Tag Archives: social media
Advice to People Who Are Trying to Use Social Media for a Grassroots Network
How much time do you have? My top pieces of advice are:
1. Know your end goal – social media are not the same thing as social capital. You can have all of the connections in the universe, but if those people aren’t willing to act on your behalf, it doesn’t matter.
I was reminded of this in a conversation with Betsy Vetter, director of government relations for the American Heart Association in North Carolina. She has learned that “the way you recruit someone is the way they will continue to be active. If you recruit online, that’s probably how they’re going to engage in the future.” And frankly, fair or unfair, online engagement is the lowest form of commitment. It simply doesn’t…
How Social Media Are Being Used By Grassroots Campaigns
We see social media being used in several ways, the most visible being the recent protests in Iran. That was a grassroots awareness campaign. Social media have also been used long before that by very structured, established grassroots organizations to get the word out to their members about legislative developments, as well as to recruit and organize.
Where I’m seeing them being used most successfully is to provide information to an organization’s members in real time and to recruit people for their grassroots network. I don’t think that social media do that much persuading; I think they’re used a lot for preaching to the converted.
In addition, a lot of this was being done before the Obama campaign, it’s just that they…
How Social Media Differ from Traditional Advocacy/Grassroots
It’s the rules of the grassroots road that you have to always be recruiting, retaining and motivating your audience to act – to go from having social networks to having social capital. That will never change.
A lot of grassroots work is pure and not very simple data base management. Social media can change the velocity of your list creation and maintenance. Kari Lantos of the Association of International Educators said her foray into social media has allowed her to spread her message to the beneficiaries of her members’ expertise – the students they teach. And, you can build your list quickly – Kari added over 300 Facebook friends in a day or two, and this is for a very selective…
The FEC and Social Media – Trend Analysis from I2M Faculty Member Brett Kappel
We’ve had some community members ask about trends and/or guidelines for using Twitter and other social media tools to communicate about your PAC. According to I2M faculty member Brett Kappel, “The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United should have an impact on your ability to communicate with your members via Twitter soon. The FEC is revisiting its rules regarding communications by corporations regarding candidates in light of Citizens United, but they haven’t started that rulemaking yet. In my opinion, after Citizens United, the FEC’s distinction regarding communications regarding candidates to members of the PAC’s restricted class or outside the restricted class can no longer justified. I expect that in the next election cycle those regs will be…
How Do the Top Interest Groups Use Social Media for Government Relations?
Here’s a new study on social media use by top lobbying groups.
The study found that the vast majority of leading U.S. political advocacy groups are using at least one social media platform to connect and organize stakeholders.
