Traditional Media Outlets Flocking to Tumblr

Traditional media's first major adoption of Web 2.0 came with Facebook, as outlets syndicated their content on the popular social network by way of fan pages and official accounts. Then, Twitter went mainstream as writers, editors and the media organizations themselves signed up, sent out links, and chatted about related topics in 140 character bursts. Now it seems traditional media outlets are flocking to another service - one that is almost a hybrid of the others, allowing for short-form posts, but with richer format.

What's the new trend among legacy media? Why it's none other than Tumblr.

What Twitter Places Means for the Future of Location

Despite the bungled launch and short hiatus, Twitter Places is back in action. The feature has huge implications for the geo-location space and the location-sharing movement.

Places is a big improvement on Twitter’s (Twitter) previous geo-location offering, which was never widely adopted or embraced by the majority of users. Whereas before users had to adjust their settings and agree to posting every single tweet with their geo-coordinates, now Twitterers are presented with an elegant way to attach a place to their tweet, one tweet at a time.

Fundraising Tool Piryx Projects $4B in Online Political Donations for 2010 Election Cycle

Piryx, a white-label fundraising platform that helps automate online political contributions is reporting record amounts of money raised in this quarter for political candidates. Piryx says that money raised will exceed $4 billion this political cycle

Piryx attributes the surge in online contributions to the strength of Barack Obama’s online campaign that first showed the power of online fundraising in 2008. Many of the current fundraising efforts are being driven by anti-establishment, insurgent candidacy led by tea party candidates.

How to Manage Your Social Media Marketing in 10 Minutes Daily

Social media isn’t something that we’re born to do. Yes, we’re social creatures by nature, but let’s face it… you were plenty busy before Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn came along.

The truth is, most marketers simply don’t have the time to use all of these tools on a daily basis. 

New Media Index: Bloggers Refocus on the Economy...

The economy was the topic of the most news links shared by bloggers, while Twitter users Tweeted about Twitter, and the most-watched news and politics video on YouTube was Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) physically confronting two men who asked him questions on the street, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism's New Media Index (for the week of June 14-18.)

As 2009 comes to a close, here are a handful of events and year-end recaps that you shouldn't miss. When it comes to online search, what's hot on the minds of the American people?

Facebook Hosts a Developer Garage in Washington, DC - December 14th

Facebook Developer Garages are just like they sound – a place to explore, get gritty, tinker, experiment, and test out ideas for Facebook Platform. Being in the Garage is all about participating, getting your hands dirty, and exploring fresh ideas and solutions.

Our event will be developer-focused, there will not be a marketing or business track. However, following the Developer Garage we are hoping to have a social event nearby where developers can mingle with DC organizations interested in building on Facebook platform.

Click through to the Facebook event for more information and to RSVP. Space is limited - developers need only apply.

Most Googled Senators

Google looks at search traffic for the year and compiles a list of the most searched for U.S. Senators:

1. Kennedy
2. Nelson
3. Boxer
4. Feinstein
5. Reid
6. Byrd
7. Dodd
8. Schumer
9. Grassley
10. Warner 

Google: Zeitgeist 2009 - In The News

It was a big year for policy buffs, starting with the inauguration of a new president, followed quickly by major issues including the economy, health care and environmental concerns. And sometimes, we were glued to stories we couldn't have anticipated. Here are some of the most popular queries—hot off the press. Unless otherwise noted, these queries were most popular in the U.S. in 2009.

The Procastinator's Guide to Year-End Fundraising 

Here’s something to check out this coming Thursday afternoon: Network for Good and Care2 will be hosting a free conference call on year-end nonprofit fundraising, with online-donations experts Alia McKee and Mark Rovner of Sea Change Strategies laying out best practices for taking full online advantage of holiday generosity. I’ve worked with Alia and Mark in the past and can vouch for their skillz, and the call will also feature friend-of-e.politics Eric Rardin as moderator. Can’t listen live? They’ll provide an mp3 and text transcript after the fact. What a bargain!

Fundraising with the help of Email and Social Media

This past Sunday, I took part in the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk. For those who don’t know, my grandma suffered from dementia for several years before she passed away in the summer of 2008. Participating in the walk and raising money for the Alzheimer’s Association is my way of being the change.

Since this was my third walk in as many years, I was already well versed in the process of fundraising that takes place in the months leading up to the event. But, I did some things differently this year, and as a result, I was able to raise more than $1,000. I cannot even express in words how proud and excited I am to be able to make such a substantial contribution. To those of you who supported me, thank you so much! Last year, I surpassed my goal of $500, and I thought that was pretty awesome. So, how did I double my fundraising efforts this year? Here are some tips for raising money offline and online...

Facebook U.S. Visits Increase 194% Over Past Year; Tagged is Beating Twitter?

New data released from Experian Hitwise reconfirms what we've known for some time: Facebook is killing the other social networks. Nowhere is that more true than here in the U.S. where they found that the visits to the site have increased 194% from September of last year to September 2009. However, it's Twitter that's seen the largest year-over-year increase in visits - during that same time period, they're up 1170%. But one of the oddest findings being reported is how the social network known as Tagged is beating out Twitter for the number three spot in terms of visits.

Twitter: Disrupting Politics from Coast to Coast

Since it's "Top Chef" Wednesday, we're going to take a page from the cheftestants, who can't seem to resist putting a duo or trio of entrees on one plate ("Pork three ways? Wow!"), and present to you three nuggets of Twitter-related political news all in one post. 

High Hopes for New GOP App

House Republican leaders have introduced a colorful BlackBerry app called WhipCast that lets members and their aides check talking points and bill facts, follow votes, plan floor action and even keep up with rumors, polls and late-night comedy.

Starting Thursday, the GOP is making WhipCast available to the public for free as a way to show that the party is regaining the technical edge that has been lost to Democrats in recent years. 

I got an email today from the GOP telling me to download their new toolbar.

Being a good email reader I did what they told me to do, it was quick, easy and voila now I can raise money for the GOP just by doing what I normally do, waste time learn valuable information on the internet.

After a few minutes of random browsing I checked back into my stats and I had raised $1.01!

Not bad, especially if you get a few thousand people using it during the next few months. Not sure how this works with campaign finance reform and wish the GOP site would be a little more clear in that regard.

The one thing I don't like about it is you have to use yahoo to search, I happen to like the other team.

Try it out for yourself. Then post your thoughts back here.

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.]

Ask any politician what the best way to get a donation from a supporter is and they'll begrudgingly admit that it's when the politician looks that supporter in the eye (or via a phone call) and makes the "ask." Begrudgingly admitted because all politicians hate to fundraise.

So how do we modernize this concept and capitalize on what we know about effectively campaigning? Common sense, my friends. Let's add an "ask" from the candidate right before someone makes a donation.

As a political consultant, one of the services we provide our clients is the deployment of what I've termed DonationTubes. DonationTubes, quite simply are a short, elevator pitch video message from the candidate to their supporters that can be viewed right before someone enters their credit card information.

You can see how we've incorporated a DonationTube for Lt. Governor Peter Kinder's website here:

A few key things to note when thinking about adding a DonationTube:
* Keep the message short and hit on key action items like giving "recurring/monthly donations." You will only receive if you ask.
* You'll note that Kinder's donation page, of course, is secured with an SSL certificate which gives donors the confidence they need to input their credit card information.
* You can not use a third-party flash video provider (like YouTube or Blip.TV) on secure websites which is why we are hosting this video, and only this video, on our servers.
* Just because we can't use YouTube on this page, we still upload the video to our YouTube channel so that supporters can find it and add it to their website.

The donation page is our last opportunity to connect with our most valuable and committed supporters. Use what you have and succeed online by thinking creatively about the nuts and bolts of the process.

Republicans need to understand what's happening here:

This is the result of just three emails sent by the Obama campaign. It's more than Mike Huckabee raised last quarter. It's probably more than any Republican raised online last quarter with the exception of Ron Paul.

Think about that. One email. $650,000.

Imagine what their nominee will do to us with the entire weight of the online Democratic Party behind them. I'm thinking $1 to $2 million an email.

Each email is the equivalent two or three fundraising dinners. Each of which probably require hundreds of man hours to produce. That's only for of one email, not the three that have been sent this week. One email that probably took someone an hour or two write, that took a few hours to get approved, that took another hour or two to be formatted and sent. (And "stripped down" email is even more efficient.)

All because they were able to build up a huge list in the hundreds of thousands using proven list-building techniques that, to some degree, can be duplicated by anyone.

At the end of Q2, the campaign claimed 235,000 BarackObama.com members. Given his astronomic traffic the first half of the year, the fact that they incredibly claimed more donors than online supporters, and growth since then, I have to think the mail universe they're sending to is closer to 500,000.

So I'm going to guess their metrics for this campaign look like this:

500,000 emails sent175,000 opened the message40,000 clicked through20% conversion rate8,000 donors @ $80 per donation = $640,000

But as successful as Barack has been online, not all their campaigns have been this successful. Their end of quarter campaign, for instance.

Comparing this blog post with their fundraising graphic, Obama picked up 9,439 contributions in the last three days of the quarter, having sent an email each of those days. Assuming $80 a contribution (the going rate for Democratic online contributions, at least according to John Edwards's ActBlue page), that's just shy of $750,000. Or $250,000 an email.

How did they more than double their fundraising performance per email?

First, the message of this campaign is a lot stronger. It opened up on Tuesday with an email from BO himself called "Hillary's money." They're going negative on Hillary. That's attention grabbing.

Second, the goal is audacious but ultimately realistic. $2.1 million sounds like a lot. Unless you know you can count on at least $500,000 an email and show measurable progress towards the goal through a live counter. In 2004, Joe Trippi talked about the $100 Revolution -- 2 million people giving 100 bucks to match President Bush. That probably struck a lot of folks as pie-in-the-sky. $2.1 million is doable. Set big goals you can realistically achieve with a short but powerful burst of activity.

Third, the message of the end-of-quarter campaign was so weak by comparison. It was basically: we're 34/35ths of the way there -- help put us over the top. That's not inspiring. That tells people they're not needed because they're so close anyway, they're just a statistic and someone else will fill the gap. Even though 10,000 new donors is a lot. They would have been better off resetting the counter to zero.

How much does the stripped down format help? Probably only at the margins. It probably means your message gets read more, but arguably the point is not to get people to read. It's to get people to click. The first time they tried stripped-down email was in the end of quarter campaign and it probably didn't help much. Message matters more.

This is all part of a pattern of experimentation that is vital in every campaign. The Obama team probably saw they weren't getting the results they were used to getting in previous quarter-ending efforts, so they tried something different, using real dollars and starting the counter at zero.

Ron Paul's campaign in the second quarter was everything its supporters so fervently claimed: distributed and supporter-driven. They raised $2.4 million. In the third quarter, they used technique to boost that return dramatically, putting a live fundraising counter on their homepage. That raised $5.1 million. Technique and gathering momentum doubled the return. And now, in the ultimate test of whether radical transparency and audacious goals can transform fundraising, they're looking to leapfrog the frontrunners with a $12 million goal.

The lesson here is get in the game. Always try new stuff. Do bold audacious things to first build your list and then monetize it. Try everything at least once, but don't get distracted by the shiny new Web 2.0 toys. Socnets still can't raise what email can. And realize that the Web is more than just a medium for getting your message across. It's a medium for moving people and money.

Ron Paul's supporters have provided a measure of radical transparency into his fundraising that would make most political operatives suffer heart failure. Going well beyond the now-passe end-of-quarter fundraising "bat," the Paul campaign has set a public goal of $12 million raised for the quarter, posting their current total live on the homepage and including the names and hometowns of donors. If a donation comes in while you're on the site, you'll see it update live.

As if this weren't bold enough, RonPaulGraphs.com has taken it a step further. Using the live data feed that powers the graphic, the site publishes an impressive array of analytics including a minute-by-minute view of donations and projected totals for the month and quarter.

But that's not all.

Today, IPDI released Poli-fluentials: The New Political Kingmakers, which builds on their Political Influentials Online in the 2004 Presidential Campaign report.

RoperASW's Influentials took politics, especially Republicans, by storm. This study examines those Influentials who are highly involved in politics.

Based on an e-mail survey completed by 10,000 people this summer, Poli-fluentials dug into the nuances of online political junkies (chances are if TechRepublican is on your reader, you fall into this category). This wasn't a random survey, so findings are specific to population. However, if you're running a campaign or promoting or work for an advocacy group, you want to attract Poli-fluentials.

The report helps answer the question that plagues all of us here--are Republicans behind on the web? Now we have some evidence that there's work cut out for us. Poli-fluentials are, "more likely to be Democrats than Republicans (46% vs. 30%). Similarly, more Poli-fluentials were liberal or very liberal (45%) than were conservative or very conservative (33%)."

Another interesting finding revealed that social networking worked best for progressive or social conservative issues. People need to have internalized and have a personal stake in the issue for it to be successful. Business or private issues that don't engage people on an emotional level aren't the juicy topics that socnets attract.

These two facts alone, show that Republicans can make the most impact by appealing to our base. It's acknowledged that the right has far bigger offline networks to tap. It's time to get those groups online. We've touched on the need to get pro-life groups more active on the web before, and these numbers just show us where the holes in the rightroots are.

Poli-fluentials also overwhelmingly volunteer:

Our research indicates that volunteers to political campaigns come almost exclusively from the ranks of Poli-fluentials. Our study finds that people who make contributions but who do not actively promote candidates and causes are much less likely to volunteer--only 12% of them did. Similarly, among the people who publically promote candidates and causes, only 10% volunteer. Candidates and causes in search of foot soldiers to perform actual work of campaigns would do well to cultivate Poli-fluentials.

Bottom line: You want these people. Not only do they donate, but they're also eager footsoldiers.

There's a lot more in this study that I'm still weeding through. If you're willing to spend $25 to order it, it's worth the investment.

It looks like I was only a little early in my prediction of a Ron Paul $4 million quarter.

In a quarter when non-Hillary fundraising bottomed out, Ron Paul has shown Republicans that there is a price to be paid for not making the Web a central part of your strategy. Sure, top GOPers read the headlines about Obama's fundraising. But they waved it off as a Democrat phenomenon. Their philosophy: Republicans are from Mars, Democrats are from Venus -- and nothing about one side could every apply to the other.

Paul's nearly matching a weakened John McCain and quintupling offline darling Mike Huckabee could either be a much needed wake up call, or the morphine drip that keeps this top-down fear of the Internet going until catastrophe forces change.