the tools may change, but the strategy remains the same

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Leveraging Social Media for Online Organizing & Advocacy

Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D.

arosenblatt@americanprogressaction.org

Twitter: @CAPAction and @DrDigipol

Facebook.com/AmericanProgressAction

Facebook.com/DrDigipol

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Do you?@BarackObama – 3.4 million followers

@WhiteHouse – 1.7 million followers

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

How can I get as many followers as Obama?

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Like this?

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Size isn’t everything

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Shifting channels

• Across US, Europe, Australia, and Japan, 279.5 million people use email (August 2009)• Up 21% since August 2008

• 301.5 million use social networks (August 2009)• Up 31% since August 2008

• Email use may be on the rise, but it is falling further behind social networks everyday.

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Go to Your Audience

Twitter • 37.5m US users, 12 mil visits/day, 75m global users • Influencers, more urban, med age=31, growing younger

Facebook • 120m US users, 35 mil unique visits/day, 400m global users• Well-educated, white-collar, coastal, med age=26, growing older

MySpace • 57m US users,13 mil visits/day• Blue-collar, middle America, med age=27

LinkedIn • 10m US users, 5.5 mil visits/day, 60m global users• Business professionals, med age=40

Care2 • 13m users, 160k visits/day• Progressive activists, 64% women, med age 45

AARP • 1.1m US users, 300k unique visits/month• Older (55+)

BlackPlanet • 17m users, 765k visits/day• African-American

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Age Distribution on Social Networks

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Dimensions of digital communication strategy

1-D 2-D 3-DInformation Action Community

One-way Communication

Two-way Communication

All-way Communication

Audience Interacts with Information

Audience Interacts with Campaign,

Organization, or Government

Audience Interacts with Each Other

Email Lists & Brochure Websites (Broadcast &

Narrowcast)

Transactional Websites (Information Exchange,

Donations, & Action)

Social Networks & Social Media (Grassroots &

Grasstops)

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Case study: Stan (@Stan)

Stan

Spring ’09: Stan received information from CAP via email &

web

June ’09: Stan joins Twitter

July ’09: Stan has 40 followers; starts retweeting

@CAPAction

Today, Stan over 400 followers &

continues to share his

influence w/ @CAPAction

Value to CAP/Action increases

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Social Media Advocacy Tools

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Measuring Success: Mentions

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Measuring Success: Click-Throughs

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Measuring Success: Not Just Numbers

10/09 @Katulis tweet from Afghanistan quoted in GlobalPost.com (117,000 readers).

12/09 Brian Katulis tweets about Afghanistan surge quoted in NYT by Helene Cooper.

11/09 @Katulis tweet about Afghanistan sent by The Atlantic’s Ambnder to WH Nat’l Sec. Council.

1.

3.

2.

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Twitter Petitions

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Tweeting the Government

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

List Building on Twitter

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Targeting Tweets

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Twitter Hashtags – Reaching beyond your followersIdeology

Progressives #p2, #topprog, #progressivetuesday

Conservatives #tcot, #sgp, #tlot, #teaparty, #IAmTheMob

Issues

Labor #union, #efca, #aflcio, #seiu, #ibew

Healthcare #hcr, #hc09, #singlepayer, #pubop, #health

Energy/Climate #climate, #energy, #green, #co2, #cop15

Women #fem2, #woc, #prochoice, #women2follow

Other Hashtags

Actions #action, #digg

Events #NN09, #PDF09, #IAR… Make your own for your events

Cross-Talk Pair hashtags for different audiences & actions

(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION

Leveraging Social Media for Online Organizing & Advocacy

Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D.

arosenblatt@americanprogressaction.org

Twitter: @CAPAction and @DrDigipol

Facebook.com/AmericanProgressAction

Facebook.com/DrDigipol