2010 Predictions

Here is what’s in store for 2010:

1. High profile Operation Red State powered candidate victories will earn our company the national attention it’s working hard to earn.
2. ORS will 10x it’s subscriber base.
3. Real conservatives will win key state and national offices by large margins.
4. Some third party candidates will win and disrupt the current 2 party power structure.
5. The country will continue to wake up and use its eyes…for the first time in decades.
6. A new generation of constitutional scholars will emerge to remind a nation what tyranny looks like.
7. Things will get much worse for our citizenry and the National Guard will be required to maintain order when people revolt over hunger and rampant crime due to the economy.
8. A much greater percentage of candidates for office will begin to engage the under 40 crowd vs. ignore them like they do now.
9. There will be a “web only” candidate who shows that technology can save money, time, and prove to be the margin of victory without the travel.
10. Political consultants will be increasingly replaced by firms that understand the message and the tools of today’s modern campaign.

Happy New Year from the ORS team.

Vote People Not Parties

Iowa provides very fertile political soil.  During my 33 years in California, I never experienced such a closeness to the people, political process, the politicians, and the parties.  I’ve met Senator Chuck Grassley enough (at technology events no less) that he remembers me now.  This closeness and awareness to the political process means that it’s a bit easier to take a quick political pulse.

Overwhelmingly, I get the message that people are going to start voting for people…not parties.

There are many in the Republican Party (National/State) that are amazing conservative leaders so don’t mistake the People’s feelings as all-inclusive indictment.  However, I do see that even R’s viewed as conservative have problems (as they should) because they too are guilty of aggregious acts of political debauchery including voting for various Bush items that were far from conservative, pork project awards, etc.  Few current R’s are immune to their histories.

Representatives like Kent Sorenson (R-IA District 74) are asked quite often by citizens, “Why are you a member of the Republican Party when you’re clearly an Independent?” Please contact Kent for his answer as my summary won’t do justice.  I hear this over and over again throughout the state.  “I vote for people not parties” is the rally cry of a huge percentage of voters on both sides of the isle now.  This is the way it should be right?  However this doesn’t sit well with the Republican party for obvious reasons (donations, influence, power of majority, etc.)

A third party (or 4th or 5th) has not really been an option for sometime now…but as our citizenry increasingly votes for people not parties, I do believe the landscape is about change…for the better.

Stay Tuned! New Weekly Ecampaign Do’s and Dont’s Webisode and “How To” Video Tip Series Unleashed in 2010

If you’re not subscribed to ORS’s email updates and newsletter, you’re going to miss out on some incredibly informative electronic campaigning, multimedia production, content creation, content distribution, blogging, micro-bloggin, new media marketing, and campaign communication/collaboration tips that are incredibly useful.  The ORS elves have been vigorously shooting video content and editing using the same tools we’ll talk about in our tips.

We’re doing a redesign on the home page and provide a nicely laid out archive of these tips as they hit every 2 weeks (They will alternate with the ORS Red Alert Dossier).  I’d say we’re delivering a whole lot of awesomeness for a small investment of your time and email address.  Of course, we’re capitalists and believe that if you love our free stuff…you’ll absolutely drool over the paid content we have inside…but that’s the bet we’re making.

So, I’ve made this even easier than normal.  You don’t even have to look at the sidebar and select the FREE option, just look DOWN this page a bit more and fill in the box.  You’ll be added to our FREE subscriber list and get ready to hang on.

2010 is going to be BIG for us at ORS and for you the political junky, campaign manager, county party chairman, communication coordinator, or candidate for office (from school board to U.S.
Congress).  Please join us.

Technology and Political Links From ORS 12/18/2009 (a.m.)

• Testing the power of the medium – my final case for a web-only thesis « Andrew Spittle

  Take a peek at this robust entry From Andrew Spittle. The 3 aspects he’ll cover are 1: twitter and the realtime web 2: Wordpress and the rise of self-publishing and 3: Automated information consumption.

  These topics will be very familiar to our ORS readers. I can’t wait to see how this project turns out.

  Tags: ORS, web, politics, ecampaign, activism, organization, social media, spittle, webonly

  • – By Doug Mitchell
  • – By Doug Mitchell

Posted from Diigo. The rest of operationredstate group favorite links are here.

Affordable Cloud Call Banks for Political Campaigns

(By John Burnley, Contributing Author)

For many years in IT infrastructure, I would try to deploy technology that not only fulfilled business requirements, but also considered other organizational interests such as security, DR (Disaster Recovery) and BC (Business Continuity), etc. Before leaving one former employer, I was pushing for the placement of call center personnel to some of our other various locations. With the voice over IP (VoIP) telephone system we had installed, call center agents could be deployed anywhere and appear to be at one central location.

There were advantages and disadvantages for having staff in multiple locations. Advantages included easier coverage of various time zones and locales as well as business continuity if the main call center became inoperable. Disadvantages included managing remote staff as well as potential higher employee cost, depending on the area.

Corporate workers in a virtual workplace are no different than campaign volunteers using virtualized tools, and it may make it as easier for those individuals to become involved. There are many functions that can be pushed out to the virtual world, and one which caught my attention is phone bank operations. Now, I know there is tremendous interest in finding new processes and technology that will revolutionize campaigns, but there are some traditional methods that are still viable for reaching constituents. However, there are different approaches on how those traditional methods can be managed and implemented.

Traditionally, phone banks were centrally located with rows of volunteers placing calls from voter roll lists. Larger operations could run different shifts depending on whether the race was local, state or a national venue. Now with VoIP (voice over IP), SaaS (software as a service), virtualization etc., the doors have been opened to implement this functionality in a non-traditional way. Barack Obama’s successful presidential campaign did this by leveraging volunteers following time zones for their call bank function.

There are many options available ranging from simple tracking to providing autodialer functionality, funneling answering machines to an automated message while handing off a live call to an available agent. Many are internet based and the functionality is delivered via SaaS or using existing infrastructure; the call agents may be located anywhere. Of course, costs depend upon the level of functionality.

One example of is VoterFetch . The site specifically targets conservative and Republican campaigns. Another example is CallFire . Their ‘Cloud Call Center’ product targets a commercial audience, but could be effectively used for campaign purposes. Please remember, vendor sites mentioned in this post are used as examples only. Any products or services described should not be construed as an endorsement by ORS or me.

Consider the implications of implementing a virtual call bank for a grassroots campaign. Instead of leasing expensive office space and equipment to manage the call bank, small volunteer groups could meet at a Starbucks, Panera, local library meeting room or anywhere with internet access armed with only laptops and cell phones. Volunteers could also host small groups from their own homes on a rotating basis. Viola – instant phone bank. Individuals could also do the same from home, or virtually anywhere.

What is exciting about this technology is that any campaign, regardless of size or venue, can realize the benefits of a call bank without the need for a war chest to fund it.

Diminished Importance of Mainstream Media

(By John Burnley, Contributing Author to ORS)

Last time I discussed the importance of constituent engagement and how technological tools were beginning to transform the political campaign process. However, I also issued some warnings about utilizing these tools without purpose, strategy or gauging effectiveness. Whether social/new media tools like Facebook or other software, voice or video offerings etc. are implemented, mimicking other campaigns in their use of technology may not produce the desired results. Nevertheless, online campaign initiatives are beginning to take hold. There are more examples surfacing of candidates realizing the importance and relevance of embracing newer approaches to reach constituents, whether to pass information, solicit donations or promote volunteerism.

We are also seeing a shift in the way information is being delivered to the public. I recently ran across another example of social media being used to distribute political technology related content. According to the Facebook page “California governor’s race travels the information superhighway”, the Golden State’s 2010 gubernatorial race may be the most technologically based contest yet to be seen by the state. Candidates have been using Twitter, YouTube videos, Google search advertisements and other social media and online tools. One candidate even made his campaign official via Twitter.

The page also questions if alternate methods of information delivery will diminish the importance of traditional media such as radio and television. YouTube videos, as well as other online or social content delivery mechanisms can be used to respond more quickly to events than traditional media as well as go on the offensive against an opponent. While I’m not intrigued by a new wave of negative candidate bashing YouTube videos, this does allow a candidate the opportunity to respond quickly to comments, inaccurate claims etc. without the possibility of the content being edited or diluted down by traditional media or fighting to have the information delivered to the public at all.

There is no hint about any of the underlying strategies for tool utilization or determining effectiveness, but it does illustrate how campaigns are becoming more innovative in their attempts to reach constituents.

As with most political venues, funding for information and technology for the various candidates is across the board ranging from $17,000 – $900,000. In an economy where many grassroots candidates may struggle for financing, these numbers illustrate the importance that some high profile campaigns are placing on newer methods for constituent engagement. Seriously, Doug, raise your rates for ORS!

Twitter, an Incredible Search Engine

Well, we’ve done it again. Today we just launched another fantastic course on “Listening on Twitter.” For those of you that had tuned in last night to the Red Alert Hour you may have heard me say, “Twitter is one of the most powers search engines on the web.” In a world of Google, Yahoo and Bing you would think not much can compete. Well, if you search is news related or business/political anything Twitter may be the first place you want to stop.

Twitter is generating more content than any website I have ever seen. Okay. So maybe it’s not the original outlet of the content so it’s not really “generating” it but it is one of the most popular venues online to share this content. Seriously. Twitter had the following Google did it would blow Google out of the water in terms of searchability.

Why do I say that? Twitter has created the perfect search and share environment. It’s like a peer to peer content sharing site. Imagine LimeWire or Napster (back when it was free, years ago) but instead of music, pics and videos you are sharing links and information, legally . Furthermore, Twitter has provided a fantastic search mechanism, hashtags. I’m not going to explain hashtags because I’ve done that enough. But everything and anything is findable on Twitter.

All of that said (I noticed I say that a lot) here’s why this matters. Imagine the benefits of leveraging this tool to gather campaign intelligence. To understand what your listeners feel about issues. By leveraging Twitter you can move your campaign to the level it needs to be at to win your next election. Fortunately, there are applications that have been provided by third party developers that make listening on Twitter incredibly simple.

Find out more by subscribing to ORS, remember, it’s only $97 a quarter….for now.

Listening on Twitter

This course has been designed as a way to help you listen on Twitter.  Twitter has thousands of applications that do a variety of things but when it comes down to it, being able to listen clearly through the clutter is by far your most powerful tool.  Listening to Twitter can be a difficult task so we’ll take you through some tools that you can use to optimize your “listen-ability” while saving as much time as possible.  There are also certain programs out there you can use to aggregate the functionality of some of these tools.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

In Iowa Hogs Get Ear Marks

I’m as tired as you are of bills being laden with pork.  As you can imagine, the latest spending bill has made it through with,

…budget increases and more than 5,000 congressional pet projects

5000. Now, many argue that, “It’s our Representatives’ jobs to bring back as much money as they can to our states.”  Wrong.  It’s their job to lead and represent and make sound decisions for us based on the constitution and what’s right.   Well, Iowa’s own Leonard Boswell is highlighted in this piece as a real “winner”.

Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, secured $750,000 for the World Food Prize Foundation, which has undertaken a $29.8 million project to convert a century-old library in Des Moines into the Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates.

The federal money would go toward educational exhibits on Borlaug, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and his efforts to end world hunger, said Jane Slusark, a Boswell spokeswoman. “The World Food Prize’s Hall of Laureates will teach our children and grandchildren about the state’s deep rural roots and the great men and women who have contributed to feeding the world,” Boswell said..

Now I know it’s hard to poo poo such noble ideas such as honoring the man who is essentially responsible for saving billions of lives.  But Norman Borlaug will not be forgotten in the meantime as we face reality and dig out of a massive blizzard in Central Iowa…or the Global Cooling of the Iowa Economy.  And what do our neighbors think about Boswell’s “take” in this budget?  Ask the other 5223 ear mark winners and their collective $3.9 billion haul.  I’m too busy working hard to PRODUCE to ponder this right now.

It’s Finally HERE! Hyper-Local Targeting With TWITTER!

That’s right gang.  I actually have two announcements to make today.  First, this is officially the 200th blog post at OperationRedState.com and I think that’s pretty freaking sweet considering we started blogging just under a year ago (104 of which were content posted from yours truly).  As lame as that might seem, I’m pretty stoked about it.

More importantly though….We’ve noticed an incredible need out there and it’s not just in politics.  Messages can be refined over and over again, tweets can be sent time after time and you can even update your Facebook status daily.  That doesn’t mean the right people are receiving your message.  You could be missing all the right people.

I’m not a huge TV watcher and when I do I like to watch the commercials.  I watch the commercials because I like to count how many ads reached me that I really couldn’t care about.  So either I’m an anomaly in the stations’s viewership or some of these advertisers don’t have a clue.  I’m sure to some degree it’s a combination of the two.  What if you could send your message to a hyper-targeted population?  What if you just want to reach out to those in the public sector?  Or those just in Waukee, IA?  What if you wanted to send multiple custom messags to different fragments of your constituency so they hear and read the things that are most important to them?

Now you can!  ORS will be posting an awesome course in the next three weeks on Hyper-local targeting with Twitter.  By local I don’t ever restrict the definition to a geographic area.  When I say local I mean people that are local to a category, like, say, accountants.  Local meaning you are able to reach out at a very granular level.  No more of these 5,000 mile tweets where you’re basically throwing stuff at the wall hoping it sticks.

This course will be especially helpful to those of you running in smaller races from city council to school board to State Senator.  I’ve felt that our courses, though fully applicable to small races, have somewhat neglected these candidates because we were missing this piece.  The ability to localize your eCampaign.  So keep your eyes out this month because we’ll be sending an email out to the lot of you when the course is officially posted.

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