YouTube’s New Search Stories

Wednesday YouTube launched their Search Stories videos similar to the one Google aired on a commercial during this years Super Bowl.  Search Stories allows you to use six search terms under seven or so categories to create some really cool videos.

If there hasn’t been much news about you or you don’t post anything online then this may not be very useful, but for those of you that are, check out our two samples below.  Pretty soon this type of stuff will get old so, we at Operation Red State would rather be the ones that killed it and enjoyed it while it’s still new .

Enjoy!

Analytics should run your eCampaign

I’m a metrics freak.  I love analytics.  Every tool I use has some sort of measurement figure that enables me to make good decisions that will have positive impacts and adapt to change.  Analytics SHOULD run your eCampaign, not gut feeling or perception.  The numbers are always right.

Let me give you an example.  As you saw from my last post, content distribution is insanely important.  The question is, where do you distribute your content?  What media outlets to you most aggressively send your press releases?  Is it based on that sites traffic demographics?  Is it based on their traffic count?  What is it based on?

Enough with the rhetorical questions.  It comes down to this.  It’s all, some and none of those.  The solution you’re looking for is the site that drives people to your site AND to the pages on your site that are most important for them to see.  We’ve heavily leveraged analytics in all our work.  In one of the campaigns we are working on, the results are astounding.  Of the three main competitors here are the monthly traffic levels:

Candidate 1:  From 1/20/2010 to 2/20/2010 they had 185 visits to their website.
Candidate 2:  From 1/20/2010 to 2/20/2010 they had 815 visits to their website.

Our Candidate: From 1/20/2010 to 2/20/2010 we had 1,610 visits to their website.

Recently we had a blog post on their site that received 218 unique visitors.  That one blog post had 18% more traffic than Candidate 1′s site.  How?  Effective distribution that was identified through rigorous analytics.  Our data was able to tell us what sites gave us the most referrals, which gave us the best referrals, which referred people to the pages we wanted them to view.  We can figure out anything and everything via analytics.  Whether it’s analytics on Facebook where we can independently measure click through rates or whether it’s on Twitter?  It doesn’t matter because we have the infrastructure built to handle analytics on everything we do.  Thanks to analytics, our candidate OWNS the eCampaign in his race.

The lesson here is this:  Don’t just trust your gut.  Don’t just trust perception.  Trust the numbers because they justify gut and perception.

How to win your race with technology

Today I’m talking to those of you that run in those statewide races that are won primarily on name recognition.  Races like Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of State, etc.  These are very important positions but are almost always over-shadowed by popular gubenatorial and congressional races.  They don’t spend nearly as much money and they don’t raise as much money either.  This makes it difficult to manage, especially in states like Iowa with 99 counties!

So the answer to winning is a combination of two things:

• Be competent and know what you’re talking about (people know a fool when they see one)
• Get your name out there

For most people the second is the more difficult of the two.  To do this there are three things you need to focus on to be successful in spreading your name.

1. Video:  You MUST leverage video.  Video is both highly searched and easy for any demographic to view.  Furthermore, we’ve given you EVERYTHING you need to produce better-quality video on our blog and you can do it everywhere you are.  I’ve been asked more than once, “Usually when I’m in front of groups I give my stump speech.  Which basically means if I record myself I’ll be recording the same thing over and over again.  So why do I need to record every event?”  The point is not to just hear what you have to say.  It’s to see the people listening to you.  See their reactions.  You shouldn’t ever upload your entire speech anyways more than once.  So take soundbites, create commercials, segment your videos into issue categories.  Use video.  At your events you or someone on your campaign should be walking around asking supporters why they are going to vote for you.  Ask “soon-to-be” supporters what matters most to them in your race.  Be creative.  Video is the top of the totem-pole and I have yet to see anyone fully leverage it.
2. Blogging:  Yes, I’m going to beat this dead horse into non-existence.  I love what we’ve done with Dave Funk’s campaign.  We didn’t design the site but have helped his campaign with content strategy.  If you go to his issues page you’ll see a list of 12 or so  important issues.  Now, obviously we don’t’ want pages and pages of positions on each issue.  No one wants to read that much.  So we’ve taken small excerpts that cover the general idea but links to a blog category.  So every time Dave blogs about Taxes and Spending, you can click on the issues page link for Taxes and Spending and see an archived list of EVERYTHING he’s ever blogged about on that topic.  It’s organized, and it gives everyone the level of content they want.  That’s step one.  Step two is to distribute your content effectively.  Sending it to the masses.  Your race may only be statewide but remember, in-bound links are important.  Publish your content on large networks.  We have targeted sites we use for Funk’s campaign and even the most obscure & bland posts get more than 50 clicks easy.  So create your content, organize your content and effectively distribute your content.
3. Email Marketing:  Go and get an effective email marketing tool.  Almost every demographic is using this tool.  This is equal to Facebook and Twitter in importance when you campaign.  This is a way to reach almost every demographic in one simple outlet.  Use a good email marketing system that allows you to customize your email blasts, automatically pull in your blog feed and allows you to build customized sign up forms for your website, Facebook and anywhere on the web.

These tools are key.  Just because you do them doesn’t guarantee you success, however, if you effectively leverage these three things and distribute them properly you are looking at unprecedented success in your campaign.  Remember, you need to create content, organize content and almost more importantly, effectively distribute content.

Build Your Own Video & Audio Production Studio and Portable Streaming Video Kit for Your Campaign

Part I – Audio

Your campaign should be using video and a lot of it. Campaign video can build a reputation and a defense against baseless attacks from the competition. Video also helps you build your brand. Just check out the latest stats from Comscore on Youtube and you’ll find that 33.2 billion video views occurred in 2009. That’s 100% growth between January ’09 and December ’09. Still not convinced? I’m guessing you agree with what I’ve said so far…but you just don’t know where to start.

I understand. It is overwhelming when you haven’t done video as a habit before. Let’s chisel away at your road blocks one at a time.  Today we’re going to look at the audio component.

Wireless Lapel or Lavalier Microphone:
Why use an external mic when my camera has one?  Bottom line..the mics built into camera are awful.  They do the trick if the subject is close enough but you can really raise your production bar by using an external mic.  Obviously this means your camera must be able to accept an external input.  Most Canon’s have a mic jack even at the low level.  MOST non-HD cheap camcorders today have eliminated the mic jack and the famous FLIP HD does NOT have a jack.  There is a place for Flip cams and we’ll talk about that when we release the video portion of this series. Flip UltraHD Camcorder, 120 Minutes (Black)

Why wireless? Here’s the super double bonus.  If you buy this wireless Shure lapel mic, you can also use it when you do your streaming of events using Ustream.tv or Livestream.com on the campaign trail.  You won’t have to rely on yucky mics built into computers or trying to patch into a sound system.  You simply plug the wireless mic base station right into the MIC JACK on the laptop and you’re good to go.  This works incredibly well.  Just be sure to bring a bunch of 9V batteries because the power pack you wear requires this size and it can eat batteries if you use it a lot.

Using a wireless lapel mic with your camera and during streaming will prevent issues like we saw in the beginning of this Mike Cox 2010 review I did.  These guys are smart and they know how to fix what’s going on there with the audio (watch for a couple minutes)…but you’ll get the idea.

This rugged and affordable Shure wireless mic system is really at the entry point of good equipment and I’ve found nothing else that matches its performance at any lower price.  There are cheaper options from what I’ve seen…but reports from many freelancers I’ve spoken with don’t bode well for them.

Shure Wireless Lavalier System PG14/PG185 – Wireless audio delivery system (At point of this posting price is $299 which it has been seemingly for a couple years now)

Email Marketing Is Alive and Well in Campaigning

We’ll be doing some courses on and bringing you interviews with email marketing company leaders soon. But interestingly I’ve had numerous people in the last week tell me that “Email Marketing is dead” and it’s all about social media. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’d counter that,

Bad email marketing is dead (but not gone) and good email marketing is still thriving…and growing.

Do a survey in your group of friends.  Ask them how they receive information and marketing.  You’ll find a sporadic “RSS Feed” answer but we’re still in the tiny minority on that one.  Email still rules the kingdom of Internet Marketing.  So when it comes to running for office you must engage early and put a good amount of focus on building quality lists of people who are engaged. Then give them what they’ve asked for.

Fire Your Campaign Manager

If you’re a candidate or campaign team ready to hire a campaign manager…or you’ve already hired one please take note:

If the first thing your Campaign Manager tells you to do is to get on Facebook and Twitter…show him/her the door.

Sounds odd coming from we tech centric uber geeks who live inside the Matrix eh?  Not really.  Here’s why.  Although Twitter and Facebook are obviously KEY tools in the overall campaign arsenal…they are merely part of a multivariate marketing equation that will drive you to victory.

When a campaign manager is obssessed with Twitter and Facebook first without having an overall content / web strategy…that means there are serious gaps in their approach.  Okay, maybe you don’t have to fire him/her…but absolutely call us and we’ll do a 2 day immersion camp that will blow their minds.   It will be a good save for you campaign manager and the best thing for your candidate.

Campaigns Need to CRUSH IT!

If you’re running a campaign as a candidate or staffer or simply contemplating your political fate…you MUST read Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk.  Sure this book is about cashing in on your own passion…but the book is a great guide to how YOU MUST be thinking with regard to your political brand.

We often say that the political scene isn’t much different from the business scene.  You’re trying to sell yourself, build a personal brand, build and organization that’s effective and connected.  If you’re smart you’re trying to create content and leverage new media to build online momentum…the list goes on.

You MUST read this book.

If you buy this book using the Amazon link below I’ll subtract the price of the book from your ORS quarterly subscription…not once but FOR LIFE so bring it on…and CRUSH IT! with me. Just email me or @ me (@operationred) and ask for a code and tell me, “I’M CRUSHING IT!” and you’ll get the discount.

What the Apple iPad Means For Politics and Campaigns

As Huffington Post Tech and Innovations Editor Jose Antonio Vargas says regarding Apple’s launch of the iPad device, “It’s the Content Stupid”.  The device itself is a pretty slick and relatively affordable content platform that campaigns should become hyper-familiar with.  Vargas hits it right on.  Here’s what the Operation Red State team sees for the iPad in Politics.

1. The iPad (and the iPhone/iTouch for the matter) are perfectly suited to have custom apps for field data gathering, door knocking, and polling. We haven’t seen much attention paid to this area of app development yet but it will come.  We want to see a google maps mashup that can assign door knocking grids to campaign staff/volunteers that allows for simple data point recovery in real-time like:  ”no one home”, “definite YES vote”, “definite NO vote”, “approximate talk time with voter”, “undecided” , etc.   Imagine sending out 5 volunteers to hit 5 grids in an evening, getting a 70% “at home” rate and knowing that of those 70% hits…that 65% said “definite YES”. ORS will build this if a campaign or campaigns fund it FYI.
2. The iPad is large enough for campaign operatives to engage people in the field and have them touch the screen to answer questions.
3. The iPad has an always on wireless data option that brings a nearly universal metro area connection for real time data transmission via the cloud back to campaign HQ.
4. The iPad is a convenient device to bring along to house party and other fundraisers for people to sign up for your updates…or more importantly CONTRIBUTE to your campaign.  Mobile optimized donation pages are a big plus and we don’t see too much of that on smart phones.

What other uses to do you see for the iPad in the coming years politically speaking?

Campaign Technology Leaders and Campaign Website Developers: This Post is For You

The ORS tech team strongly believes that candidates running for office should frequently put out compelling content (positions, opinions, refinement of position relative to challengers, getting to know you, etc.) Articles, press releases, blog posts (all about the same anymore) are a part of the equation for sure…but you must leverage video and audio.  If you’re using WordPress like we believe you should, here’s a recommendation that took a bit of nerding out to get right.

1. You must install the Blubrry PowerPress plugin for WordPress.  I won’t handle configuration of this plugin in this post but I’m telling you right now that this plugin makes the distribution and display of podcasts and video an absolute charm.
2. Create your video content and edit it into something meaningful if necessary.  STOP:  You will likely be in .MOV, .M4V or .WMV format here if you’re using iMovie or Windows Movie Maker (basic editing software choices). That’s OK in this plugin.  The player says “Supported Media Formats: mp3, m4a, ogg, wma, ra, mp4a, m4v, mp4v, mpg, asf, avi, wmv, flv, swf, mov, divx, 3gp, midi, wav, aa, pdf, torrent, m4b, m4r.”  So technically you can use just about any common video and audio file format and the player will just “work”.  I’ve not tested all the formats.
3. If a file format doesn’t work well or doesn’t work in all browsers (my gut says .wmv…that’s a windows media file) may not be the best choice for universal “workitude”) use a conversion software like Any Video Converter to turn your .wmv into something else like .mov or .m4v.
4. Here comes my favorite part.  If you want to distribute your audio and video casts to iTunes, PowerPress has that support all built in.  It will send your content off automatically once configured properly.  BUT if you’re using video you’ll want to convert your video into “iPod/iTouch/iPhone ready” format!  Any Video Converter software does this for you.  It creates a size and dimension of video that can be viewed on the phone.  If you don’t shrink your video accordingly you will get your video submitted and viewable on iTunes…but it can’t be taken mobile.  That’s a big difference. You want to be portable.

I will probably do a screen cast soon (available on our iTunes video cast feed here) showing the complete configuration of this plugin since it has taken some pretty serious time to get right.  I can only imagine how long this would take if you’re in the “I know how to check email” category as a candidate on a budget.

We try to make the technologically challenging a walk in the park as we show candidates and campaigns how to run for office.  If we can help you accelerate your efforts, please subscribe to our membership site or at least grab our free stuff to fuel your campaign technology efforts.
deo Converter iPhone Format Screen

Checklist for New Candidates

If you want to run a technologically savvy campaign and one that wins, we recommend you compare your actions to the following:

1. Buy your domain name(s) and get cheap hosting from godaddy.com
2. Build or have someone build you a graphically pleasing but inexpensive website using the hosted WordPress.org platform using a free or inexpensive template that has light graphical modifications.
3. Set up your social sharing accounts (twitter, facebook, etc.) if you don’t already have them.  (You should have been building your brand online all along but in smaller campaigns sometimes this isn’t the case).
4. Write at least 10 blog posts on various topics of interest in your race including statements on your key issues.
5. Make a “Why I’m running” video and an “About Me” video.

This is only the beginning and there are about 100 other steps but if you execute on these and want more help, read our blog, subscribe to our email news alerts/video tips and you’ll be well ahead of most of the field.

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