(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Engaging Influencers with Twitter in the Age of Obama
Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D.
@CAPAction
@DrDigipol
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Do you?@BarackObama – 3.4 million followers
@WhiteHouse – 1.7 million followers
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
How can I get as many followers as Obama?
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Like this?
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Size isn’t everything
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Build an audience of influencers
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
People who influence down (to grassroots)
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
People who influence peers (to other influencers)
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
People who influence up (to policymakers)
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Make your lists of influencers to recruit
“mmmmm cookies”
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Recruit influencers who work in your key issues
Energy/ClimateJobs
Education
LGBT
National Security
Health Care
Faith & Public Policy
Work/Life Balance
Labor
Deficit
Race
Genocide
HousingTransparency
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Recruit influencers from key communication channels
Press
State Bloggers
Social Networkers
National BloggersE-Newsletter Editors
Policy Professionals
Online Organizers
Elected Officials
Govt Bureaucrats
Congressional Staff
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Build the relationship
• Follow them
• Retweet them
• @Reply them
• Add them to Twitter Lists
• Promote them individually and by list
• Send them useful information• Publicly if they don’t follow you• Privately if they do• Via email or other channels if necessary
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Our progressive state blogger network
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Invest in emerging influencers
Stan
Spring ’09: Stan received information from CAP via email &
web
June ’09: Stan joins Twitter
July ’09: Stan has 40 followers;
starts retweeting @CAPAction
Today, Stan over 400 followers & continues to share his influence
w/ @CAPAction & other CAP/Action Twitter channels
Value to CAP/Action increases
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Loyalty program for super-activists
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Influence in action: The right followers
10/09 @Katulis tweet from Afghanistan quoted in GlobalPost.com (117,000 readers).
12/09 Brian Katulis tweets about Afghanistan surge quoted in NYT by Helene Cooper.
11/09 @Katulis tweet about Afghanistan sent by The Atlantic’s Ambnder to WH Nat’l Sec. Council.
1.
3.
2.
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Influence in action: ARRA jobs map
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Influence in action: Denial of Hashtag (D’OH)
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Influence in action: COP15
• Twitter coverage of COP15• 4 CAP experts tweeted from COP15 (Light, Romm, Johnson, and Boggia)• 1 CAP expert tweeted from DC (Wong)• @CAPAction & @WonkRoom retweets/promotes products
• Results• 148 CAP/Action products promoted• 8,575 views of CAP website products• 1,400 followers added (incl 50+ energy/climate influencers)• Tweeters added to 198 Twitter Lists• Retweets audience reach: 100,000
(c) 2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund, All Rights Reserved | AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG | PROGRESS THROUGH ACTION
Engaging Influencers with Twitter in the Age of Obama
Questions?
Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D.
@CAPAction
@DrDigipol
