It’s both exciting and sad to see. It’s exciting to see someone like Senator DeMint become so popular, but it’s sad that he’s become popular for something as simple as sticking to our party’s principles. That goes to show how far our party and our nation have gotten off track.

While our party needs people to reach across the aisle to form compromises, it must have a large contingent of people to drive it to the right. If all we have are moderates who compromise, our nation will surely go to the left. By recruiting and standing beside leaders like Marco Rubio and Chuck DeVore, Jim DeMint forces our party to the right, which forces the moderates to compromise far less of our conservative values.

We need to compromise to move our nation forward, but we don’t need to sell the entire farm. Senator DeMint is one of the only people in Washington reminding us of that. Here’s where the rubber meets the road – you need both moderates and conservatives to get proper legislation passed while in the majority and put the breaks on Democrats’ free-spending ways while in the minority.

It doesn’t make sense to have a party that keeps giving up this or that to mollify Congressional liberals, and it doesn’t make sense to not compromise under any circumstances. The U.S. Congress is not a European parliament. There are 535 members, and they all have a say. Members get elected to get things done.

South Carolinians seem to have figured this out. Our state is a tried-and-true conservative bullwork, sending two men to the Senate who represent both wings of the Republican Party. Lindsey Graham is more willing to compromise to get legislation passed. While Jim DeMint and others like him keep up the pressure to make sure those compromises are in the best interest of our state and nation.

Without Jim DeMint, we’d all be in a much worse position than how things are right now, and he’ll be a leader to turn it around when the GOP regains the majority. And that’s why I’m proud to stand with Jim DeMint.

Together Jason and I developed a 10 page white paper to introduce South Carolina’s Republican legislators to social media. This is the first of many, which will dive in deeper to explain each social network, its value to candidates and elected officials, and how to use it effectively and strategically. While it was written for SC’s legislators, we think you’ll find it useful too.

Here is one section of our paper titled “You Can No Longer Afford To Ignore Social Media.” We invite you to fill in the form at the bottom of this sample and a link to the whole white paper will be emailed directly to you with with in minute.

The Benefits of Social Media in Politics

Social Media tools are all about connecting and organizing. In the not too recent past, reaching voters centered on newspaper advertising, 30-second radio spots, direct mail, community events and going door-to-door by relying on instantly out-of-date voter files. Actively recruiting volunteers, soliciting donations and securing support went the same way. Social media isn’t going to replace these tactics, which all remain an important part of campaign strategy.

But having Facebook and Twitter profiles, and a Facebook fan site, you reach out and remain in touch with supporters and average voters who are interested in the election or current policy. You and/or a member of staff can list events where the candidate or official will be, organize fundraising drives and keep followers apprised of campaign goings-on, policy stances and current legislation. People who have decided to keep up with you will see the updates in a regular feed.

What is truly exciting about Social Media in politics is that it can truly build a “tribe” around you—as best-selling author Seth Godin has coined the term.

Let’s say you’re a candidate in a State House race, and you have a fairly active profile on Facebook—say 500 users. Many of these folks will be family and friends who live out-of-state, but it’s certainly possible that as many as 100 or 200 are people who live in your district or in your community.

That is the direct reach of your Social Media network.

These people are connected to you and connected to their friends willingly. Contacting them isn’t as intrusive as a phone call or even a knock on the door. They’re in a comfort zone with their friends. It’s like the phone bank where friends call their friends. We all know that is much more effective than a paid phone bank, or even you, making the calls.

So you send a message asking them to support you in Tuesday’s election. Or you tell them about the latest vote you cast, op-ed you wrote, or news story about you. You just reached the 200 people who live in your community.

But your network goes much further. Let’s say a quarter of your “friends” – 50 people – turn around and put a message about you in their profile and they know 50 people who are voters in your district. You just got your message out, through trusted sources, to as many as 2,500 voters. If 8,000 or 10,000 votes can win you an election, that is a significant message.

Remember, these are affluent, educated people who tend to be motivated voters. They’re the folks who show up in huge numbers on election day.

That is the power of your social network.

Just fill out this form and we will email you a copy of
‘You Can No Longer Afford To Ignore Social Media‘ right now.

Email
Marketing You Can Trust

Recently, a study was released by the Pew Research Center. The news, as it was cribbed from the study by the mainstream media and blogs, was that the entire nation was moving over to the Internet to get its news. According to the report, about 61 percent of Americans get at least some of their news from the Internet.

Hearing news like that might make some campaign consultants concentrate on the Web as a strategy on the level of a get-out-the-vote-effort. That would be a mistake.

As Gary Vaynerchuk says in the video, it’s all about extending the story. The Internet is not an end in itself. For every television advertisement, for every radio advertisement, for every direct mail piece, use that medium for exactly what it is supposed to do. But don’t stop there. That doesn’t mean just linking the website. It means extending the story with an extremely strong strong appeal to visit the website. Just think about the GoDaddy commercials. Then you can et people to engage with the candidate via Facebook, Twitter and whichever other social media in which the campaign is engaged.

In this way, you can connect the voters on multiple platforms. Something left out of many of the stories about the Pew research is that only two percent of Americans get all of their information from the Internet. Therefore, having an Internet operation running in a vacuum will not help.

Another statistic from the study is that 92 percent of people in this country get their news from multiple platforms. To repeat a modern political cliché, you have to go to where the voters are. They aren’t all on the Internet, or going to the Internet first. But the people who are most likely to vote and most likely to contribute will end up on the Web. That’s why it’s very important that if you want to win, you have to combine traditional and online marketing strategies.

I’ll post a much better quality version in the next couple days. For now, here’s our Ustream webcast.

PNN is broken. Here’s why.

We’re really sorry about the inconvenience. We are working on it.

Know anyone at Yahoo that actually cares about their customers. Please have them email me at wesleydonehue@gmail.com.

Notes:

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.

In 2008-2009 the use of social media by people aged 35 to 54 grew 60 percent. People over the age of 35 are the fastest growing group using Facebook.

Between February 2008 and February 2009, Facebook’s users increased 228 percent, from 20.04 million to 65.7 million.

- Wesley Donehue

I hate airplanes. Have I told you that yet? If I haven’t, there you go. I hate airplanes.

I hear the stats about how flying is so much safer than driving. And I have a fear of heights, but it’s not the heights that gets me. What I hate is the lack of control. In a car I have control. Sure some one can hit me, but I still have a good bit of control. It’s my hands on the steering wheel and my foot on the gas pedal. That’s not the case in an airplane. I’m completely in someone else’s hands. My life is dependent upon a machine. God controls the weather that could force me to the ground.

All the while I can’t do anything but sit here and type on my computer.

So now it’s this idea of control that I want to talk about for a few seconds.

I’m flying to DC right now to attend CPAC where I’ll be speaking on a panel about web politics. Specifically, I’ll be talking about my web product Voter Fetch.

The biggest and really only complaint I hear from campaigns right now is that they don’t like the lack of control with a call from home product. In a phone bank they can manage the callers. That’s not the case with people phoning from home.

I also get this question a lot: how can I make my video go viral?

Listen folks, in today’s world, you need to let go of the reins a bit. Scratch that….let go of the reins a lot. You can’t be truly successful until you let a movement go viral. You have to let people carry your message for you. It’s been happening forever. There’s no difference in someone talking to their friend at a grocery store and phone banking from home. It’s just now you have the ability to actually target and message. If anything, you have more control by giving up control.

The same goes for video. You can’t make something go viral. You can produce something catchy and you can spread it around the web with social networks, but its viralness depends on the people. We didn’t force Senator DeMint’s Code Pink video to go viral, not that we could. We just came up with a creative idea, sent it to our email list, posted it to our social networks, and just sat back. Like that, you have to let go and pray that things just happen and that people start spreading it around. Concentrate on solid content and creativity, not control.

It’s easy for me to give this advice in politics, but I’ll be jumping out of my skin until the wheels hit the runway. I hate airplanes.

Chris
hey
8:04am

Wesley
what up man?
8:05am

Chris
not good
8:05am

Wesley
why?
8:06am

Chris
I’m stranded in London,England
8:07am

Wesley
that’s weird. how did that happen?
8:07am

Chris
got mugged at Gun point
8:07am

Wesley
damn dude.
8:07am

Chris
all cash,credit cards and phone were stolen
8:07am

Wesley
you lose your passport?
8:07am

Chris
i still got it
8:09am

Chris
wondering if you could loan me a few $$ to sort out the bills and also take a cab to the airport
will def refund it when am back home
8:10am

Wesley
how would I get it to you?
8:10am

Chris
you will have it wire to my name via western union
8:12am

Wesley
Ok, this is strange, but how do I know I’m talking to Chris? I saw something like this on a blog where a guy was getting scammed.
8:12am

Chris
WHAT
8:13am

Wesley
yeah man, seriously.

8:13am
Chris
if i wasnt the one i wont ask you to wire to my name as we both know i will need some ??kinda of identification before i get the cash at the bank
8:13am

Wesley
true
8:14am

Chris
can i give you the information to get the $$ to me?
8:15am

Wesley
how do we know each other?
8:17am

Chris
are you there?
8:19am

Wesley
yes
8:20am

Chris
can i give you the info needed to get the $$ to me?
8:21am

Wesley
can you tell me how we know each other?
8:22am

Chris
are you insinuating?
8:23am

Wesley
hell yeah im insinuating. I’m insinuating that you’re some scammer trying to jack my cash. Are you insinuating that I’m some dumb American that’s going to hand over my hard earned cash?
8:23am

Chris
ok
8:23am

Wesley
What country are you in Captain Scammer?
8:23am

Wesley
Or are you in America in your momma’s basement?
8:23am

Wesley
Punk!
8:23am

That’s it. Captain Scammer never replied. Now, I just hope my friend Chris isn’t really stuck in London or I will feel like a real horses arse.

Now, if you’re a tech geek like us, and you really want to know why its been down, here’s your answer. PNN is run off a link sharing site called Delicious which can be found at www.delicious.com. You can see our page at www.delicious.com/ecgwesley.

To make a long story short, Delicious blocked our website because we use them too much. You’d think they would appreciate the business, but it doesn’t look like that’s the case. Anyway, below is the customer service reply we just received. Hopefully they’ll pay us some real attention soon so that we can start providing you links again.

Again, we apologize for the wrinkle in your daily routine.

EMAIL FROM DELICIOUS:

Hello ,

**Please do not respond to this message as no one will receive it.