UTPL

Can DailyBooth Be Used in Campaigns?

If Kevin Rose, Chris Sacca, and Gary Vaynerchuk are all involved in a new web service, chances are that it will boom.

I signed up for dailybooth.com a few months back after reading an iJustine post. I put it down but just started playing around again recently. DailyBooth is exactly what it sounds like – a daily photo booth. You take a picture of yourself each day and upload it to the web. That’s it.

I’ve been thinking about whether or not dailybooth.com can have any practical use in a political campaign. I haven’t come up with an answer yet so I’m soliciting your thoughts. What do you think?

An Infrequent Personal Post

It happens every Vandy game. I think about Connie and spend the week reflecting on life.

Connie Tingin was one of my best friends. We went to high school together in Goose Creek, but we weren’t very close at all. Besides having a few classes together and hanging out at the “Groo Spot” (someone wrote Groovy on the sidewalk, but the ‘vy’ wore off) during lunch, I didn’t spend a lot of time with her. But then came college where our love for the band Jump, Little Children brought us together. We traveled the Southeast going to concerts, hung out nearly every night, and carpooled home to Goose Creek often. She was one of the most happy, energetic people I have ever met. Her attitude just rubbed off on people and it was impossible to be around her without smiling.

Connie was a member of the USC flag team and she collapsed in the stands shortly after the USC – Vanderbilt pre-game performance. It was hot enough to drench all our clothes in sweat, so there’s no surprise everyone thought she collapsed from heat exhaustion. But it wasn’t the heat. It was a brain aneurism and she sat at Williams Brice stadium while her brain bled for way too long before being rushed to the hospital.

It was a long week of surgeries and ups and downs. Connie lost the fight and died at the age of 21, eight years ago this week.

I carried Connie’s casket as a pallbearer and the white gloves I wore still lie in my sock drawer. They make me think about Connie everyday, but its right after the Vandy game that I really start reflecting on life.

This website doesn’t exist for me to talk about my feelings or my personal life. It’s here to talk about politics. That’s why I’m sharing this story.

Recently it seems like everyone is stirring up crap for no other reason but to spew hate. Most of it doesn’t accomplish anything real. Many people just hunger for drama and those sorts of people are drawn to politics and power. While the Internet has given a voice to many who want to contribute to the debate, it has also unfortunately given a voice to trolls who have nothing else to do but to attack. And its not just in politics. It’s everywhere.

Maybe today instead of being a troll, you should think about life a bit and how short it is. Quit being an idiot. Live life and have fun.

People Are Giving Away Their Experiences

This past Sunday my pastor, Dr. Wendell Estep of First Baptist Church of Columbia, told the story of David, and as always, my mind wrongfully started thinking about work.  Dr. Estep taught that David was able to kill Goliath because of he learned how to fight from his past experiences, citing 1 Samuel:

Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.”

But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.”

-       1 Samuel 17:33-36

Sometimes nothing is better than experience. As Dr. Estep stated “don’t go looking for giants, but be prepared when one comes your way.” I’m sure having killed a lion and a bear with your bare hands is pretty good training for giant killing preparation. But growing up one saying has always stuck with me “it’s smart to learn from your mistakes. It’s even smarter to learn from the mistakes of others.”

Going up against a giant could have been a huge mistake. Luckily for David, it wasn’t and we learned a valuable lesson. When fighting a giant, make sure you have a slingshot and a rock. Oh, and having God on your side helps a good bit too.

What does all this have to do with the Internet?

Experience is becoming less and less important in many tasks. Not every task, but in many. In my line of work nothing beats real campaign and management experience. But modern communications is becoming much more about word of mouth and learning from the mistakes and accomplishments of others.

I don’t need experience or college training to learn how to edit a new video or how to build a blog. I can learn from others on websites, Facebook, and Twitter for free.  Not only has the Internet given us the abilities to communicate around the clock and to search for content easily, but people are willing to give away their experiences.

Just think about how many more giants could have been knocked down if David had the Internet. =)

Here’s what you should do today. Find some great bloggers that you can trust and learn from their experiences. I learn every day from bloggers on problogger.net, techcrunch.com, techpresident.com, and techrepublican.com. I’ve joined listserves, forums, and other communities where I can ask people about their experiences when I lack them on a particular topic.

And of course, read my blog daily. =)

Dealing With Political Trolls

I’m a very big fan of Seth Godin. His posts always getting me thinking about how private sector marketing can be used in the political realm. This post about “Trolls” really hit me hard:

Lots of things about work are hard. Dealing with trolls is one of them. Trolls are critics who gain perverse pleasure in relentlessly tearing you and your ideas down. Here’s the thing(s):

1. trolls will always be trolling
2. critics rarely create
3. they live in a tiny echo chamber, ignored by everyone except the trolled and the other trolls
4. professionals (that’s you) get paid to ignore them. It’s part of your job.

“Can’t please everyone,” isn’t just an aphorism, it’s the secret of being remarkable.

In politics you have a lot of people complaining because, let’s face it, they should be complaining. Many elected officials at all levels of government are dropping the ball. I’m not talking about these people. I’m talking about people who spew hate just to spew hate.

You know who I’m talking about. And with the growth of the Internet, these trolls have a voice they wouldn’t otherwise have. Many of them are bloggers, paid to spew hate. They literally sit around all day just trying to find their next target or another bullet to shoot at a previous target. They add very little to public debate and their rants have become so frequent that they’ve become more like the boy who cried wolf rather than a political operative taken seriously.

But I have to disagree with Godin, something I do infrequently. Godin says that as professionals, we are paid to ignore them. In politics, we cannot and we must not because sure, trolls “live in a tiny echo chamber,” but so do some other very important people:

1. The Press – As budgets tighten and newsrooms shrink, reporters don’t have the time they once did to hit the roads looking for stories. Many are turning to blogs for tips.

2. Activists – Want to build that campaign committee of the state’s top activists? I know you do, so you best be paying attention to the blogs because they are reading every post. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never voted for a tax increase. If a blog has labeled you a RINO, you’re going to have some ‘splainin to do.

3. Donors – Like activists, big donors are super informed. They’re reading the blogs and that could hurt your bank account.

So how do you kill a troll? You quit feeding it.

Why In The World Haven’t You Set Up A Google Profile?

Today one of my best political friends called and asked “how can I populate the first page with positive information when someone Googles my name?”

Don’t you hate that question? I mean, its good when it comes from someone who is serious about getting the job done, but when it comes from someone who wants to just snap their fingers and make it happen, its just annoying. Unless of course, it’s from someone who wants to snap his or her fingers and drop cash on it. Then we can make magic happen. =)

This particular person was not the type who wanted to work or drop cash. They just wanted their name at the top. And yes, I asked him if I could post this story. I gave him a hard time on the phone too.

So of course I did what anyone would do. I Googled his name and I swear to you, I just about went through the phone and punched him in the face. Here’s why: He hasn’t even created a Google profile for himself yet.

With Google profiles, Google has given us the opportunity to post positive text about ourselves on the first page of a search. You don’t have to do a darn thing except sign up for a Google account and fill out the form.

Yeah, I’m serious. Don’t believe me. Just try it. Like right now. Google “Wesley Donehue.” Heck, even Google “Wesley DonAhue.” See, I’m sneaky like that.

What you’ll find is my Google profile at the bottom: http://www.google.com/profiles/wesleydonehue Of course the bottom is not where I prefer it to be, but its positive, on the front page, and absolutely free. Here’s an explanation from the Google blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/search-for-me-on-google.html:

It’s no secret that from time to time many of us have searched on Google for our name or someone else’s. When searching for yourself to see what others would find, results can be varied and aren’t always what you want people to see — whether it’s someone else with your name, or the finishing time from that 5K you ran back in 2002. We want to make that better and give you more of a voice.

To give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name, we’ve begun to show Google profile results at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages. These results offer abbreviated information from user-created Google profiles and a link to the full profiles. We’ve also added links so it’s easy to search for the same name on MySpace, Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn.

Setting up a Google should be one of the first things you do when you launch your online campaign.

How?

First you need to sign up for a Google account. Don’t get lost in the email, RSS reader, Calender, or other features that might just solve your life’s problems just yet. Mosey on over to http://www.google.com/profiles and snag your name.

Giving Away Free Advice

I know it’s a bad trait, but I usually become motivated by things that p*** me off. I’m not unlike most people. Just look at the political environment right now. President Obama was catapulted to the White House by a bunch of folks angry with President George W. Bush. Now the President’s plans are being killed by people angry at the ideas of shutting down Gitmo, putting our nation even more in debt, and of course, socialized medicine.

Change happens when people are frustrated and right now, well…people are just plain p***ed off. But like they say, it’s better to be p***ed off than to be p***ed on, right?

That’s where I come in. You guys know that I like to turn away from all the blogosphere negativity, but I just want to pee on three groups of people right now.

The first are the folks who wake up in the morning and say “hey, I think I’ll be a political consultant today.” These people infuriate me. I can’t tell you how many “political consultants” I know that have never managed a campaign or worked for a political organization. They think because they watch Fox News all day, run a blog, or have read a few how-to books, they’re experts all a sudden.

Guess what folks? It doesn’t work like that. Consulting is based on experience and if you don’t have it, you ain’t a consultant. Go home. Email a campaign. Become a volunteer. And knock on a few hundred doors for a couple years. Hustle your butt off until you move up the ranks and learn a little bit about grassroots, finance, and communications. About 15 years later we might start referring to you as a consultant.

The second group of folks who get under my skin are these “social media experts.” For the love of God, just calm down a bit people. Sure, you have accounts set up on every single social media website known to man, but that doesn’t make you’re an expert. That makes you bored.

Social media experts should be people who understand communications and marketing. AND the Internet. Not JUST the Internet. The advertising and marketing medium and tactics are changing, but the talents, skills, and strategies have not. People are still people. They’re just communicating and connecting differently.

The third group is the people who make outrageous claims that will never ever- ever come true. This is nothing new to the marketing field. “Rock hard abs in 20 days.” “Land the smoking hot girl of your dreams.” You get it. Here’s the one that really irks me the most – “Be Like Obama, But Better – We’ll teach you how Barack Obama ran the first campaign of the 21st century. You’ll find out exactly what he did and how you can replicate his success at any level of government and from any side of the political spectrum.”

No joke. I received that little ditty from Politics Magazine.

So where does that lead me?

I’m thinking about really ramping up the how-to advice on the blog and publishing an e-book about Internet politics because the folks listed above have no clue what they’re doing. I’ve been thinking about this for a good while and I’ve run the idea past a few people and most of them ask the same question “why would you give something away for free that you’re charging other people for?”

That’s a good question. Here are the answers I’ve come up with:

1. People who pay get more access.
2. People who pay have someone to do it for them.
3. Content is not universal. People who pay get help with their content.
4. People who pay get advice much quicker than anyone else.
5. Publishing content to the web shows folks that you know what you’re talking about.
6. MOST IMPORTANT – Every campaign, district, and candidate is different. Cookie cutter strategies fail BIG every time. Strategies MUST be tailored to the individual campaign or organization every single time.

What do you think?

The Media Should Pay Attention To Boys In Balloons

I’ve been hearing a lot of criticism of the media since the Balloon Boy incident and I think it’s pretty unfounded. Why shouldn’t the media stop everything they’re doing to cover a boy floating in a balloon 10,000 feet above the Earth that’s traveled over 100 miles?

I was glued to the television screen, as were many other people in my office. And from the conversations I witnessed on Twitter and Facebook, my office wasn’t the only one to have an unproductive weekend.

This was today’s Baby Jessica story. It’s had all the attention grabbing traits of a story that you’ll remember your entire life. I remember 9-11. I remember Waco and the Oklahoma City bombing and the Challenger and the Columbine shoots. And you know what…I’m going to remember Balloon Boy too. I’m going to tell my grandkids about the boy who wasn’t floating 10,000 feet above the Earth and the sick father who made freak shows out of his kids and stopped the nation with one creative hoax.

This story was newsworthy because of the questions everyone wanted answered (in order):

What in the hell is happening?

How did he get in there?

Where is it going?

How high is it?

How fast is it going?

How are they going to get him down?

Oh my God, he’s not in there. Where is he?

How are they going to find his body?

He’s where!?!?!

Did the parents know?

What did he just say to Wolfe Blitzer?

Holy crap, did he just puke?

And of course now – what are we going to do with this a**hole?

The media should cover this story. They’d be dropping the ball if they didn’t.

One Giant Leap for the RNC

This week the RNC rolled out a new website for the nation’s Republicans at www.gop.com. Critics of the rollout have been harsh, attacking the sites design and messaging. Many say the banner looks too much like the flag of communist China. Some say the RNC is trying too hard to reach black voters.

Truth be told, those aren’t the kinds of complaints I expected from the tech community. I expected them to do more than look at the homepage, only to click away 10 seconds later for their own blogs. Unfortunately that’s not what’s happening. Their arguments are flawed, not because they’re wrong, but because they’re superficial.

Listen, the site isn’t perfect, but hardly any site is. Maybe they are trying too hard to reach out to black voters and maybe the header does look just a tad bit like the Chinese flag. Maybe not. My biggest complaint is the Mini-Mike that walks out onto the screen, but that’s something that can be fixed with the push of a button. The largest problems I see are an overall messaging issue that should not fall under the job description of the RNC’s tech team. Those decisions come from higher up and after weeks, or even months, or hardcore research.

As for the design itself, I direct my team to build websites with one motto in mind “attractive and simple.” While some argue on the attractiveness of the RNC site, I think the layout is clean, crisp, and simple. I also really like the introductory video and the facebook widget on the homepage, although I also agree with Todd Ziegler’s point about emphasizing the Our GOP network instead.

But again, these are all superficial issues.

The real power of the site lies behind the homepage, which I expected the Republican tech community to understand. I thought they’d see that the power is in the social networking capabilities and source code.

For the first time, Republicans across the country have a way to connect to each other and even more important for the RNC, they now have a way to target and collect information on those voters. The first step on being successful isn’t recruiting new supporters. It’s connecting the supporters we already have. We have to connect, organize, and activate our current supporters so that we have an outreach machine in place. After we do that, we can then take the next step to start reaching out to those we’ve been unable to grab – i.e. young voters and African Americans. For the first time, the capabilities are now there and I believe the RNC has a team in place that knows how to use them.

Facebook has gone through a few design changes over the past couple years, but has that stopped anyone from using the service? The answer is obviously no. Facebook has continued to grow into one of the world’s largest networks. The design didn’t matter. The power was in the network. The RNC’s new Our GOP won’t be Facebook, but it’s a good equivalent for Republicans looking to connect. And speaking of the two, I love that you can access Our GOP with Facebook Connect. Great move!

But that’s not it folks. From what I’m hearing, the RNC’s source code is going to be pretty open. What exactly does that mean? Two great things.

First, APPLICATIONS. This is huge! I can’t overstate it. President Obama’s team wasn’t successful because their site was pretty. They were successful because they connected supporters and then put them to work using voter outreach applications. Call banks, door-to-door walks, fundraising drives…it was all organized and implement on the web. With an open code, the RNC is telling conservative developers across the nation “here it is, start building.”

Second, more connecting. An open code allows all 50 state parties to tap into the GOP network, increasing the networks power 50-fold. But wait, that’s not right. Every county party in the nation, Young Republican group, College Republican group, Teenage Republican group, and every single other auxiliary will be able to tap into the network directly from their website, increasing the network’s power 5000-fold.

Messaging is everything, but you can’t expect a bunch of techies to tell Chairman Steele what should be said in television ads, mail pieces, and interviews. The same goes for the RNC homepage. Don’t place the Republican Party’s problems on Todd Herman and his team. Place them on the Republicans that dropped that ball over the past 10 years and the one’s who are not working tirelessly to capitalize on President Obama and Nancy Pelosi’s big government policies. The RNC tech team should be praised for putting together a system that works. Leave the messaging to the messengers.

Hit me up on Our GOP at our.gop.com/wesley

I’m Running Out of Brain Cells

I’ve never claimed to be the smartest guy in the room. Maybe the most intense or the most passionate, but never the smartest. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m running out of brain cells. And I’m not the only one. Campaigns should be aware of this…and adapt immediately.

Let me explain.

I know I’m a little abnormal when it comes to the massive amount of information flow I receive. I don’t have time to read a lot of books, but the past year I’ve read “The Tipping Point,” “Outliers,” “The Blogging Church,” “The Art of War,” “The Reagan Diaries,” “Pour Your Heart Into It,” and “The Four Hour Workweek.” I subscribe to “Men’s Health,” “Politics Magazine,” “Wired,” “Fast Company,” and “Inc.” I read them cover to cover. I read about 50 news and blog articles a day. While at work, my TV is always on Fox News or MSNBC. I stay on the phone all day and hold more conversations than I can count. I read my tweet stream at least once every two hours. Yesterday I received 327 emails. I don’t watch a lot of TV except every episode of Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy, House, and Mad Men. I spend most of my TV viewing time watching movies, probably around two per week. I also watch Tekzilla daily, every Gary Vanynerchuk, Ijustine, Kevin Rose & Tim Ferris, Diggnation, and Totally Rad Show podcast.

That’s pretty much my life in a paragraph. Well, except all the conversations I have with my wife or all the stuff I learn at church. Oh, and Gamecock football information, chats with buddies, or any of that other stuff one encounters just going through life.

As you can tell, I soak up A LOT of information every week and I’d be lying to you if I told you I remembered even half of it. To keep track of what I need to remember, I carry around a spiral notebook at all times. I use my iPhone voice recorder daily. I keep track of all work projects on Basecamp and I use Evernote.

Still, I can’t keep track of everything. I can’t tell you what happened three episodes ago on Diggnation, a Techcrunch post I read 16 days ago, the number of tackles Eric Norwood got last week, or a story I read in Outliers. I soaked up the information, but I didn’t retain it.

Maybe I’m just not that smart, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think I have a limited number of brain cells. You do too.

I use myself as an example to say this – the Internet is called the Information Superhighway for a reason. It’s full of information. With blogs, emails, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc…we are being bombarded with information from all angles. Those Internet tubes are getting clogged folks, and so are our brains.

Political campaigns should keep this in mind when building websites, writing emails, sending tweets, or doing anything else on the Internet. Clutter is killing campaigns, mostly because they are being part of the clutter. People don’t have enough brain cells to soak up all the information they are receiving. Remember that.

The Internet Is Your Primary Tool To Connect With Voters

On February 21, 2008, I published these words on the Under The Power Lines website:

“We believe that one day every voter will get the majority of their news from the web. But that’s not going to happen in the next few cycles and it certainly isn’t going to happen today.”

Boy was I wrong. And so is just about every campaign today. This may be the most important post I ever write, so listen up.

Recently, Gary Vaynerchuk posted a video in which he states, accurately, that most businesses look at the Internet as “the pepper” instead of “the steak.” What he means is that most companies falsely look at the Internet as some garnish (another tool) that is added to the steak (the strategy), when in fact, the Internet is now the steak itself. It’s the meal. It is the strategy.

It’s not just the private sector. Most campaigns are stuck in this rut too. General consultants are so fixated with the big bucks that come with television and direct mail that they are treating the Internet as some redheaded stepchild that a campaign has to use because everyone else is using it.

That’s a MASSIVE mistake. The Internet is now the primary tool by which people connect with a campaign.

Notice what I just said. I said CONNECT. I didn’t say COMMUNICATE.

That’s because as people start to get more of their news from the web instead of television and newspapers, they are starting to join social networking systems to share their lives with their friends and family, and yes, connect with organizations like political parties and campaigns.

Let’s take a look at the stats.

A recent study showed that it didn’t matter if a person did or did not regularly read a print newspaper – they all are now more likely to get their news from online. A 2008 poll revealed that 80 percent of Americans over 17 say that the Internet is “a critical source of information,” which was a 14 percent jump from 2006. The 2008 Pew Research Center poll on news consumption is particularly interesting. Between 1995 and 2008, the percentage of people who got their news online at least three times a week rose from two percent to 37. During the same period, the number of people who read a print newspaper, listened to radio news, watched local TV news or the national nightly news all declined precipitously. According to the poll, about 36 percent of the public are regular-to-heavy users of Internet news. These people are also well-educated and affluent, the sort of people who tend to show up on Election Day.

Additionally, almost one-in-four people read political blogs, and one-in-five read other people’s comments on news stories and check what stories were emailed by others.

Here’s the big news folks – as people move toward the web to get their news, they are staying there to connect other people, something that cannot happen with television or direct mail.

According to Nielsen, “member communities” (social networking and blogging) are now the fourth most popular Internet activity, even surpassing personal email. Also, time spent on social networking and blogging sites has grown by three times the rate of the rest of the Internet. In terms of time spent, between December 2007 and December 2008, Facebook saw a massive increase of 566 percent. It’s not just teenagers and college students, either. In February, statistics were released that showed 45 percent of all new Facebook users in the United States are 26 years old or older.

Twitter, barely on the radar just two years ago, has become standard for candidates and parties. Many elected officials are now turning to it as a way, in 140 characters or less, to be in contact with their constituents in real time. Over last year, Twitter went from about 500,000 unique visitors to 4.43 million. Now, 20 percent of all ads viewed online are on social networking sites.

What’s the point in all this?

While the Internet is far cheaper than television and direct mail, it still requires financial investment. Campaigns at every level have to wake up and start reallocating financial resources toward better websites, Internet advertising, new voter outreach tools, and most important – manpower.

Manpower? That’s right. Remember, it’s not just about communicating a message by posting on a blog or by sending out a tweet. It’s about connecting with people. Campaigns need to start hiring social media directors to answer emails, Facebook posts, and tweets. The worse thing a campaign can ever do is let social contacts wither on the vine.

Here’s what I suggest:

1. Invest in a website that sucks voters in and keeps them there to connect with other supporters and the campaign through social networks. Barack Obama did this with my.barackobama.com, which allowed his supporters to blog, connect with each other and develop stronger ties to the campaign. If you’re interacting with other people on a campaign site, you’re probably more likely to donate money and volunteer, and definitely more likely to actually show up to vote.

2. Advertise – Google and social networks give you the ability to target like never before. For instance, there’s a reason why I get ads touting USC-themed Snuggies on Facebook. And why a Conservatives in Action banner ad showed up on a college football blog. The “brave new world” is here, and it’s making money. For campaigns, that could mean money as well as votes. Targeted marketing like this allows for more effective use of advertising dollars, instead of the tens of thousands needed for a TV ad.

3. Don’t be afraid of ideas. People want content. Give them a reason to keep coming back. To use the Obama example again, a lot of candidates and staff would immediately nix the idea of user-driven content, like site’s social networking component. Often, controlling the message takes precedent over being inventive. One way that Sen. Shane Massey keeps his site fresh is by taking advantage of what the web has to offer. He writes blog posts, there are Twitter updates and he uploads videos from his town hall meetings.

4. CONNECT – give your staff the flexibility to talk with voters. You start off with the old-line basics, phone number and email address, then add in Facebook and Twitter. That way, you can make sure to get the word out about the next event, or how the candidate feels about a pressing issue. Sen. Jim DeMint has so thoroughly embraced this facet that he’s frequently lauded for his adaptation to new media.

For a campaign to remain out in front, in all terms, proper investment in an Internet strategy is very important. It’s not just about having a slick-looking site. The site needs to have good, fresh content and provide a way for voters to connect with the campaign. And, it’s not just about having a site. Google Ads probably has better data on your voters than you do, and using it to target market to those voters is another way to connect and drive people to the site. Twitter and Facebook provide more aspects for interacting with voters.

An effective web strategy isn’t something to toy around with. It’s a necessity for a winning campaign.