Des Moines Register Gets to Know Doug and Operation Red State

Thanks to Renda Lutz for asking me to share what we do here at Operation Red State with the Des Moines Register’s audience.  The picture shows off the home studio pretty nicely too.  The green screen is to the right there but you get the idea.

Here’s a sample from the piece:

Why did you create OperationRedState.com: The digital divide between conservatives and the opposition was palpable in 2008. This gap was boldly accentuated by President Obama’s hyper-strategic use of technology to develop “micro-constituencies” online. I wanted to passionately target a niche market with our membership web site platform and it hit me, “Why not deliver the same web strategy and new media execution we deliver to businesses…to conservative political candidates?”

The membership site allows us to create compelling content once and serve clients affordably throughout the nation. We actively provide web-execution services to campaigns as well.

The Operation Red State “Red Alert” Hour on Macsworldlive.com with Isaiah McGee

I was honored to fill in for a host on the MacsWorldLive.com Internet Radio Show platform here in Des Moines, Iowa.  I spent an hour with Isaiah McGee who’s running for Mayor of Waukee, Iowa.  Isaiah and I spent an hour talking about the community of Waukee and why he chose to run for Mayor.  We had a great time and I encourage you to listen to the program and see for yourself.

Isaiah is findable at @waukeeformcgee and @isaiahmcgee on Twitter and at www.facebook.com/waukeeformcgee

Top 10 Not So Popular social networking sites in 2009

Interesting post considering I’ve only heard of MeetUp.com from this list of the “not so popular social networking sites.”  We spend most of our time just writing about Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (not so much me), LinkedIn, and a few others that we forget about what I call, niche networks.

There are thousands of social networking sites out there.  It’s amazing, really.  As a politician you cannot just rely on a handful of major social media sites.  Yes, you need to use the big ones but this doesn’t mean you avoid the small ones.  Think like a business.  A cash cow is most likely to be in a niche market with a lot of barriers to competition.  In other words, you as a politician, need to identify what you niche markets are and OWN them.  Again, I don’t me own as in posess them, I mean own them by building the network around you or an idea that you support.

Niche networks have been the thing for a while now.  As a matter of fact these networks get incredibly targeted to things like, professional surfers, high school sports coaches, etc.  There has to be at least one niche network you can use to build a community.  Look at this list.  Again, I’ve never used any except MeetUp.com.  Maybe one of these is the way to go.  Your reach is limited but your influence can be more powerful and bleed into other networks as well because it’s very likely these users are on other networks.

Social media is not limited to just the big sites.  As a matter of fact, SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT LIMITED, PERIOD.  Rather, it’s limitless.  Go out there and aggresively find your constituents.  Find people that will believe in you.  Find pepole that will support and stand up for you.  Find people that will build your grassroots movement into a viral explosion on the web.

Here’s a cool link to a website that lists a TON of social networking sites.  This is a good place to start. http://www.go2web20.net/

Read the Top 10 article here:

http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/top-10-not-so-popular-social-networking-sites-in-2009

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10 Tips to Build Trust with Social Media | Kyle Lacy, Social Media – Indianapolis

We often forget what the true purpose of a social media following is.  It’s not to sell goods.  It’s not to get elected.  It’s not to make money.  It’s about being part of a community.  Going beyond the superficial into the real.  Here are ten social media tips courtesy of Kyle Lacy at KyleLacy.com.  Read them first here before moving on.

It’s important to realize that while some of these tips (which are really “do it or lose” recommendations) are specific to Twitter, they apply across the web.  Rules in one are generally rules in another.  There are a few more things I would recommend.

1. Look to Help & Look for Help: He alluded to this somewhat in his post but you need to always be looking for ways of helping others.  I give out tons of free advice.  I ask for tons of free advice.  Building your community is about serving your community AND letting your community serve you.  It’s all about the group!
2. Realize it’s not YOUR Community: I always say “build your community.”  I sure hope you don’t think I actually imply that you are to build a community that you own.  Your brand doesn’t belong to you.  If you think it does than your brand sucks.  You can build a community AROUND you but it never becomes yours.  If you find yourself thinking it is yours, well, you’ll realize again soon enough that it’s not because your community will start to die.
3. Reach Out to Newcomers: There are thousands of new people joining your social networking sites on a daily basis.  These people are scared.  These people don’t know what they are doing.  These people are lost.  They need your help and the best way of doing that is by showing them how to do it right.  If there are new Tweeple on Twitter that are following you, follow them back.  Help them stay involved.  I’m not saying you have to “auto-follow” every Tom, Dick, and Jane (I can never remember if those are the names or not, oh well) but I am saying you need to help them stay involved.  There is a reason 60% of all Twitter users quit after their first month.  They feel they can’t penetrate the twittersphere and give up.  You can’t build a community around yourself if you aren’t reaching out to bring more people in.
   

http://kylelacy.com/10-tips-to-build-trust-with-social-media

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The Dems Push Back with Social Media

To mark President Obama’s first 100 days as President he visited a small town in Missouri.  This just happens to also be where the Dems are making a second push with social media to win over the minds of the people.  Organize for America.  Sounds great, right?  No, this is just another Democrat grass roots movement that is being employed because of recent opposition.

USA Today put out on article today stating that Organize for America is using social media as a way to expand Obama support  nationwide through grass roots efforts.

So far they have held 11 community meetings and Patricia Justice, Ph.D student from St. Louis says “I have not seen something of this magnitude.”  The article’s author calls the movement  a “first-of-its-kind effort.”

Seriously?!  First of it’s kind?  You’ve seen nothing like it?  All because of 11 meetings and 600,000 supporters (they didn’t report how many of them were actual tax payers .  There largest meeting thus far had an entire 200 people attend.  Impressive. Especially compared to the 20,000 tea party protesters in St. Louis back on April 15th.

In all seriousness though, this movement is supposed to be grassroots.  There is no link to a Facebook page.  There is no link to a Twitter handle.  There is no link to a website.  There is nothing that shows a serious 21st century grassroots movement of any kind or the development of an online presence.

Grassroots movements in the 21st century encompass a powerhouse combination of social media and IRL (in real life) interaction.  It’s about creating a two-way conversation that can be held online or face to face.  The Tax Day tea parties are a perfect example even though the drive-by media is still somewhat unwilling to recognize its impact .  First, we know we made an impact otherwise the left wouldn’t be scrambling like they are.  Second, we haphazardly created this two-way conversation.  There were websites, Twitter pages, Facebook groups, and more, that were entirely devoted to this single event.  This naturally was picked up on the donkey blogs and drive-by media.  Through this we were able to reach out to even more support.  That is a grassroots movement at its best.  It may have started out as some haphazard movement online but it’s becoming increasingly popular for conservatives to participate online.  Now, it’s a strategy and one that will work.

Read more about the article here.

A Politician’s Pitfall on Twitter

I don’t do this very often but felt it necessary.  Starting now I’m going to be writing some posts on small things that a politician should not do unless they like self afflicted espionage on their campaigns.

Today’s social media political pitfall is regarding Twitter.  Those of you that are new to Twitter may have noticed or even followed the notorious @Secrettweet, @Secrettweet2, @Secrettweet3, and @Secrettweet4.  These accounts (I think all of them) are associated with SecretTweet.com.  This website is actually a pretty forward thinking concept that allows individuals to vent or share their most personal, deepest, darkets secrets.  A lot of people use it and you don’t even have to have a Twitter account.  Anyone can go onto their website and send a “secret tweet.”

I am in no way questioning the integrity of this website or it’s creators, but this is a website that NO politician should be using.  Go ahead and follow them, after all, some of the tweets are actually kind of funny.  While this website and its tweets are private you never know what could happen and considering we’re all human I’m sure there is a politician or two out there that has used it or considered posting something on it.  DON’T!  I know this seems like a pretty common sense thing but just wait until the first news story breaks out about a politician or public figure that decided to share he/she was smokin’ dope in the school yard and got caught through a secret tweet.

Listening to the Cloud

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the cloud at some point during your online explorations.  Well what is the cloud?  What does it mean to listen to the cloud?  How can the cloud help you?  The cloud is aggregated content from websites, blogs, rss feeds, and anything online.  Cloud computing software enables individuals to scan the content from the world wide web and use it to their advantage.

PR companies have been investing heavily in service clouds.  These are programs and tools used to scan the internet to listen to what people are saying.  I’m sure you all heard about the disastorously disgusting Dominos Pizza YouTube video that came out last week with two employees doing “weird” things to the pizza.  ABC news did a piece on it two nights ago  showing how Dominos reacted.  During this video they met with PR Consultant John Bell (I think that’s his name) and showed exactly what listening to the cloud can do for you.  Check out the video here and skip ahead to -1:06 in the video and see the analysis at work.

Listening to the cloud, or just listening online, is vital for your success as a politician.  You need to know what people are saying, who’s saying it, where they are saying it, and how people are responding to it.  If there not saying anything at all don’t think you’re safe, it just means you’ve failed because noone is talking about you.  There are a number tools out there you can use to listen to your online brand, some are done manaully through searches, others are done automatically through alerts, and others are comprehensive  aggregators.

If you’re still pretty new to this stuff just start out subscribing to Google alerts and blogs in your Google Reader or any other RSS reader you use.  You can even do it through your Microsoft Outlook.  This will take a little time to set up, but it does automate the process for you.  You can even look at doing it manually with searches at places like search.twitter.com or socialmention.com.

There will be more on this inside the ORS zone.  Subscribe now!

Here is a podcast from ORS’s Doug Mitchell @ ManageingTheEdge.com from 4/24 about listening on the web.

Managing the Edge – Listening on the Web

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (42.7MB)

Tax Day Teaparty Launch! Operation Red State Fires Stage 2 Booster Rockets

Last night, we opened the doors to the Operation Red State Interactive Learning Environment.  Everyone that attended our launch event last night at our studio had a chance to see our site in action, ask questions, log on and view the content, and get a peek at our free Special Report on Developing a Winning Online Campaign Strategy.

We spent an hour getting to know all our new friends and conservative leaders from around Des Moines, showed a few videos, and fielded some thoughtful and engaging questions from the crowd.

The event was a huge success and subscribers are streaming in now.  Take a look at this launch video that our Media Maestro Paul Gratton did for the opening.

Operation Red Ride for Conservatism

There is perhaps NO other event across the fruited plains that says “Grassroots Movement” like RAGBRAI.  For those of you unfamiliar, RAGBRAI is the “Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.”  Typically, 15k-20k of your closest friends ride, camp and eat their way across the great state of Iowa.  Well this year is different.  We won’t have Lance Armstrong again because he’s doing a slightly different ride this year called the Tour de France.

So in conjuntion with the launch of OperationRedState, we’re putting on Operation Red Ride to rally conservative citizens and Congresspeople to share ideas, build realtionships, and find new ways to connect with each other through technology.

Those of us on Operation Red Ride will be using the Twitter hashtag #ORS along with #RAGBRAI to show our support, organize, and communicate during the ride.  We’ll  also have a support van providing RED Gatorade for our grassroots troops at the Operation Red Ride headquarters in each overnight town.  Operation Red Ride jersey’s may be available as well if we get enough interest.

If you’d like to connect, please contact us directly at info@operationredstate.com.  Otherwise, until then, stay in the loop and subscribe to our email or RSS updates.

Thank you for supporting Operation Red Ride 2009.

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