Here Comes Social AdvocacyNCRC

April 16, 2011

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

Twitter: @ProgressLeague, @CAPAction & @DrDigipolProgressleague.org

http://Facebook.com/AmericanProgressActionFacebook.com/DrDigipolYouTube.com/DrDigipolSlideshare.net/DrDigipol

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

media

Activists sent to email/petition page,

twitter petition, Facebook wall, etc.

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

Social media can reach the grassroots

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)

- Across US, Europe, Australia, and Japan. WSJ 10/12/2009

Who do people trust?Among institutions, NGO’s most, but still lower than people

Who do people trust?Experts & Peers

Size isn’t 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.

1.

3.

2.

Invest in emerging influencers

Stan

Spring ’09: Stan received information from CAP via email &

web

June ’09: Stan joins Twitter

July ’09: Stan has 40 followers;

starts retweeting @CAPAction

Today, Stan over 400 followers & continues to share his influence

w/ @CAPAction & other CAP/Action Twitter channels

Value to CAP/Action increases

Growing your audience: Social means reciprocal

• Connect• Twitter: Follow• Facebook: Friend/Like

• Engage• Twitter: Retweet/Reply • Facebook: Like/Comment

• Recommend• Twitter: #FollowFriday (#FF), #ProgressiveTuesday,

#Women2Follow, #EcoMonday• Facebook: Share via Profile/Newsfeed

Organize your social media champions w/ Lists

Growing your Twitter audience: TweetSpinner

Offline recruitment

• Events• Direct mail• Business cards• Networking

Anatomy of a tweet

Hey @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)

Understanding hashtags

Twitter petitions: Act.ly

Social Advocacy Case Study: ENOUGH

Metrics of success

• Audience size• Audience engagement• Driving traffic to your website & email lists

Measuring audience growth: Twitter

Measuring audience growth: Facebook

Monitoring social media

Measuring influence

Measuring URL referrals

Here Comes Social AdvocacyNCRC

April 16, 2011

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

Twitter: @ProgressLeague, @CAPAction & @DrDigipolProgressleague.org

http://Facebook.com/AmericanProgressActionFacebook.com/DrDigipolYouTube.com/DrDigipolSlideshare.net/DrDigipol