BOOK REVIEW: Constituent Relationship Management: The New Little Black Book in Politics

Wow. What a difference a week makes. As you might recall, I spent last Wednesday's post reviewing MoveOn.org's 50 Ways to Love Your Country, a handbook designed for political laypeople and would-be weekend activists everywhere. This week, I present: the polar opposite.

While MoveOn's book was great for energized citizens looking to begin their life as political activists, it lacked teeth when it came to actual, on-the-ground political tech strategy. That's where the the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet comes in. In their series of free reports (available here, naturally), they cater to exactly the opposite audience that MoveOn's book is designed for. These documents are for people who are interested in the inner workings of political and activist organizations, especially when it comes to technological impact. In other words, they're not what you might describe as "light reading".

The insider approach works well for the task at hand, though. While I lack the required organizing experience needed to understand some of the finer points the report tries to get at, I'm familiar enough with the general "state of the state" to appreciate the arguments on a macro level.

When it comes down to it, it seems that organizations and campaigns have two choices when it comes to constituent relationship management (CRM). They can either treat their targeted audience/volunteers as piece of a business plan or broadcast model, or they can use the tools available to identify and build actual working relationships with the most dedicated volunteers. Clearly, the IPDI document favors the second option, and sets out to provide strategies and examples of how new software can be leveraged into campaign success.

The one conclusion that I found disheartening was the realiities of use and acceptance of online CRM systems. The report basically concludes that the vast majority of political campaigns or organizations have very little incentive to switch to newer, more innovative CRM means. That leaves underdogs and fringe candidates as the typical ideal adopters. While this still leaves developers with a fertile proving ground, it would be nice to see what kinds of advances might be made in an arena that was less disposed to change resistance.

In the end, I have a feeling that I'm going to get very familiar with IPDI's reports in the weeks to come. I have two more on tap for class, and am eyeing a third that looks like interesting... leisure reading.

Jesus, I really am a grad student, no?

Political Video Tuesday: John.He.Is

As TechPresident's Joshua Levy pointed out yesterday, this next video is so meta, it hurts. And I love it.


I'm telling you, man. It's all about user-generated content. I mean, name the last memorable online political video or advertisement you saw that was paid for or developed by a campaign itself? The Mike Huckabee/Chuck Norris video comes to mind, I guess, but that was memorable precisely because it played upon the DIY/meme culture inherent to the Internet. Other than that, though, nothing comes to mind.

Certainly, people have tried. You might've seen "Hillary and the Band", Hillary Clinton's grab at the youth vote from a few weeks ago. It has all the hallmarks of what the kids like, right? Ironic Photoshopping! Rock and Roll! The Blogs! Right. It's about as inspiring and/or entertaining as it sounds. Witness:



Clearly, strategists and campaigns have witnessed the power of the Internet as a content delivery system. Why they haven't been able to replicate the success found by other, independent sources is a question whose answer is going to make someone very rich someday. My guess? It all goes back to authenticity. Commercialization be damned, the Internet is still a populist place. Netizens (*cringe*) have finely tuned bullshit meters, and can sniff out pandering from miles away. Huckabee's video worked because his campaign demonstrated familiarity with this fact and decided to play along. Clinton's video failed because hers didn't.

Social Network Update IV - Get Active

It's Monday, so that means it's time to check in with Barack Obama's progress in the world of social networking. Today, I figured we could take a look at how easy it is to get involved in offline campaign events using the tools and information found on each of the social network services. Since online organization is only as useful as its real-world effects, organizational power matters. As usual, we'll consider Facebook first.

FACEBOOK

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Facebook's two most popular Obama groups engage in some useful division of labor: "One Million Strong for Barack Obama" serves as the campaign's information repository, while the newer "I Endorse Barack Obama, and I'm Telling My Friends!" is more geared towards explicit calls to action. Naturally, this leads to different sorts of action opportunities found in each group.

Visitors to "One Million Strong..." will find, tucked among the seemingly endless rolls of links towards the official site, opportunities to engage in all of the volunteer actions found on Obama's own social network site. From phonebanking to donation matching, no form of help is left unrepresented or unsanctioned. In fact, that may be the one knock against this group's usefulness. All of the links found here point users towards Obama's own site, reducing the Facebook group to an unnecessary middleman. While this makes sense from a political organizing standpoint, offering some Facebook-exclusive opportunities would go a long way towards justifying the existence of this group past its use as an advertisement for Obama's (in this case) rival network.

Over at "I Endorse...", things are a little more grassroots-y. Instead of focusing on the volunteer opportunities already available on the official campaign site, "I Endorse..." is more concerned with Facebook-based activism and endorsement. To this end, they provide guidelines for Facebook messaging campaigns, create unique events for each Democratic primary contest, and offer state-specific door hangers and graphics that feature their endorsement message. While these efforts might not reach the same amount of people as the official campaign communications (EDIT: As of April, the membership numbers of the official group versus this one are close to the 10-to-1 range), they represent an interesting approach to delivering unique action opportunities. Say what you will about MoveOn.org, but their mobilization efforts are always worth talking about.

CARE2

Things on Care 2 are... not much different from things on Facebook, at least in regards to activism opportunities. Aside from linking to official campaign events, Care2's largest Obama group currently offer no organized activism opportunities on behalf of the candidate. Personally, I'm a little surprised by this, and wonder exactly why an active community like Care2 doesn't have a more energized, organized Obama fanbase. Is it something about the idealism that makes the idea of actual campaign politics unappealing? Or is it something about the candidate himself? Does anyone out there have any ideas?

Strategy Friday - Mo' Money, Mo' (Server) Problems for Obama.com?

For political candidates, demand is the name, and goal, of the game. However, as with any desireable thing, too much demand can leave campaigns scrambling to catch up. After surviving Super Tuesday, Barack Obama's campaign has done everything in its power to spin the stalemate into a victory. Whether that strategy works or not, the fact remains that voters seem to be taking even more notice of Illinois' junior senator. Yesterday, I wondered exactly how the Obama campaign might handle this increased interest/scrutiny.

Well, it turns out that, at least where the Internet is concerned, the answer is "not all that well, really".

After this week's strong turnout, I decided it was finally time to open up my wallet for the Obama campaign. I went to their website's donation page, and... was greeted by a message letting me know that, due to the unexpected surge of traffic after Super Tuesday, the Obama campaign's website was experiencing technical difficulties.

Huh.

What a terrible time for a breakdown. I'll head back when the site is back up, but I wonder how many casual donors might've been turned off. Probably not many, but it's still a problem worth addressing. Having a reliable Internet presence won't win you the nomination, but it certainly won't hurt.

The way I see it, the answer to this problem is one of two things. Either:

a) the campaign wasn't properly prepared for the post-Super Tuesday wave of supporters.

or

b) the campaign was prepared; the wave of supporters simply exceeded their expectations.

For the candidate's sake, I'm hoping for the last one. With nothing decided, everyone's looking forward to a protracted fight, and every dollar's going to count. Obama has a natural advantage in fundraising; he boasts more non-"maxed out" donors than Sen. Clinton all while outraising his competitors to the tune of $32 million in Jaunary alone. Now, if the Obama campaign can find a way to allow it apparently eager donors to actually, you know, fork over even more cash, the system will be operating as expected.

Super Tuesday Special - Putting the "Aware" Back in "Delaware"

By now, I'm sure you've all seen the results from yesterday's so-called "Super Duper Tuesday" primaries. For a day that was supposed to decide so much, things sure do seem to be pretty much where they started, at least on the Democratic side. Though the stalemate may be frustrating, yesterday's results satisfied me as soon as I heard the following sentence:

"CNN projects that Senator Barack Obama will win the Delaware primary".

At that moment, tucked in a booth at Bourbon, half-lit and shouting, rolling out of bed for a 5am drive up the northern slice of the Delmarva Peninsula seemed like a bargain price for the results that Wolf Blitzer was now sharing with the rest of the country.

To be fair, I'm not really that delusional. The five of us (myself, roommates Annette and Aaleeya, and ringleaders Gillian and JoJo) probably weren't terribly important pieces of Obama's plan to win Delaware. What we lacked in individual experience or significance, however, was bolstered by sheer numbers; there were many volunteers on the streets of Dover today, and all of the ones that I saw supported the same candidate.

We knocked on doors, mostly, in neighborhoods where kids from Georgetown wouldn't typically be found on Tuesday mornings. Or ever. Though we made our rounds early in the morning, everyone who answered greeted us with behavior that ranged from courtesy (at worst) to enthusiams (at best). Even though it was early, many had already voted.

Later in the day, we stood on the corners of busy intersections and waves the handmade signs we'd been provided back at campaign headquarters. Here, finally were the jeers that we'd been expecting all day. Once, an elderly lady rolled down her window and faked us out with a thumbs-up that turned quickly (and violently) downward as she passed in her car. Later, stopped at a long light, a bearded, ponytailed Harley cast-off and his (runner-up) trophy wife informed me that they were "Hillary people". When I asked if they might reconsider, he deadpanned a "Nope." before pulling away through the intersection.

We left earlier than we could've, after a day of Amish food and civic engagement. Most of us dozed on the way home, rousing as we neared the district in time to hear the radio reports of Obama's projected victory in Georgia. After the results started pouring in, it was off to Bourbon, where we celebrated victories and drowned sorrows in a crowd reminiscent of a March Madness game.

I'm not sure what last night means for the nomination. I do know that, whether getting out the vote in that nation's first state or reeling onto Wisconsin Ave. and shouting "I love Kansas!" after another Obama victory, I really did have the Super-est of Tuesdays.

BOOK REVIEW: MoveOn's 50 Way to Love Your Country

Sometimes, it's a shame that MoveOn.org's name is so instantly polarizing that it renders most non-partisan discussion of its relative merits impossible. Idealogies aside, there are a great many things that MoveOn advocates that are healthy for politics regardless of party affiliation. Chief among these agendas is MoveOn's support of bottom-up, people-centric political action. In the book MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country, contributors from across the country offer stories that read like two parts instruction manual, one part Chicken Soup for the Political Soul.

Most of the advice offered by the MoveOn members responsible for the book runs the gamut, ranging from common sense reminders to tactical strategies on a host of grassroots activities. Ever wanted to know the most effective way to get your letter to the editor published? They've got that covered. How about strategies for voter registration drives? They're in your corner. Most forms of grassroots action are covered in short, simple, easy to reference chapters, making field use possible and profitable.

When I started reading this book, I figured that, with some of the names changed and a few different case studies here and there, this book could easily be adapted to serve politically-minded individuals from both ends of the spectrum. However, the more I think about it, the more I feel that the problem of adaptation might go deeper than some surface changes. I often get the sense that the political makeup of the right might discourage the kind of grassroots, can-do activism that you see so often on the left.

I know there are lots of angry conservatives out there, but I don't see that anger poured into citizen-centered activity. Rather, conservative outcry is often funneled through institutions, such as the National Rifle Association or Focus on the Family. This trust in the establishment brought me back to George Lakoff's concept of the right's reliance on the stern father motif when it comes to political action. Does that sort of framework prevent the same kind of community action that we see from the left? Or, are conservatives just not yet frustrated enough to take action? Remember, it took an impeachment of a president and an illegal war to stir the Democrats into high-profile action. The unfortunate reality is that we may only see conservative organization as a response to the goals that progressives are currently working to achieve. I guess Hinduism has that part right: it's all just one big circle.

Political Video Tuesday: Yes, We Can

This is everywhere by now, but I'd feel like a bad supporter if I didn't link just one more time...



It's been a busy week around here, as my friends and I are trying to not so singlehandedly deliver the mid-Atlantic states to Barack Obama. We're in Delaware today (an experience which will get an entry all its own) and will spend the weekend working in the Potomac triangle of DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Plus, marvel as I resume my frightening trip into the world of online activism. BLAMMO!

For stories on all of that and more, keep on coming back.