Web Based Political Networking

WEB-BASED POLITICAL NETWORKING & EVENTS PLANNING

Observation of Opportunity:

The 2008 elections are not just about this election year or even just the next four years. The 2008 elections are potentially about the next several decades. The collapse of the conservative movement has provided an unusual political opening that coincides with major shifts in web-based media technology, and demographics that together give Democrats a rare once in a multi generational opportunity to reclaim the political landscape for the long term.

Even before Obama officially announced his candidacy in early 2007 a 26-year-old Facebook social networking website user decided to rally support for Barack Obama by building an Obama facebook account.

Within a month that young Obama supporter had 278,000 supporters signed up on his Facebook social networking pages. In 2003, it took Howard Dean six months to get a little more than half that many registered supporters on his first generation socio-political campaign website’s supporter database.

Obama’s campaign eventually took over that young supporter’s Facebook account and rolled its supporters database into his campaign’s socio-political networking website as it was first deployed. Obama’s campaign eventually went on to successfully leveraged his socio-political website to build a strong neighborhood-level net/grassroots organization in every state. Through his socio-political networking website, Obama solicited the bulk of the $234,745,081 in campaign contributions (as of March 2008) raised during his campaign.

County Democrats have an opportunity to organize and fund-raise using the same web-based socio-political campaign tools as used by Obama in 2007 and 2008 to build and populate campaign membership. County Democrats can update the party website with socio-political networking functions to:

1. Build a broad neighborhood-level net/grassroots organization
2. Regularly solicit campaign contributions from small individual contributors
3. Organize and advertise activities and events from small neighborhood house parties to countywide events.
4. Motivate County Democrats to register with and then regularly visit our party's county website, thus allowing our local party to build its supporter contact database.
5. Give average County Democratic residents a way to directly connect and communicate with each other on their own streets, in their own neighborhoods or across the county.
6. Give Precinct Chairpersons and average Democratic residents a way to invite fellow neighborhood Democrats to neighborhood house parties, backyard BBQs and block parties where they can talk politics and plan their own neighborhood organizing activities and events to build party registrations and contributions.
7. Interact and support local as well as national candidates by providing better name recognition.
8. Communicate local political news items, pictures and videos of particular interest to local democrats
9. Attract more people to run for county and state office seats that are currently held by Republicans.
10. Eliminate the "webmaster" single-point of website update bottleneck by allowing any party stakeholder to add web content as easily as writing an email.
11. Make the party site “the place to go to” to find news about local candidates, polls, political events, etc…
12. And, much much more…….

These socio-political networking functions can be quickly deployed onto the party website using one of the free-of-charge open source content management and social networking platform web software packages. Such software includes features and functions that will also much improve party internal communications and planning between and among party officials, committees, precinct chairs and etc. These packages also have features that can dramatically help organize and use information about County Democrats, for whom we currently have contact information, to build party participation and solicit donations. These packages even have features that can facilitate the use voter information pulled from many sources to add new names to the contacts database, thus allowing Democrats to invite new people into local social network where they can organize and donate contributions.

Bottom-Up And Top-Down Party Building Activities:

The idea for web-based socio-political networking is to combine in one website the features of social networking websites and the features of sales force automation websites; Social networking to empower people at the grassroots level to organically connect and organize themselves from the bottom up and lead generation/management to automate traditional top-down party building and fund raising by precinct chairpersons and volunteers. The blogs and so forth could also greatly improve basic communication and coordination between party officials, committees and volunteers.

Bottom-up and top-down party building activities functioning together in one system yields greater results than either one working separately. To get the maximum party building synergy between these two party building approaches the official party website, where the grassroots members sign up and network, includes a database of prospective lead contact info that is available online to authorized "party builders." Authorized volunteers can use the lead database to "invite" people to register as website members, where they can network, attend neighborhood block parties, and engage in other party building activities.

The website must allow newly registered members to search for other registered members (or teams or precinct chair) by street name (or list of 10 street names) and/or precinct number and/or zip. This search function empowers people at the grassroots level to organically connect and organize themselves by allowing neighbors to first, easily find one another and second, to organize neighborhood house parties, block parties and etc. These search functions also help precinct and block captains and other authorized volunteers (like neighborhood action groups/teams) to use the lead management database to micro-target party building and fund raising activities to particular neighborhoods. (see DNC blunts GOP Micro Targeting Lead blog entry)

Making A Social/Political Networking Website Work:

The “if you build it they will come” principle is not automatic with any new social networking website. Putting up a great social networking site with all the best bells and whistles does not guarantee that people will automatically find and use the social networking website.

The social networking party website will be effective only if party activists make an effort to actively use the range of web-base tools that collectively implement a social/political networking environment. The trick in launching and then building membership in a social networking website is to get a few early site members to add as much interesting new content (i.e. written material, videos and pictures) as possible to the site almost every day. This initial content draws new people to the site who register as members who add their own politic news and news commentary as well as pictures and videos of their neighborhood organizing events. This content flow draws new members who add their own content until eventually we have a large community of Democratic activists organized fron the grass/net roots up working to elect Democrats to local and national office positions.

Seed The New Party Site With Interesting Content:

Most local party organizations have fairly large library of video content from the County Convention, picnics and other events that can put up to seed the new website.

Local candidates have videos on their own websites that could be, with their permission, cross-posted on the new party site. They all would likely be willing to shoot short videos specifically for our website. They and their supports would likely be happy to make regular blog entries on the party site.

It is likely that many delegates to the state convention will take their digital video handi-cams to shot their own videos. We can invite all local delicates to post their convention videos on our new website. We can also encourage all the delicates to write blog entries of their general and subcommittee participation experiences at the convention.

It would be good for Precinct Chairs to prepare short video clips to urge people in their precincts to get active. Some Precinct Chairs could gather a few people from their precincts to discuss on camera why each thinks it so important to get active in 2008! Just short 2 to 5 minute videos are all that is needed.

Precinct Chairs should create “precinct blogs” to communicate and coordinate with their constituents. In precincts that do not have chairpersons, open precinct blogs can be created and we can invite precinct residents to use the blog to organize themselves. Eventually, precinct chairpersons will step forward – and those people will likely be of the younger generation.

We can invite Obama and Clinton supporters, who are already contributing candidate campaign blogs, to blog on the party site. We can get them active supporting local candidates instead of just our Presidential Candidate.

Short video interviews with people who visit our booth at the Balloon Fest, or "person on the street interviews" with people at the 4th of July parade and chili cook off would be good – one minute videos of what people think about health care or about our ballooning national debt or is the US heading in the right or wrong direction - would be great to post.

Every person and group active in the party (Womens Club, Mens Club, etc...) should participate in the party's blogs.

RSS news feeds from online news organizations and progressive news aggregators should be setup to a create a up-to-the-minute news page.

The idea is to create a town hall and media event interesting enough that people will surf our site daily, a few times a week or at least a few times a month.

Building WebSite Traffic and Membership:

We can use our party membership email address list and email addresses collected at events to invite people to the new site to register membership. We can also use voter research information to invite people to our new website.

We can ask our volunteers who are active in the Clinton and Obama campaigns to spread the work via those campaign’s networks – this should be done while both campaigns are still active.

Many local Democrats read national blogs like dailykos, bradblog, talking points memo, think progress and a host of others. Some of these blog owners will likely put a banner ad for party on their blogs at no cost.

Information and Content Coordination:

While the traditional roll of “Webmaster” becomes obsolete, a “Communications Director/Coordinator” roll takes its place. This roll coordinates and reviews content placed on the website, coordinates/solicits content cross posting/blogging with candidate campaigns and other sources, gets party ads placed on other sites, answers how-to questions, and etc… This new roll also helps the various stakeholders understand how to use the web facilities and then how to effective apply the new facilities to their particular rolls (jobs, committees, fundraising, etc) within the party operation.

Supporting Data: Research Data On Blog And Social Networking Adoption And Usage Patterns

Howard Dean's 2003-2004 primary campaign and John Kerry's 2004 general election campaign were the first to test a truly 21st century, post-broadcast political campaign model that used the Internet to directly engage ordinary citizens as partners in the election fight.

Dean and Kerry pioneered the use of, what was then very new and not widely used, web-based tools that included blogs, early online video and supporter databases dynamically built as supporters registered with their campaign websites. Once registered, new supporters searched for and connected fellow registered supporters in their respective neighborhoods to form campaign action teams. Beyond just a tool to organized supporters, both Dean and Kerry used supporter databases to regularity distribute campaign messages, coordinate activities and solicit campaign contributions in any amount supporters could afford. These faculties comprise the fundamental capabilities of web-based social networking, or more precisely, in this specialized application of the technology, political networking.

Unfortunately, the 2004 the adoption rates of the then ultra new web-based campaign tools were not pervasive enough to help push John Kerry over the electoral hurdle in critical battleground states.

Much has changed in four years! Adoption of the web-based social networking lifestyle has become widespread in American homes and even pervasive among the millennial generation age group. By the end of 2008 industry experts project that 43.5% of the U.S. adult Internet population and 77% of the U.S. teen Internet population will be regularly updating or at least visiting one or more social networking sites.

eMarketer predicts that by 2011 the total U.S. adult social networking audience will grow to more than 49% of online adults and the U.S. teen social networking audience will grow to more than 84% of all online teens.

More than 36% of Web users “highly trust” the information they receive from friends and acquaintances in their online social networks, according to a new social Internet survey by Faves.com (formerly BlueDot.us). The number jumps to 90% when including those that “moderately trust” their social network contacts.

Members of the millennial generation, boomer’s babies born between 1978 to 1996, have become highly active participants in the political campaigns of candidates employing web-based social networking enabled campaign websites. Polling data indicates that millennials are unusually civic minded (they volunteer at the highest level recorded for youths in 40 years, according to one study) and hold a wide range of progressive values. A large segment of this age group are concerned with the environment, support gay marriage, prefer a multilateral foreign policy, and even believe in government again. Sixty-three percent think government should do more to solve the nation's problems. This generation is poised to become the core of a 21st century progressive coalition.

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According to the website Technorati.com, the blogosphere has grown over 100 times since 2004. During the 2004 cycle, web traffic visiting Conservative and Progressive blogs was about equal. In 2008 the Progressive blogosphere is much larger than the Conservative blogosphere. Already by 2006, according to a poll by the online advertising service Blogads.com, nearly 50% of blog readers self-identified as Democrats while only 20% saw themselves as Republicans, with 19% as Independents, 5% as Libertarians, 4% as Greens, and 2% as apolitical.

The raw numbers were equally impressive according to statistics reported last year. Time Magazine estimated that about 6 million Democrats read blogs on a daily basis and Nielson ratings reported that 4.8 million people a month visit the biggest political blog, DailyKos.com. The Liberal Ad Network, which comprises nearly 100 of the biggest blogs that are aligned with the progressive cause, pegged readership at over 90 million page-views a month. And the National Journal’s Hotline conducted a poll in April 2006, finding that 23% of Democrats read blogs at least a few times a month. The raw numbers shaping up for 2008 usage patterns are even more impressive.

Those who do read political blogs tend to be among the most politically engaged Americans. A PEW post-election survey of online activists that supported Howard Dean showed that an incredible 99% voted in the November 2004 election. Because these bloggers and online activists are extremely politically active, they can and do have a disproportionate impact on everything from primary elections to advocacy campaigns.

In 2006, the blogosphere played a key role in the Democratic victory during the mid-terms by helping to launch innovative advocacy campaigns, counter the Republican propaganda machine, coordinate volunteers and fundraise online. But one of the biggest contributions was to expand the playing field of candidates. While the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did a fine job of recruiting competitive candidates for the top targeted districts, the blogosphere identified and propelled candidates in less-known districts, with funding, buzz and momentum. Combined, the complimentary effort allowed Democrats to have a candidate in nearly all of the 435 congressional districts, fielding more candidates than either party in the last 40 years, with blogosphere funding through ActBlue.com. This decentralized, 50-state effort is where the blogosphere will continue to lead as a more localized progressive blogosphere develops.

These Blog And Social Networking Adoption And Usage statistics line up with very recent polls on young voters’ political allegiances and candidate preferences. An April 21,2008 MTV survey of 18-to-29-year-old voters showed Obama beating McCain 52 percent to 39 percent. An April 25, 2008 survey by the Harvard Institute of Politics showed Obama beating McCain among 18-to-24-year-olds, 50 percent to 29 percent.

Surveys show similar trends in party identification. An April 28,2008 survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that 58 percent of voters under 30 years old identified themselves as Democrats, while 33 percent said they were Republicans. That gap has widened since the 2004 presidential election, when Democratic nominee John Kerry carried voters the same age group by nine points over President George Bush.

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Progressives need to recognize the importance of forming bonds through local blogs. These local blogs are akin to making connections with the special interest groups and constituency groups of the past that have traditionally dominated the progressive movement. The difference is that whereas interest groups traditionally care about only a small range of topics, such as the environment or women’s choice, local bloggers are much more likely to be movement-based and focused on changing the status quo.

Until recently, the perception of bloggers has been that they are more concerned with national issues, and have a questionable impact on local elections. However as the blogosphere has grown, and grown more progressive, this has changed. A series of special elections from 2005 through 2008 makes clear that local blogs can have a real impact.

Paul Hackett came remarkably close to winning a special election, in Ohio’s second congressional district in 2005, in a very Republican district—largely off of funding from the blogosphere. Among the recent victories, the primary U.S. Senate victories of Jim Webb in Virginia and Jon Tester in the Montana showed that the local blogosphere is now capable of connecting blogosphere activism and grassroots action. In the 2006 mid-term election, to the surprise of those inside the beltway, local heroes won upset victories throughout the nation with help from local online activism. In the most recent three special elections:

• Mississippi Democrat Travis Childers beat Republican Greg Davis 54% to 46% in a U.S. House seat special election in a very Republican district.
• In a special election in Louisiana's 6th district Democrat Cazayoux Woody Jenkins, 49 percent to 46 percent, for a seat held by a Republican for the past two decades.
• Bill Foster won the suburban Chicago House seat held for 21 years by former House speaker Dennis Hastert

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One of the areas where the Internet is making online political campaigning particularly potent is in video, specifically the use of YouTube. Today, more than 80% of people in the U.S. have internet access. Internet users spend the same amount of time online (14 hours a week) as they do watching TV. Over 21 million people have watched political videos online, and the daily usage of online video rose by 56 percent over last year.

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Research Sources

1. http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/11/the-50-year-strategy.html
2. http://www.newpolitics.net
3. http://www.newpolitics.net/node/158?full_report=1
4. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1109/p09s01-coop.html
5. http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=t1n20rynvsqvbk0g14g8pth0vlnbl1yd
6. http://www.blogads.com/survey/blog_reader_surveys_overview.html
7. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1538663-2,00.html5.
8. http://web.blogads.com/advertise/liberal_blog_advertising_network
9. http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/4/26/155753/408
10. http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=240
11. http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=56020
12. http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/11/8/42848/3168
13. http://plantingliberally.mydd.com/comments/2006/7/18/11439/3728/20#20
14. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/05/progressive_generation.html
15. Pew: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/98/presentation_display.asp
16. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctc-1FCYFck
17. http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/7/18/12628/1966
18. http://bleedingheartland.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=419
19. http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/07/18/of-winos-and-republican-lockstep-support-for-failure/
20. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/18/12557/4643