit for raising money and would continue to help both parties. I even said I'd help raise money for the effort from people who could care less about standing on a rooftop. Sadly, no luck.

Perhaps they didn't want to use Slatecard because it would have raised money for McCain in the Primary Election and they need it for the RNC's Victory Fund (which I'm still trying to figure out if Slatecard can raise money for the fund).

Regardless, it's these young professional Republicans who should be utilizing tools like Slatecard to help change the game for John McCain and our party. I can only stand atop this apple crate screaming at the top of my lungs for so long.

[Cross-posted to Slatecard.]

Last night I spoke with a small group of conservative activists at the Leadership Institute about some of the emerging technologies and tips I offer with regard to fundraising online.

Via my SlideShare account, you can see (and download) my presentation:

| View | Upload your own

Of course, a presentation is only as good as its presenter, and since most of the slides in my deck offer little text, I'll elaborate.

I kicked off the discussion by noting that the Internet has done one major thing, "helped us communicate more effectively with real, live people -- 'smarter, better, faster, NOW.'" We no longer have to wait for checks to be written by our supporter and mailed to our campaign -- instead, we're seeing a trend of folks who are giving donations online.

I use the example of Barack Obama as the latest evidence of this shift from offline giving to online giving. I site Barack's online fundraising numbers that have been reported well by Patrick Ruffini.

With regard to how Democrats have been able to amass so much treasure from previously unturned stones, I always use a personal example to help relate what I call the Long Tail of Fundraising.

Now that the stage is set, I talk about the Left's ActBlue and how Slatecard has helped provide a similar utility for the Right. I then talk about some of the tools that I believe will change the online fundraising space forever like Slatecard's proprietary innovation, Donor Analytics, and our deployment of anywhere fundraising widgets and facebook applications (still in private beta) to help drive donations in popular watering holes.

I conclude by offering four quick and easy tips to help better embrace online supporters.

1. Capture Emails at Every Possible Turn. Use a splash page before folks enter your website to make your supporters make a choice -- join your team or don't -- but the choice must be made before entering a website.

2. Ask for Realistic Gifts. Ask your online community for $25, $50 or $100. Your community will give you what they can afford but the folks that will give you low-dollar amounts online will likely give more to you over time. The point is to lower the barrier of entry and build your donor base.

3. DonationTubes. Have your principle/candidate make the final "ask" via video embedded directly to your secure donation page. Read this blog post for a more thorough answer.

4. Thank Your Supporters. It's hard to believe, but some politicians (and I know from personal experience) do not thank their online supporters. As an example of how to properly thank your supporters, I relate the fact that I received a personal note from Senator Tom Coburn when I contributed a mere $20 to his campaign through Slatecard. The benefit of him taking the time to personally recognize my donation is that, well, here I am blogging about it and I told a room of 30 conservative activists about it last night. In other words, treat every donor on an equal playing field and it will likely yield a great ROI.

The bottom-line with regard to online fundraising is that there's no silver bullet. I can't tell you how to mirror what Ron Paul did or what Barack Obama is doing. But we can keep an eye on the space and help relate what works and what doesn't.

[Cross-Posted at the Slatecard Blog.]

Amy Schatz of the Wall Street Journal has an article today on ActBlue called, "Local politics, web money" which shows how the site is proving a valuable resource for local politicians. Again, Long Tail of politics in action.

Of course, the good news is that there's a Big Red Rightroots Slatecard Storm on the horizon for Republican candidates.

The profile in today's Boston Globe on the Left's ActBlue is yet another reason to make sure you're on the list to receive updates from the Right's counter to ActBlue, Slatecard...:

Internet-based PAC driving Democratic push
Small donors fuel big support drive

By Scott Helman, Globe Staff | August 7, 2007

CAMBRIDGE -- The new headquarters of ActBlue, with its tangled cords, leftover Deval Patrick signs, and 20-somethings tapping on white MacBook laptops, is what a political campaign would look like if it shared space with a dot-com start-up.

ActBlue is in fact both -- an Internet-based political action committee that is quietly becoming one of the biggest forces in Democratic politics. Its founders aim for nothing short of revolution, and they are already partway there.

The PAC, operated from a former architecture studio on Arrow Street near Harvard Square, functions as an online clearinghouse for campaign contributions to Democrats of all stripes, allowing anyone in the country to donate any allowable amount to any candidate with the click of a mouse: You send the money to ActBlue (actblue.com), and ActBlue funnels it to the campaigns. This gives local, state, and national Democratic candidates a cheap, efficient means of building a base of supporters over the Internet.

This simple but transformative concept has raised $25.5 million and counting since its creation in Cambridge in 2004, when two computer-savvy scientists with liberal leanings set out to take political action in a new direction. They believed that armies of small donors, mobilized effectively, could be more potent than the "bun dlers" who have dominated fund-raising by amassing checks from wealthy contributors. (Read full story.)