here comes social advocacy (the full monty)

transcript

americanprogress.org

Here Comes Social Advocacy

Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D.arosenblatt@americanprogressaction.org

Me on Social Media

@DrDigipol@HaikuProgress

DrDigipol.Tumblr.comBigThink.com/blogs/Digital-PoliticsYouTube.com/DrDigipol

Center for American Progress Action Fund

@ProgressLeague@CAPAction

Progressleague.orgFacebook.com/AmericanProgressAction

Facebook.com/ProgressLeague

Dimensions of digital communication strategy

1-D 2-D 3-DInformation Action Community

One-way Communication

Two-way Communication

All-way Communication

Audience Interacts with Information

Audience Interacts with Campaign, Organization, or

Government

Audience Interacts with Each Other

Email Lists & Brochure Websites

(Broadcast & Narrowcast)

Transactional Websites (Information Exchange, Donations,

& Action)

Social Networks & Social Media (Grassroots &

Grasstops)

Sherrington’s dog

• Sir Charles Sherrington (1904)• Pressure points• Stimulus• Threshold• Multiple pressure points• Sub-threshold

• Additive summation• Whole > Sum of the parts

Online advocacy channels

• Email• Your website/blog• Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter, G+, Tumblr etc.)• Social Media (YouTube, Flickr, Slideshare, etc.)• Online Ads (Facebook, Google, etc.)• Mobile• Video games• Earned media (Blogs, news sites, etc.)

SOCIAL ADVOCACY?What is…

The way things were

Campaigns email activists (very few forward it)

Congress gets the email (but no

one knows for sure)

Activists send email to

Congress

• Email is a closed communication loop

• Email was the only online channel to reach Congress

The way things are now

Congress can’t ignore because

the world can see!

Campaigns email activists &

promote on social media

Activists send email to Congress & msg via social

Activists sent to email/petition page,

twitter petition, Facebook wall, etc.

ENGAGEMENTIt’s all about…

It’s true: social media can reach the grassroots

But more importantly: social media reaches influencers

• Traditional influencers• Press• Policy Professionals• Policymakers

• New influencers• State/issue bloggers, organizers, e-newsletter editors• Social network influencers

• Influencers extend & enhance your influence (trusted 3rd party validation)

Who do people trust?

Size isn’t everything

Engagement is everything

Influence in action: The right followers

10/09 @Katulis tweet from Afghanistan quoted in GlobalPost.com (117,000 readers).

12/09 Brian Katulis tweets about Afghanistan surge quoted in NYT by Helene Cooper.

11/09 @Katulis tweet about Afghanistan sent by The Atlantic’s Ambnder to WH Nat’l Sec. Council.

AUDIENCEGrowing your…

Get followers, then deepen your connection

1. Connect – Follow people you want following you

1. Following people who tweet about the same topics as you creates a 15-30% chance they will follow you back.

2. Engage – Reply to people you want following you

1. Not everyone notices who follows them, but everyone notices who mentions them. Reply w/ information & links you know will interest them. Ask questions & converse.

3. Recommend – Retweet/#FF followers you want

1. Recommend people you want following you to your followers by retweeting them & w/ #FF (Follow Friend).

4. Repeat – Repeat steps 2 & 3 after they follow you back to deepen your connection.

5. Remember, it is about exchanging VALUE

Find influencers to follow – Directories

• Directories of influential tweeters• TweetProgress.us - Progressives• WeFollow.com – Keyword &

location• Tweetbe.at – Keywords• TwitterStates.com – Location• Listorious.com – Twitter Lists

• Use directories to search for people to follow

• Register on the directories so people find you

Find influencers to follow – Articles

• Search on Google for “Top Tweeters” for an issue/topic• Top 100 Int’l Business• Top 20 UK Politics• The FP Twitterati 100• Top 50 Climate Tweeters• 50 Favorite Immigration

Tweeters

Find influencers to follow – Drilling on Twitter

• Find an issue expert• Follow who they follow• Follow their followers• Follow their lists

Find influencers to follow – Twitter Search

• Search keyword/hashtag• Click «Refine Search»• Refine search terms• Add hashtags to parameters• Search by location• Search by sentiment

Clean your list – Unfollow dead weight

• Twitter limits• Until you have 2,000 followers, you can only follow 2,000• Beyond that, you can follow 15% more than follow you

• Purge followers to maintain room to grow• People who don’t follow you back (unless they are

interesting)• People who never retweet others• People who SPAM, shills, etc.

Find dead weight to unfollow

• TwitClearner.com is a tool to find dead weight

• Log in and run report• Review report and unfollow

dead weight

Semi-automate follow/unfollow process

• Tweetspinner.com finds people to follow & unfollow• Finds people you follow that

don’t follow back• Finds people to follow

• By keyword/hashtag

• By who they follow

• By who follows them

• You decide who to queue up for auto-follow/unfollow

• Modest monthly fee

Content is King

Bottom line: •If you tweet good content, when people visit your profile, they are likely to follow. •If you tweet about their favorite topic(s), even more so.

POLICYMAKERSTargeting…

Finding government on social media

GOVSM.com

Facebook.com/Congress

Twitter.com/TheDemocrats/house-democrats

Anatomy of a tweet – Targeting a senator

.@ChuckGrassley read our report on repealing #DADT (http://bit.ly/dadt) & vote FOR Defense Auth Bill. FYI @desmoinesdem @OneIowa #IA #p2

• Publicly targets Member of Congress• Trackable link to measure click throughs• Pushed to hashtag audiences

• Issue specific (#DADT)• State specific (#IA)• Ideological group (#p2)

•Alerts watchdogs• State blogger (@desmoinesdem)• State issue group (@OneIowa)

Twitter petitions: Act.ly

Obama campaign uses Twitter petitions

• Candidate Obama uses social advocacy

• Address/ZIP matching to Representative • If your Rep is Democrat, you get

to Tweet @SpeakerBoehner

Targeting by hashtag

• How often is it used?• Busy – Large audience, lots of noise• Moderate – Best hashtag• Slow – No audience

• How many people are using it?• Many people – Big public conversation• 1 or 2 people – Private conversation

• What is the ratio of RTs:Tweets?• Ideal for network effect

SUCCESSMeasuring…

Metrics of success

• Audience engagement• You want RT, #FF, shares, comments, likes & 1+

• Audience quality & size• You want influencers, press & policymakers

• Driving traffic to your website & email lists• You want clicks & views

Measuring influence

Measuring influence: Twitalyzer dashboard

Measuring URL referrals & reach

Measuring audience growth: Facebook

Measuring audience growth: Twitter

Monitoring social media

Measuring URL clicks