Are Republicans Communicating with the 18-35 Demographic Yet?
Filed under: Campaign Technology, Social Media, twitter
With all the talk about “rebranding” and “twittering” within the GOP, I’ve been paying close attention to what’s being said…vs. what’s actually happening. I’ve also been doing some loose polling of my own among the 18-35 crowd. The overwhelming message I’m hearing right now is that there are positive signs and messages coming out of state party leadership…but that the candidates and incumbents are still being swayed by the dark side.
The dark side is the belief that no matter how many friends you have on Facebook and how many tweets you send from the House floor…that when voting time comes, you only have to be TRULY concerned with the 50+ crowd that “always votes.”
This way of thinking…is deadly.
The 18-35 demo is asking to be engaged in conversation. It may not be a “comfy” place for most candidates to actually dive in and address the issues and concerns of this demographic using their crazy ways of communication…but that’s kind of the point. The way this demographic communicates is different and they WILL come out and vote if you talk to them. Here’s a quick list of tips:
- The 18-35 (and I’d even venture to mid 40’s) is offended by direct mail. I’m immersed in politics and I live in Iowa so you can imagine how full my mailbox is daily during an election cycle. I never read one of the fliers. Direct mail panders and pimps lies (or that’s our perception) and stretches half truths to paint bold colors about candidates. Reality is that there are many shades of gray and not stark contrasts and we’re smart enough to figure those out.
- The 18-35 demographic is offended by robocalls and phone bank callers. I didn’t ask to be called. I don’t care if you’re from my party or not. You’re interrupting me when I’ve given you plenty of chance to enter my preferred channels of communication which are a bit more asynchronous (blogs, twitter, rss feeds, etc.)
- When talking about Twitter, please just say, “I’m on Twitter and I send tweets” without a guffaw and an awe sucks “kids these days” tone. When you do that, you’re implying that you really don’t get it, embrace it, understand it, or care about it…but that you’re doing it because someone told you it was a good idea to win votes. We’re not saying that Twitter is the ticket to our votes. For goodness sake it doesn’t work half time. What we are saying is that this is one way in which we communicate. Tomorrow it may be Twutter or Twurtter…but the theme remains in tact. By the way, in my speaking engagements I often poll college students about Twitter and I’d say that no more than 2% of 18-24 year olds are on Twitter and not much more even know what it is.
So how many elections this year in Anytown, USA where 500 voters of 30k come out to vote for mayor, will have 3000 turn out and elect “that woman” who is young and tech savvy? When more races are turned on their heads by the 18-35 “tech demo” we’ll see change. We’d rather see a proactive approach that begins TODAY.
Technology and Politics Links from ORS
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Candidates utilize Facebook, blogs in a new political era | newsleader.com | The News Leader
This is a great and balanced article that describes how many more races are leveraging technology, building email lists, and raising money online. Another key point is that technology is being used to rally support/troops for policy issues. Great article.
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Big decisions eh? I wonder if we’ll hear what he decides first via Twitter? I bet. Go git’um Chuck.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of operationredstate group favorite links are here.
Mike Bloomberg, Paid Advertising for Facebook Pages
Filed under: Campaign Technology, News
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, has started an aggressive campaign to attract his constituents to his campaign page on the internet’s largest social networking site, Facebook. This week Bloomberg posted a commercial on YouTube inviting his viewers to become his supporters on Facebook. He also has paid advertisements on the internet attracting people to his page. This is definitely a unique use of social media for a mayor of a city. Granted, he is the mayor of New York City, which obviously makes him a higher profile politician than most of your everyday mayors around the country, but I haven’t even seen my Governor (thankfully) or US Senators do this. Paid advertisements to lead people to your Facebook page? This is a relatively new concept. Bloomberg is a pioneer. I wonder how long it will take until we see that from others. Maybe next Presidential election we will see paid advertisements on television by Barack Obama or Mitt Romney trying to get us to visit their Facebook campaign page or to follow them on Twitter. This wouldn’t surprise me at all.
I often mention how great a campaigning tool social networking sites are because they are so cheap (typically free unless you hire someone else to manage it). Now we have a politician taking it to the next level by actually buying advertising space to promote his campaign pages on social networking sites. I am curious to see if this strategy is effective and worth the money paid for the advertisements. Bloomberg now has over 15,000 supporters on Facebook and the number continues to grow.
The world is changing. Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate with each other, the way we campaign, the way we do business, and the way we get our news. I don’t think anyone can fully comprehend where social media will be at the time the next Presidential election comes around. The more people make bold moves like Bloomberg, the faster social media will progress.
Read more about it here:
http://www.politickerny.com/3593/bloombergs-facebook-supporters-thompsons-facebook-friends
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Technology and Politics Links from ORS
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Northwest Herald | Social networking craze doesn’t spare area’s legislators
I bet there are 500 articles like this each month from local newspapers across the nation. “Lawmakers using more social media tools to communicate”. That’s a VERY good thing. When we take the communication medium back…and open a direct link between those elected to serve and those who elect them, we have more representation.
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Is Social Networking Revolutionizing Our Tribal Behavior? – FP Posted
We talk about people wanting to belong to tribes frequently in our work. Social media/New Media tools have a way of allowing people to create many small tribes…while still connecting them via a common online thread. Very powerful and something you need to grasp as a candidate.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of operationredstate group favorite links are here.
Technology and Political Links From ORS 05/20/2009 (p.m.)
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New version of Google Reader continues Google’s data fetish » VentureBeat
OK….we talk about “Listening” as a key element in the equation that builds YOUR organic online findability all the time and google reader is a great tool to that end. Now, google has added more data/analysis/trending information to the reader. Useful? You’ll have to decide that. I’m a data guy and I’m not using the full power yet. When our course on “Listening” comes out in a couple weeks, you know Reader will be a BIG part of that.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of operationredstate group favorite links are here.
Technology and Political Links From ORS 05/20/2009 (a.m.)
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VideoPress – Video Blogging Gets Easy with Wordpress Video Press – ReelSEO
Wow. Wordpress.com just got a lot cooler! Let’s see how quickly the amount of text based posts drop and video based posts accelerate. I’m not sure it will be earth shattering early on because many people are still intimidated by the “camera”. We shall see. Very good development!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of operationredstate group favorite links are here.
Who’s Who in Social Media Demographics, Part 6 of 6 | YouTube
Filed under: Social Networking Demographics
- Image via CrunchBase
Well, as you read back on May 11th we discussed the preferences of Women in blogs versus networking sites. As I mentioned, I wanted to dig a little deeper and see who is who in the world wide web. We’ve now created a six part blog series that will cover six networking sites’ demographics.
YouTube
YouTube is currently reaching 81 million US people every month. It currently ranks as the sixth site on the internet for how many users it has. Out of all those users, YouTube has over 486,000,000 visits every month.
By researching these 81 million users, what can we find out about these users? Well, 51% of them are men and 49% are women. 1% of those users are addicts who account for 25% of all visits to the site. 46% of users are regular visitors who account for 60% of visits and 53% are passer-by users who account for 15% of visits.
The age breakdown of these users is as follows:
- 3 to 11 : 3%
- 12 to 17 : 19%
- 18 to 34 : 36%
- 35 to 49 : 23%
- 50+ : 19%
Another interesting fact is the education level of most of the users. 48% have do not have a college degree. This surprises me since the users under the age of 18 only account for a total of 22%. Granted, some of these are found in the 18 to 34 group, but I am surprised that it is that high. Overall, YouTube does a respectable job at entertaining the teenagers but at the same time still is dominated by the popular 18 to 34 group. These statistics are definitely helpful.
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Technology and Politics Links from ORS
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Implementing a Social Media Strategy – where to start?
Have you identified your social media goals? Do you know your end game? How are you going to measure the results? Are the results measurable? Have you laid out a formal plan? Are your goals SMART? These are all questions you need to ask yourself when making your social media strategy.
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How to Create an Online Newsroom: Content Can Enhance Credibility with the Media | Suite101.com
Here are some phenomenal suggestions on creating a newsroom on your website. For all you know there are people that want to talk to you but your site is so confusing no one can find anything. Read this article, open your site up to possible connections that could go a very long way. “Content can enhance credibility with media”
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Is there any surprise trust is so low? — NevilleHobson.com
UK – The Ministers and Money. This article may not be about the US but it’s certain symbolic of our future and past. What can we do to change?
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Will FOX Decision Lead Other Networks To Follow Suit? – mediabistro.com: TVNewser
PBO has cost the networks an estimated $30 million for his three prime-time addresses. PBO, why aren’t you using YouTube? It’s free and won’t cut jobs.
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What Business Blogging is Missing | Kyle Lacy, Social Media – Indianapolis
KyleLacy.com. Always a good read. Five goals every marketer, or in our case, politician should consider:
1 – Increase organic search traffic
2 – Boost referral traffic to my website
3 – Generate more inbound leads
4 – Increase email and catalog subscriptions
5 – Sell more productThese of course are in the context of politics. Product = message, etc.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of operationredstate group favorite links are here.
Who’s Who in Social Media Demographics, Part 5 of 6 | Twitter
Filed under: Social Networking Demographics
- Image by notoriousxl via Flickr
Well, as you read back on May 11th we discussed the preferences of Women in blogs versus networking sites. As I mentioned, I wanted to dig a little deeper and see who is who in the world wide web. We’ve now created a six part blog series that will cover six networking sites’ demographics.
Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networking sites around. Between the beginning of March to the end of April Twitter is estimated to have more than doubled its total number of users. It currently is reaching 23 million US people monthly. It is getting more than 158,000,000 hits a month. Women use Twitter slightly more than men, accounting for 52% of Twitter’s users.
The frequency of traffic on this site is interesting. 1% of those addicted to the site account for 35% of the site’s traffic. The regulars (27%) account for 41% of visits. Twitter is primarily dominated by people over 18 years old. People under 18 years of age only account for 2% of these users. That surprised me. 44% of Twitter’s users are between 18 and 34, 33 % between 35 and 49, and 21% over 50. Clearly Twitter is built for people at the college level and above. Teenagers just aren’t using it as much. That is probably why 63% of users have a college degree. Pew Internet recently reported that the median age of Twitter users is 31 years old.
The topics on Twitter primarily focus around entertainment, politics, and other daily topics. It isn’t used as much to stay in touch with family and friends. Normally people will resort to Facebook or other blogs to do that.
In terms of total household income, Twitter is fairly balanced between all levels.
- $0 to 30k : 22%
- 30 to 60k : 28%
- 60 to 100k : 23%
- 100k+ : 27%
The amazing thing about Twitter is really how fast it is growing. At the pace it is at it will be coming up on other social networking sites shortly.
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The Basics of Blogging
Are you thinking of blogging? Good for you! This short video presentation will catch you up, answering the question “What is blogging” with easy to understand examples. Learn about how Blogging helps organizations become more findable and engaging on the web. “Back in the Day” blogs were different and techie…
Take your first step in the larger world of blogging and start growing your organic findability. This course is part of our “Content Creation” on Operation RedState. As we continue to build our membership and our content library, we’ll show you the “50,000 foot view” down the “micro view” so you too can become an online powerhouse. Get ready…now let’s go!
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