The Internet and Politics

Supporting the idea that a new political communications era has arrived, Pew Internet and American Life Project's most recent report, "The Internet and Campaign 2010," finds that 56 percent of American adults used the Internet for politics in 2010, and 22 percent used social media networking sites for political purposes during the 2010 election cycle. Considering that voter turnout is often lower than 50 percent, these findings are significant.

Why are they using the internet? According to Pew, Americans appreciate the ability to find like-minded others, and find information in general. Do they still have concerns? Yes. Many Americans worry that the Internet enables extremism, and complain that there is too much information to sift through -- much of which is bad information.

Nevertheless, the study is yet another indicator of the Internet's growing impact on politics.

A Civic Makeover?

In their 2008 book “Millenial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube & the Future of American Politics,” Morely Winograd and Michael D. Hais predicted an impending political realignment – a prediction that largely proved true during 2008 election cycle.

According to the authors, political realignments arise when a large, new, engaged generation comes of age, and new technologies enable major shifts in communication paradigms.

Winograd and Hais describe the newest generation to enter politics -- “Millenials” or those born between 1982-2003 -- as a civic generation. They describe Millenials as protected, revered children who were shaped by 9/11 and its aftermath. They are growing into adults who are great at solving problems, building institutions, and making community, consensus-based decisions.

Winograd and Hais belief the Millenial generation will end an era of divisive politics and ring in a new era of consensus building. The 2008 Presidential election demonstrates a number of the characteristics predicted by the authors, including large voter turnout, widespread use of new communications medium (and an expectations that candidates engage through these vehicles), and a tone of consensus and cohesion.

As the authors mention, political realignments happen over the course of several election cycles and are not immediate. I believe we have a long way to go before we can declare that we are in an era of true political consensus and cohesion – or even that we are using the communications technologies that signal the realignment. A few proof points:

• In the aftermath of President Obama’s election, forces on both sides have certainly worked to keep divisiveness and gridlock alive – from the Tea Party movement to Party Politics.
  
• Government utilization of social media (or even just basic websites!) is lacking, and President Obama himself has expressed frustration over the lack of technological freedoms to communicate with the American people.

It will be interesting to see whether, as more Millenials come of age, divisive movements diminish, and better use of social media and other new media truly does become integrated into the government and political infrastructure.

What's Next in Online Activity

Last week, Pew Internet and American Life Project posted more interesting finding, and this time provided insights into future online activity habits.

Check it out here: http://www.slideshare.net/PewInternet/information-20-and-beyond-where-are-we-where-are-we-going

Most interesting: handheld device users today are much more likely to be active online, and mobile apps are likely to be the next major wave of communication game-changers. This is because they provide the information we want most, when we want it.

Biggest surprise: Internet users who get their news online are still looking for credible sources. That's a relief, but I might need more convincing! Sometimes it seems like people will believe anything they read online...

Social Media - What's the ROI?

As more and more individuals and organizations migrate online, social media has become an increasingly critical medium and tool for any advocacy effort – whether it be pushed by a politician, non-profit organization, or corporation. However, as a relatively new communication medium, social media efforts are still sometimes difficult measure.

My instructor, Alan Rosenblatt, recently provided some insights on what to measure and how to measure it in two Frogloop articles, “Measuring the Impact of your Social Media Program,” and “Rules of Social Media Engagement.” According to Rosenblatt, the most important metrics of any social media program are reach, engagement, and driving traffic home. Here are some key considerations for each:

Reach:

• This is a measure of audience size (e.g., number of facebook fans, twitter followers, etc. – these are the potential viewers of your messages).
• Since more people will see your post than actually click, make sure it packs a punch – and include key messages.
  

Engagement:

• This is the action your audience members take in response to being reached by your messages (reach is useless if you don’t engage your audience!).
• Look for ways to encourage your audience to promote your organization –for instance by re-tweeting messages with links to your URL, commenting on facebook posts, or including you in their “#FollowFriday” recommendations on Twitter.

Driving Web Traffic Home:

• This is the number of unique website visitors or page views.
• Social media posts aren’t particularly likely to drive many users to your website – hence why it’s important to include your key message in the post – but it’s still an important measure of success.

But, all of these are intermediate measures in aiming toward more important ROI end goals, such as policy advancement, public opinion change, fundraising increase, etc. The measures above can help an organization establish correlation between social media tactics and end-goal successes, but cannot establish causality.

In Honor of April Fools Day...

Rebecca Black is a 13-year-old overnight sensation...mostly because people dislike and make fun of her song and music video, "Friday." No matter the criticism -- ever since a few well-read blogs dissed her in early March, she has been everywhere, and people now love her, from Saturday Night Live parodies to funnyordie.com features. If you search Google for "Friday," her video is the top result. Even our class favorite -- ePolitics.com -- has featured "Friday" on his site. Her 3 weeks of fame are nicely summed up in this "Betwixt the Music" interview.

While the ePolitics.com post was mainly an April Fools prank, it's no joke that Black's instant fame is a perfect illustration of the power of digital media. Like the Friday phenomenon, online and social media platforms can quickly spread the word about political issues, candidates or causes -- for better or worse. Political figures like Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnel have benefited from online exposure, while others like Rep. Bob Ethridge or ACORN have been hurt by it.

Indeed, a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project poll indicates that most Americans believe the internet plays a role in reaching political goals, such as getting elected or raising awareness about an issue.

Learning from the Obama Campaign

With the rapid evolution of the internet, each campaign season in the past two decades has adapted to a more and more significant role for the internet -- and the ability to adapt to online communication channels has often been the difference between winning and losing. President Obama's campaign in 2008 is a lesson in best practices, even three years later today.

ePolitics.com provides an excellent summary of the Obama campaign's online strategy and tactics in "Learning from Obama: Lessons for Online Communicators in 2009 and Beyond." The summary covers a broad spectrum of the campaign's successes, including:

• How to organize
• How to build support
• How to put supporters to work
• How to fundraise online
• What to do when the campaign is over
  

I was particularly interested in the overview of how to find and build a group of supporters -- something the Obama campaign did very well. Based on this publication, the campaign focused on:

• Collecting addresses at every in-person event
• Running online advertisements, including search engine ads
• Providing incentives for signing up (tsotchkes, like bumper stickers or pins)
• Following up with new supporters and steering them toward action
• Using the campaign's social media presence to drive sign-ups

These are lessons that many campaigns can learn from. While sometimes purchased email lists are necessary, there are several organic techniques for list-building that result in more engaged, active supporters.

The Rise of Digital Giving

Americans have a propensity for incredible generosity following major disasters. Over the past week, this has been evident in the country's response to Japan's recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 21 percent of Americans say they have made a contribution to an organization working to provide relief in Japan.

Of note, the use of digital mechanisms for giving has seen a substantial rise in this most recent wave of charitable giving. Pew found that adults under 40 were just as likely to give money via digital technologies like websites, text messages or emails as they were to give via traditional means like mail or phone.

In contrast, Pew found that only 5 percent of the same age group donated money after the 2005 tsunami in Asia, and only 20 percent of them gave through digital technologies.

This is good news for organizations looking to increase their giving, and signals the opportunity to invest in technological platforms that make giving easy.