The VAN Now Hosts Campaign Websites and Provides CRM Services for Dems
New addition to the “Winning in 2010″ discussion of website/CRM vendors — the Democratic Voter Activation Network (VAN) is now hosting campaign websites and providing CRM services to candidates, alongside such other Dem campaign packages such as Wired for Change/DLCCWeb. The VAN is much better known for its work behind the scenes providing voter-information databases to help candidates with phone-banking, block-walking and other grassroots outreach, but they’re now providing the additional site-hosting/mass-messaging services that most campaigns need.
This move adds to an array of integrated online campaign packages available to Democrats; Republican candidates seem to have access to such technological riches (they more often have to piece together a web presence using software and services from several vendors). Which R vendor will jump in and fill the gap? As a Dem, I can hope that the answer is, none of them…
Trackur = Reputation + Social Media Monitoring
Online reputation and social media monitoring tool designed to assist you in tracking what is said about you on the internet. Trackur scans hundreds of millions of web pages--including news, blogs, video, images, and forums--and lets you know if it discovers anything that matches the keywords that interest you.
YouTube Interviews: Pelosi, Boehner, Reid Answer your Healthcare Questions
For over seven hours yesterday, the nation's top leaders gathered in Washington for a unique conversation on the future of health care reform. Moderated by President Obama, the healthcare summit revealed disparate views on current legislation, with Democrats arguing for comprehensive reform and Republicans pressing for a more incremental approach (or for starting over entirely). We streamed the entire summit on CitizenTube, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader John Boehner, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid all agreed to answer some of your top-voted questions from our Google Moderator platform during the event. (We also offered the opportunity to Senator Mitch McConnnell, the Senate Minority Leader, but he was unable to participate due to a scheduling conflict.)
Social Media, Huh?, What is it Good For: A Report
The non-profit IdealWare surveyed more than 400 staffers at various non-profits back in November to find out what social media tools they're using, and whether they're finding those applications are meeting their organizational needs on three fronts: reaching new allies, fundraising, and deepening their relationships with existing supporters.
Keeping Out the Trolls: Relevancy in User-Generated Content
In the summer of 2008, J.R. Johnson sold Virtual Tourist to Expedia for $85 million dollars. While Johnson seems like the type of laid back Los Angeles entrepreneur that would take some vacation time, his quest for relevancy had him launching a new community the following March. Lunch.com is Johnson's attempt to cut through the noise that has proliferated since he first started in the user-generated-review space in 1999.
