You've probably heard of homeschoolers in 1994 melting the phone lines over H.R. 6 or run into interns from Patrick Henry college but how do you reach out to them?

As a homeschool graduate and the marketing director for a company that sells to homeschoolers I often get asked by politicians, "I've got some homeschoolers in my district, how do I reach out to them?" here is the brief version of my answer.

The homeschool community is a fast growing, diverse and well networked group of parents who have taken it upon themselves to teach their children at home.

In 2007 there were 1.5 million homeschoolers in the United States. The numbers keep increasing and the growth of homeschooling has created a niche market that many politicians see a value in communicating with.

Before I jump into the nuts and bolts you need to have a basic understanding of the history of home education.

A Brief History of Homeschooling

In the early 1960's and 1970's three streams emerged that catapulted homeschooling into the national sphere.

In the 1960's John Holt wrote "How Children Fail", 1964; "How Children Learn", 1967; "What Do I Do Monday?", 1970 these books coupled with his appearance on the Phil Donehue show pushed the ideas of homeschooling into the national dialogue. Holt also started the magazine "Growing without schooling" and in my mind represents the secular homeschooling world.
Wikipedia | Amazon | Website

In the 1970's Raymond and Dorothy Moore authored several books, "Better Late Than Early: A New Approach to Your Child's Education", 1975 and "School Can Wait" in 1980's they were interviewed on James Dobson's focus on the family radio program which helped spread the message of homeschooling into the conservative Christian community.
Moore Foundation | Amazon

Rushdoony wrote the book (The Messianic Character of American Education) in 1963 and was frequently called as an expert witness by HSLDA in court cases. Some of the leadership of HSLDA has been influenced by Rushooney's theology of Christian Reconstructionism which summarily influences their political involvement.
Wikipedia | Amazon | Chalcedon Foundation

The impact of the theology of christian reconstructionism on politics and the religious right is a fascinating topic but will have to wait till another time, or just google it.

In the early 80's these streams flowed together bound by the necessity of numbers and the need to lobby for the legalization of homeschooling. Homeschooling as a legal and accepted form of education has only enjoyed a very brief history.

Growth

As the homeschooling movement grew in the late 80's and 90's the growth of the christian homeschool community outpaced the growth among secular homeschoolers. With this shift in power homeschool organizations began to disassociate with people they didn't agree with and created "christian homeschool organizations". These state organizations ran the state homeschool conventions, published newsletters and became the defacto legal defense of home education. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). Also began to grow and unite the state organizations and has become a very powerful political
unit.
Wikipedia | Website

Changes

In the 2000's two changes impacted the homeschooling community. In the early days there was more of a individualistic pioneer spirit, these are the people I refer to as the first generation or the pioneers. They had shown that parents could successfully educate their children at home, they had fought for legislation to make it legal, they had begged, borrowed, cobbled together and even written their own curricula. In essence they made homeschooling culturally acceptable. The pioneers opened the doors to the second generation of followers. While the pioneers were more ideological the followers were more concerned with, religious instruction, cost, test scores, quality of public schools, schedule, etc.

The second big change was the growth of the internet. It was now easy to find information and purchase products online. You could also read and write personal reviews to help you decide what to buy and from whom. In the early days you had to make a phone call or attend a seminar to find out the homeschooling legislation and requirements, now it's only a mouse click away. Before you had to go to the state convention to buy your curriculum for the year. Now there is more than enough information online and it's usually cheaper.

Reaching the Homeschool Community

With this brief history in mind here are some practical ways to reach this very diverse homeschool community. Politicians and political organizations can use these tools to reach out to the homeschool community with either their message or in search of volunteers. Traditional marketing means spending money to borrow someone else's audience. The internet and non traditional marketing lets you spend time and money to build your own audience. I recommend using both methods.

Traditional Methods

Magazines

Some of these magazines have overlap and some hit different segments of the homeschool community contact them to find out who they reach. Along with selling advertising space most of these magazines also maintain email lists which you can rent.

• The Old Schoolhouse
• Practical Homeschooling
• HSLDA Court Report
• Homeschool Enrichment
• Homeschooling Today
• Home Education Magazine
• Home Educating Family
• Homeschool Digest
• Creation Illustrated
• The Link

Direct Mail

You can advertise in card packs, essentially you are buying a postcard slot in a large stack of post cards, these generally have a large reach and are mailed several times a year. You can also rent their mailing lists to send your own direct mail pieces. They usually maintain rentable email lists as well.

• National Response Marketing
• Tri Media Online

State Conventions

There are conventions in every state and sometimes several in a state. The old schoolhouse magazine maintains a good list. You can also google your state to find one near you. Some conventions only allow christian curriculum vendors, others only homeschool vendors while others have an open door policy.
Old Schoolhouse 2009 Conventions

Support Groups & Co-ops

I have yet to find a central database of local support groups and co-ops. Buy a google search for support groups in your state will point you in the right direction. Here is one example of support groups in Pennsylvania.
PA Homeschoolers

You can reach support groups and co-ops by calling or emailing the leaders and asking for an opportunity to speak to the group.

Online Outreach

The homeschool community has always been very connected and self organizes in a way that would make most political parties jealous. A hot button issue can quickly spread among homeschoolers and shut down switchboards in Washington D.C. (HR 6 in 1994 for example) Homeschoolers are also extremely well networked online as well. "Homeschool Mommy Bloggers" talk about child rearing, teaching, curriculum choices, politics, faith, recipes, hobbies etc. on a regular basis. They also quickly adapt to new technologies and can be found wherever social media will take you.

Blogger Outreach

Blogger outreach is a very nebulus term that basically means reaching out to bloggers. You can reach out in a variety of ways. You can email the author and pitch a story (doesn't work to well), purchase advertising on the blog (hard to manage more than a few), become a member of a group blog, link to the blog, write comments on the blog, offer free stuff in exchange for a blog post (i.e. review materials, exclusive interview, etc.). The best thing to do is appeal to the blogger's self interest. What do bloggers want?

1. Attention
2. Exclusive Information
3. Money

The best method I've found is to slowly build relationships with bloggers, it doesn't have to be complicated. Read their blogs, comment on them and offer them information that they would find useful.

Some examples of good homeschool blogs

• Spunky Homeschool
• Homeschool Blog Watch
• Corn and Oil
• The Homeschool Cafe
• Trivium Pursuit
• About Homeschooling
• Home Where they Belong

To find more homeschooling blogs check through the past winners of the homeschool blog awards. Also check blogrolls to find out who bloggers like to read.

Twitter

Yes homeschoolers use twitter, if you want to reach out on twitter start an account and start following people. Use the search function to find people talking about your issues/products and join their conversation.Tip: search for the homeschool hashtag #homeschool

Facebook

While there are a lot of homeschoolers on twitter there are even more on facebook. Start a fan page and joint the conversation on facebook. Also facebook advertising is very effective at micro targeting your audience. Tip for Facebook advertising don't send them to your website with your ad, keep them in facebook, either on your page or one of your events. Build your community of fans and talk with them regularly. Have them ask questions and respond via video.

Other Ways to Reach out

Have a homeschool day at your office. Parents are always looking for a good educational field trip and coming and talking with their elected officials is a great way to start building relationships.

Have a volunteer sign up sheet and ask if they want to get involved in local politics. Homeschoolers tend to be well read, respectful and they don't have the same school hours and they can count it as a civics class.

Here are a few good examples I've seen.

Governor Bobby Jindal developed a relationship with the Louisiana state homeschool group and began speaking at their conventions prior his becoming governor. He had a large amount of support and volunteers from the homeschool community in Louisiana and he still maintains the connection by speaking at their conference every year.

Here he is with a bunch of students at the CHEF Homeschool convention. He delivered a great speech and made the time to shake hands with and talk to every person there.

When I was growing up in PA our homeschool group would visit the capitol in Harrisburg and Congressman Joe Pitts would take us on a tour and talk about how government worked. Senator Rick Santorum would do the same for field trips to Washington D.C. Both of whom have enjoyed lots of support from the homeschool
community here in Pennsylvania.

Thanks for reading and please leave a comment or a question if you have anything to add or ask.

How have you reached out to homeschoolers in your district?

More Websites

• The Homeschool Lounge
• A-Z Home's Cool
• Homeschool.com
• HSLDA
• Homeschool Legal Advantage
• National Home Education Legal Defense (NHELD)

Information and statistics

• National Home Education Research Institute
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Wikipedia article on Homeschooling
• Cato Article on Homeschooling
• Barna research - Diversity among homeschoolers
• Article on homeschooling from the Economist

Recommended Reading

• Homeschooling: An American History by Milton Gaither
• Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement by Mitchell Stevens
• Write These Laws on Your Children by Robert Kunzman

cross posted at KeystoneConservative.com

Today I encountered one of the most refreshing, down-to-earth politicians I have ever met. Jason Chaffetz (Rep. 3rd District, Utah) spoke completely transparent and without pretense at the Heritage Foundation today. He impressed me with his desire to have a tight budget and low spending during his campaign for Congress in 2008, even despite overwhelming odds against a winning campaign. Chaffetz ran against RNC-backed Chris Cannon and won while spending about 1/6 of the money. Chaffetz said he made the decision to run against Cannon because, "he failed us (Republicans) for not instituting conservative principles in campaign finance and sticking to limited spending."

Chaffets attributes his election to his online presence, use of social media and personal calls and visits. He told of a time he drove an hour and a half to visit with three people. "I was willing to do things most people weren't," Chaffetz said. 

In regards to social media, he says too many members in the House are afraid of Facebook and Twitter. That's what I appreciated most about Chaffetz today: He didn't seem to have much of a filter when talking. You could tell he wasn't thinking, "how is this going to sound?," or "is this politically correct?" He was raw, yet well spoken. "You have to be comfortable with who you are," Chaffetz said today in response to a question regarding his succesful popularity. 

He also commented that the managment of a politican's Twitter and Facebook accounts "are not staff jobs, once people recognize it's you, well, they like that." I agree, there's nothing more frustrating than having a conversation with a ghostwriter. Chaffetz personally sends his facebook fans happy birthday messages. He said it communicates care not only to the individual, but also to the 500 potential others who may see it.

His website www.Chaffetz.house.gov is extremely fun and interactive with many videos. There are chances to personally contact Chaffetz, follow him on Twitter  or become his facebook fan. (He expressed disappointment with facebook's policy of a 5,000 friend cap on a profile because he feels his fan page doesn't allow him the personal touch his profile once did). On his website there's even a mini-series called "The Freshman" that documents Chaffetz's first year in Congress.

If I lived in Utah I'd vote for him. In fact, I hope his honest grassroots efforts will proliferate in Congress and inspire more young and truly conservative politicians. 

Someone in my local party approached me and asked matter of factly, what do I need to keep in touch with social networking without getting overwhelmed? I thought about this and thought that while some of us just do everything, what are the top five platforms that conservatives can't go without?

1. Facebook.com

A good platform for groups, causes, and friends. It is also broad in the use by members, unlike MySpace, and doesn't attract nearly as many "spammers."

2. Twitter.com

Even IF you never want to tweet, the ability to follow major players in the conservative world AND actually coorespond with many of them is outstanding. In fact, put that together with the outstanding links and research by some groups like #tcot or #techgop and it is a social networking package combined with news and research.

3. YRNetwork.com

Ok, even if you are not a Young Republican, you need to at least take a look at what Moshe Starkman has done on his own with his own money. Great platform, constant updates, and the functionality of connecting with YRs nationwide is indespensible.

4. Flickr.com

A really great service for photo sharing. Whether through your website, or through social networking, an indespensible service that provides easy use and sharing of photos that are important to you as well as seeing photos of friends or random people on flickr as well.

5. StumbleUpon.com

So, you come upon a conservative website that you love, what do you do? You click a thumbs up button that you have downloaded on your toolbar, and now your friends and like minded strangers have the ability to stumble on that site you selected. I know that there are other services out their that do similar things. Delicious.com, Digg, and technorarti, being among them, my favorite is SU. However, you need at least one of these to make a difference!

Countless posts have lamented the right's hesitation to mobilize on the web. It's a topic that the conservative blogosphere mourns continuously. We've seen numerous stories in the press, including the Politico article earlier this week, yet why haven't we arrived at a solution?

It certainly isn't for a lack of innovation. Web strategists and bloggers are devoted to a number of projects aimed towards engaging the right. However, there still isn't much movement on the right. We need to take a step backward. Building a better mousetrap isn't going to help us here. We need to figure out what motivates the mouse before we try to trap it.

Very little is known about web behavior and consumption. Thus far, it has challenged traditional broadcast patterns that predicted behavior with mass media. No one on either side really understands the full picture either. Pew is starting to get a handle on the situation, but changes on the web keep throwing off trends.

It goes without saying that Republicans and Democrats are different. We think, act and vote differently, but why are we treating two very different groups of people with the same tactics?

If the web has done anything, it shows that top-down broadcast campaigns are no longer necessary. Web users demand personalization. Is it surprising then that the most individualistic of web users aren't going to respond to tactics engineered by a collective mentality? The right and left use the web differently. The problem is that we don't know how.

This spring, I conducted an online survey of political web behavior for my graduate thesis, which covered this issue. Nearly 450 people participated, and overall 41% identified as conservative, 30% liberal, 20% moderate and 6% libertarian.

Not surprisingly, Republicans and Democrats evenly participated in receiving e-mail alerts, signing petitions and even blogging. However, they started differing when asked about activities relating to social media and activism.

Activism on the right presents the biggest challenge. The concept of activism brings up negative connotations among conservatives. Nearly 44% of all respondents would not consider themselves to be activists. When broken down by party affiliation, only 34% of conservatives compared to 55% of liberals identified with the activist label.

Conservatives also prefer pundit-type sites. Only 22% of participants said that they "very much liked" web sites with an interactive or grassroots focus. When asked how they felt about more analytical Web sites that contained news stories and blogs, 42% claimed "somewhat" and 45% responded "very." Respondents were then asked what type they preferred, and 59% replied a combination of both, while 36% favored news analysis and blogs.

What do these numbers mean? While this was a small survey conducted for a grad student, there's evidence that we need to approach this situation differently. Conservatives simply won't participate in anything deemed as "activism." While it is possible for this attitude to change over time, we need to consider these preferences when reaching out to them on the web.

Just as, Allen Roth described, issuing a call to action is critical for building momentum with issues. By including that simple action step on your next blog post, it takes the topic from discussion to activity. While supporters are likely to take the next step if explicitly asked, participation rates increase even more when the tools are provided for them to act right there.

Why have the netroots thrived while the right crawls along? It's a far easier ask for a liberal activist to take up pundit activities, such as blogging, than it is for a conservative pundit to go beyond their comfort zones and participate in a rally or protest. While the activist mentality does exist on the right, it's largely contained to the religious right and pro-lifers.

This survey only begins to scratch the surface of the differences of web behavior among Republicans and Democrats. If we want to succeed in the long run, there needs to be some effort into researching these differences. Understanding the outlook and behavior of conservatives on the web can eliminate the guessing game going on right now.