GOP Claims New Media 'Domination' in Health Care Debate

Republicans are claiming new media domination in the healthcare debate set to wrap up today.

House Republicans said that a flood of traffic and page views flowed into GOP websites this weekend, and that thousands of new followers signed up to follow @GOPLeader, the Twitter page for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

"The numbers don’t lie; when the American people went looking for the straight story on Washington Democrats’ government takeover of health care online, they went straight to the GOP," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner. "This is just another example of how Republicans are dominating the field of forward-looking direct media.”

Trouble with the Tubes:  Americans Don't Support Dem's Takeover of Health Care Online Either

In another example of House Republicans’ domination in the social media space, the past week saw a flood of traffic, views, and followers to the GOP.  The numbers don’t lie, and when you look at them one thing is clear: when Americans went online for information on the health care debate, they headed straight for the GOP.  What follows is a snapshot of the past week’s health care debate online...

3 Early Thoughts on Facebook Ad Conversion Tracking

Facebook recently introduced its Ad Conversion Tracking feature through a limited beta program. To quote Facebook, “Conversion tracking allows you to track activity that happens on your website as a result of someone on Facebook seeing or clicking your Facebook Ad.”
Facebook Ad Conversion Tracking.

In a nutshell, Facebook provides tracking tags for you to add to key pages on your website. The tag is triggered when a user who’s previously encountered your Facebook ad hits the page.

Bulbstorm received early access to the beta tool this week. Here are our initial thoughts on Ad Conversion Tracking for Facebook...

Facebook to Release a Like Button for the Whole Darn Internet

There will be lots of news leaking about Facebook’s product announcements at their upcoming F8 Developer Conference in April. That’s because they’re already starting to test out a lot of the new stuff with third party developers, and once two people know a secret, it isn’t really a secret any more.

One of the new features we’ve been hearing about is the extension of Facebook Connect and the Facebook API to allow publishers to add a “Like” button to any piece of content on their site.

It has only been hours since the House passed ObamaCare and the RightRoots are already fighting back - hard.

Late last night, the RNC launched FireNancyPelosi.com - a 40 hour money-bomb aimed at raising money to help unseat 40 House Democrats - the magic number needed to fire House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  As of 9:40 a.m. this morning, more than $250,000 of the $402,010 goal has been raised.  (UPDATE: In less than 40 hours, the RNC reached it's third goal of $1,002,010)

The micro-site is accompanied by heavy online ad buys from the RNC driving traffic and earned media to the site.  With the 40 hour money-bomb, the RNC has also given supporters a slew of weapons to fight back against ObamaCare on Twitter. The campaign driven by the RNC has produced a great deal of momentum against the Democrats and ObamaCare in a short period of time.  #FirePelosi is being used frequently to organize opponents of the bill on Twitter and at 9:00 a.m. this morning, "fire nancy pelosi" was the #3 hottest search topic on Google in the United States.

Leader John Boehner (R-OH) gave the weekly GOP response on YouTube leading up to the critical vote on #hcr in the House - But was it as compelling as his remarks on the House floor on Sunday? The video has already picked up over 75,000 views on YouTube --  That's exponentially more views than the majority of his other videos have received online.

Infographics Rise in Popularity

There is so much data out on the web today to digest that consumers are increasingly sharing infographics, simple visualizations of data, as a short hand way to communicate salient points of important research or social trends. The design blog Zubeta published a stream of 20 infographics that represent everything from patterns of consumer behavior to flight delays and the known universe. More and more, if you want to show your chops as an interactive designer, you need to be able to show you can create a killer visualization. 

Twitter Search Results to Show Popular Tweets on Top

Twitter appears set to tweak search results to return the most popular tweets first — instead of the most recent — for any given search query.

This according to Twitter Developer Advocate Taylor Singletary, who has just updated the developer Google Group announcing the yet-to-be-released product. Singletary says, “This is a beta project, but an important first step to surface the most popular tweets for users searching Twitter (Twitter).”

11 Essential Social Media Resources You May Have Missed

We know you’re busy. Even with every social media, web, and RSS tool at your disposal, you can occasionally miss out on some of the week’s most insightful content.

Never fear. We’ve taken a moment to round up the best Mashable (Mashable) resources from this past week and present them here for your weekend enjoyment.

From in-depth how-tos, to app lists, to valuable business guides, browse below for a veritable smorgasbord of value you may have passed over.

Don't Buy, Sell or Steal Email Lists

13 million e-mail addresses acquired by a single political campaign is astonishing.  But what if Obama for America had purchased that e-mail list instead of growing it organically?  Would it have been nearly as effective in GOTV or raising 2/3 of Obama's half-a-billion dollars raised online?  No way. 

Obama's Health Care Message Hard to Control Online

The president's Twitter feed is hugely popular, with more than 2 million followers. Funny White House photos of the first family wearing 3-D glasses went viral after the White House posted them to Flickr. And he's the first president who commonly addresses the nation on YouTube.

Many pundits have argued Obama's mastery of online social networks and his image as a BlackBerry-addicted, tech-hip person helped win him the U.S. presidency in January.

So if the Obama Administration is so Internet savvy, what's happening with health care?

Online Politics Reserved for the Rich?

US civic engagement remains in the hands of the middle-class despite hopes that the internet would democratise political involvement.

Those are the findings of a report from the Pew Internet Project.

Online political engagement such as contacting officials, signing petitions and making donations is skewed towards richer and better educated Americans.

Four Tools for Managing Twitter Followers

I’m not sure why Twitter makes it difficult to manage followers within their own site, but fortunately there are several 3rd party options available. I’ve been playing around with these applications, and a lot are a waste of time in my opinion.

However, the ones below, are the few that I found to be useful and that actually work. 

The Bloggers Briefing at Heritage today focused on two very important and timely issues: health care reform and the prospect of a nuclear Iran.

Stuart Butler – Heritage’s vice president of domestic and economic policy studies – started off his discussion of health care policy by emphasizing that we are in a critical phase in the battle over health care reform, especially because Congress comes back to work next week. He said ObamaCare could very well be collapsing but, as a veteran of the HillaryCare battle, he is wary of what will happen next.

Specifically, Butler warned of what he described as the nightmare scenario – President Obama and the liberals in Congress coming back with a different strategy in which they slowly bring out their desired “reform” by expanding SCHIP, implementing price controls and passing a federal rights bill that says everyone has a right to affordable health care with the help of Republicans.

Importantly, Butler also emphasized the need to talk about what you are for, not just what you are against. He explained that we must articulate a different vision of reform that includes:

Federalism: implementing legislation at the state level, not the federal level, in order for governments to compete

Deregulation: come up with innovative solutions, which will not come about with more centralization

Tax Reform: abolish tax penalties currently associated with health coverage, especially by divorcing coverage from employers

Be sure to check out Stuart Butler’s posts at the National Journal’s health care blog.

The second guest today was Ambassador Dore Gold – president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and formerly Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. He spoke about the serious yet underestimated issue of a nuclear Iran (be sure to check out his book, The Rise of Nuclear Iran).

Ambassador Gold began by expressing his sincere concern about the complacency that exists when it comes to this issue. He warned that this is not just Israel’s problem (although both Ayatollah Khomeini and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have called for Israel to be wiped off the map). Iran is projecting power all over the Middle East (including Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen) in its quest for regional hegemony, and is developing missiles that can reach European territory.

But Ambassador Gold also emphasized that Iran can be stopped if action is taken now. His suggestions include:

Placing gas quarantines on Iran (which he described as the most powerful lever the West has short of a military option)

Ratcheting up sanctions by Western countries

Of course, time is of the essence, and Ambassador Gold is skeptical of policy engagement as endless negotiations would lead to an increase in Iran’s supply of uranium. Instead, Ambassador Gold said that the U.S. must lead this effort and be quick, firm and achieve results in a short period of time.

If you weren’t able to make it, you can listen to today’s Bloggers Briefing here.

Earlier this week, I spoke with Colin Hanna, president of Let Freedom Ring about his organization's latest online project: Not So Sure.

In case you missed it, check out this latest video of a 6-part series set to address the gradual disillusionment that the political middle has over President Obama's White House agenda.

Lately, I'm pleased to see the fresh & innovative video ideas that are blossoming from right-of-center organizations. Here's a look at the very candid discussion I had with Colin regarding the future of online video and his organization's message strategy going forward:

When was the idea for Not So Sure born?

The project began about 6 months ago when I met with Veritas Productions in Phoenix.

I think most conservatives and other people in general are tired of the same old, same old political video -- you know, the videos that portray a hero and a villain, with grainy photos and high-pitched announcers screaming over stills.

These videos [Not So Sure] are creative, humorous and fresh, which is why I like working with Veritas. So far, these videos have been online for about 2 weeks and we're already getting a great response.

I recall Let Freedom Ring's Never Find Out campaign, which I was drawn to during the 2008 election. I remember that series as being particularly effective.

Veritas did work with us to produce that series as well. In fact, Never Find Out won a Polly Award for that ad campaign.

For Not So Sure, are your actors, actors, or real-life individuals?

Our actors are professional actors, but a lot of thought was put into the selection process. We were careful to find people whose views aligned with those of the people they portray in the video -- people who supported Obama in the general election -- people who were infatuated with the symbolism that represented Hope and Change, but who are now realizing the consequences of Obama's policies.

What is your target market for these videos? Seems to me you are trying to reach an audience that is similar, if not identical to, the age and mindset of your actors and/or main characters.

Yes, we are targeting a slightly younger demographic that falls in the political middle -- mainly 18-49 year olds who were positively inclined to favor Barack Obama in the 2008 election, and who at the time were not aware of the policies that would come forth in his White House.

The first 3 videos are on health care -- will you continue that conversation in the final 3 or will you address other issues?

To be honest with you, I am not sure.

In fact, my original idea was to do a series on Obama's economic policies and rampant deficit spending, but what evolved was a response to the debate over health care that is now transpiring in the White House and in Congress.

Let's talk about the technical aspects of the video -- one video is as much as 4 minutes long. Was that intentional?

I have a background in advertising and broadcast media. The rule of thumb there is 30-60 second spots are most effective for commercial appeals.

I want to pioneer a new communication forum for conservative ideas and use the Internet, not as a secondary mode of communication, but as the primary vehicle for conversation.

I'm experimenting with the longer, 4-minute version, and will experiment with other lengths to see what resonates. That's the great thing about the web -- is that sometimes the normal rules don't apply and you always have room to experiment.

How are you getting the word out about this series?

We are placing a huge emphasis on viral marketing both offline and online -- notifying our membership lists, mailing lists and also working with the blogosphere. We may dive into paid online advertising through banner ads and the like, but we haven't gotten to that point yet.

We are also making an effort to branch out from our typical conservative audiences. I think we have a message that can appeal to the political middle and that is the demographic we are ultimately trying to reach.

I look forward to seeing the remaining videos in this series and I encourage you to follow along and share these videos with your friends and colleagues.

The founder of TechRepublican has a business relationship with Let Freedom Ring that in no way influenced the editorial content of this post.

Given his aversion to the bubble of the presidency, willingness to admit when he screws up, and experience as a professor of constitutional law, it seems fair to conclude that while Obama may disagree with you on a particular issue, he's at least conversant with the counterarguments. Indeed, it's said that a good lawyer—and Obama graduated from Harvard Law magna cum laude—can argue both sides of a case.

As such, I think the President would be open to the following question, which I submitted this morning for his upcoming online town hall meeting on health care:

What do you think—without caricature—is the strongest, most serious objection to your health care proposal, and how would you reply?

YouTube says the winning questions will be among the most popular ones, so if you're interested in which conservative criticism is most cogent, why not watch and share the above 16-second video? Let's see if we can replicate what Patrick Ruffini did in 2007 with YouTube's "10 Questions" contest.

I finally got to make it to the bloggers briefing at Heritage this afternoon, after a too long hiatus to hear Rep. Michael Burgess (TX-26) talk to us about the always relevant issue of health care reform.

Dr. Burgess is also the Vice Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee (disclosure: whose new website DAG proudly developed).

Burgess helped draft John McCain's health care plan which seeks to give individuals greater control over their own health care.

Here's what Burgess had to say in an article written on the subject in CQ:

Burgess, however, said it’s a logical step away from a system in which corporate employee benefits managers make all the decisions about what kind of health coverage most people get. “The reality is, we would never say, could you go out and buy my next car for me, because you’re pretty good at it,” Burgess said. “Perhaps we need to start looking at health insurance in the same way.”

A Long-Term Relationship
Burgess described how the McCain plan would incentivize providers to build long-term relationships with consumers - health care portability. As opposed to the current structure of employer financed care where coverage ends whenever a employee switches jobs.

One concern I've heard voiced is that the McCain plan, by creating tax incentives for individuals to buy their own health care, will loosen the incentives on employers to pay for health care - particularly in the case of small businesses.

Burgess disputed this, saying the McCain plan wouldn't remove the employer tax incentives - only add individual ones.

He noted that when discussing health care it's important to leave people with the notion that they don't have to change. If you like your current health care plan, you can keep it. He noted that 62% of people in his home district are satisfied with their existing care. Bottom line: be careful about rocking the health care boat.

Overall, listening to him speak, I was blown away by Rep. Burgess' Encyclopedic knowledge of the health care issue. For example, he explained to us how pediatricians have the tightest profit margins in health care, as opposed to a neurologist for example. A recent piece of Democrat sponsored legislation would have further cut into the margins for pediatricians, having the perverse effect of driving the vast majority of pediatric doctors out of medicine. Not exactly good for patients, no?

Finally, for those of you with short attention spans [Ed Note: That's like everyone now days.] you can watch a web ad of McCain talking about his health care plan.

Today I'm guest blogging at John Hawkins' blog, Right Wing News. I've got a post up that takes a look at John McCain's health care plan that he's been aggressively pushing out this week. Of course, I focus quite a bit on one particular provision which would require Docs and health care providers to better utilize technology to help provide more information to patients.

Here's an excerpt (but follow the link to read the full post):

My Perspective: McCain’s Health Care Plan

On Tuesday, I was one of the many bloggers and members of the media on a conference call with two of Team McCain’s top advisers, senior policy advisor Doug Holtz-Eakin and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. (Unrelated to health care but you can click here to see my video interview with Carly a few weeks ago.)

A thorough overview of McCain’s health care plan can be viewed by clicking here.

As a single male at the age of 29 with little real need for health care, as a technology enthusiast and a small businessman, two particular nuggets jumped out at me worth fleshing out. I’ll also note by way of disclosure that one of my clients operates in the health care space so I understand the issue from all sides.

Click here to read the rest of the post and don't forget to bookmark RWN.