The Dems Push Back with Social Media

April 29, 2009 by Steve Schultz @GeniusbyOsmosis · Leave a Comment
Filed under: News

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.

Conservative Tea Parties from the Twitter-sphere & Facebook

March 7, 2009 by Steve Schultz @GeniusbyOsmosis · 1 Comment
Filed under: News, Social Media

It was just a while back I began seeing a plethora of fellow conservative tweeters calling for tea parties nationwide. While some have already occurred in locations like Chicago, D.C, and Denver there are still plans for a much grander tea party scheduled for Tax Day. How did this begin? Well, thank social media.

If you go to Hashtags.org or even just Twitter Search and search under #teaparty (#teaparties, #teapartys, #teaprty, #teapart, #teapartstream) you will see a number of Tweeters assisting in this movement. While many are attributing the “tea party revolution” to Santelli’s rant, these were being discussed even before then. There are Facebook groups popping up all over supporting the movement. You can actually go to www.taxdayteaparty.com and check out all the scheduled tea parties in your state. Some states aren’t quite there yet, like Iowa, but there is still plenty of time to locate the party nearest you or host one yourself.

Through these two social networks (Twitter & Facebook) they have been able to organize with sponsors like Michelle Malkin, Smart Girl Politics, #TCOT, and more. Without the tools social media provides this movement would have never had the opportunity to get this off the ground. They have received free publicity from a number of news networks, liberal/progressive bloggers have been ranting & raving “conspiracy theory,” and they’ve been able to leverage these tools to generate nationwide interest and participation. April 15th is more than a month away and you’ll see Texas already has six teaparties hosted and scheduled in different cities.

Conservatives have always been known as the “think tank” types that don’t rally & don’t protest. This only enhances the significance of the tea party movement. Conservatives are obviously sick and tired of pork, trillions of dollars of debt, and encouraging the entitlement culture. Granted, spending over the last 8 years hasn’t been much different. We had seen the largest expansion of government in our Nation’s history under President Bush.

While we don’t deny this fact, conservatives are not willing to continue this executive shopping spree for another 4 years under President Obama. We’re no longer willing to support our government’s rejection of fiscal responsibility.

The question was posed on Twitter just the other day, what if China calls our Nation’s debt? Quick to reply, one tweeter said, “Time to get the Lincoln bedroom ready for the big sellout.” Others said we could just change our country’s name to “The United States of America, powered by China.”

Again, while many liberal commentators have downplayed the results of the tea parties we’ve seen thus far, I’m quite sure that the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party will be one that can’t be ignored. Why you ask? Social Media. It’s what we’ve been blogging about all along. We’re past the days of radio ads, telemarketing, and television ads. While those have a purpose on the campaign trail social media represents action. TV, radio, & news represent reaction. We are finally using grassroots politics to change our Nation. Let Kirk Shinkle of US News know that this IS A NOBLE STAND!