Here Comes Social Advocacy

Online Advocacy Goes Public

Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D.

arosenblatt@americanprogressaction.org

Twitter: @CAPAction, @ProgressLeague, & @DrDigipol

Facebook.com/AmericanProgressAction

Facebook.com/DrDigipol

Progressleague.org

The way things were

Campaigns send email blast to activists (very few forward it)

Congress gets the email (but no

one knows for sure)

Activists send email to

Congress

Email is a closed communication loop

The way things are now

Congress can’t ignore because the world can

see!

Campaigns email activists & promote on social media

Activists send email to

Congress & msg via social media

Activists sent to email/petition page, twitter

petition, Facebook wall, etc.

Case Study: ENOUGH

Twitter Petitions

Anatomy of a Tweet

Hey @ChuckGrassley read our report on repealing #DADT (http://bit.ly/dadt) & vote FOR Defense Auth Bill. FYI @desmoinesdem @OneIowa #IA #p2

• Publicly targets Member of Congress• Trackable link to measure click throughs• Pushed to hashtag audiences

• Issue specific (#DADT)• State specific (#IA)• Ideological group (#p2)

•Alerts watchdogs• State blogger (@desmoinesdem)• State issue group (@OneIowa)

Understanding hashtags

Social media can reach the grassroots

Social media reaches influencers

• Traditional influencers• Press• Policy Professionals• Policymakers

• New influencers• State/issue bloggers, organizers, e-newsletter editors• Social network influencers

• Influencers extend & enhance your influence (trusted 3rd party validation)

- Across US, Europe, Australia, and Japan. WSJ 10/12/2009

Who do people trust?Among institutions, NGO’s most, but still lower than people

Size isn’t everything

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.

Growing your audience: Social means reciprocal

• Connect• Twitter: Follow• Facebook: Friend/Like

• Engage• Twitter: Retweet/Reply • Facebook: Like/Comment

• Recommend• Twitter: #FollowFriday (#FF), #ProgressiveTuesday,

#Women2Follow, #EcoMonday• Facebook: Share via Profile/Newsfeed

Monitoring social media

Managing Twitter & Facebook

Metrics of success

• Audience size• Audience engagement• Driving traffic to your website & email lists

Measuring audience growth: Twitter

Measuring audience growth: Facebook

Measuring influence

Measuring URL referrals

Here Comes Social Advocacy

Online Advocacy Goes Public

Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D.

arosenblatt@americanprogressaction.org

Twitter: @CAPAction, @ProgressLeague, & @DrDigipol

Facebook.com/AmericanProgressAction

Facebook.com/DrDigipol

Progressleague.org