Personal Democracy Forum 2008
Session: Making "ONFFline" magic: Converting online "friends" to on the ground activists (Skills track)
Note by Robin Barrett:
Social network = Online connection off offline community.
In the past people would connect online, but would do so using a pseudonym. But who were these people? What was their credibility? They were mostly anonymous.
But places like Frienster and Plaxo, and then later Facebook verified these individuals as real people, not anonymously.
Facebook has communications mechanisms in place that brings offline activities online, and online activities. offline.
Political organizations need to keep the hardcore activists busy by giving them meaningful tasks. In turn, they can help engage casual supporters that may sign up for a mailing list, or sign a petition. People to people reaching out to each other has a much stronger conversion rate than political organizations sending out bulk email.
Matt Ewing - Moveon
How can we get the word out? How do we do it quickly. We provide services. The more tools we provide, the better we will be able to convert them. The trade off of this multi-tier action is that you have to give them your trust and let them run with it. Getting rid of this central control closes the bottle neck.
Personal contact is a much more valuable way to convert people to your cause.
There are many tools in place that can track volunteers, and keep everyone updated in real time. "leaderboard" can leverage how many people made calls, recruiting, fund raising efforts. It helps motivate the volunteers.
People come back to a candidates website not because of the candidate, but because of the relationships they build with the other people they have met on the site.
They are much more likely to show up to an action with inclimate weather in order to not let down their buddies.
One can re purpose traditional canvassing using technology; emailing a pdf that can be transformed into a yard sign. Doing it this way offsets the expense as well.
In the past people would connect online, but would do so using a pseudonym. But who were these people? What was their credibility? They were mostly anonymous.
But places like Frienster and Plaxo, and then later Facebook verified these individuals as real people, not anonymously.
Facebook has communications mechanisms in place that brings offline activities online, and online activities. offline.
Political organizations need to keep the hardcore activists busy by giving them meaningful tasks. In turn, they can help engage casual supporters that may sign up for a mailing list, or sign a petition. People to people reaching out to each other has a much stronger conversion rate than political organizations sending out bulk email.
Matt Ewing - Moveon
How can we get the word out? How do we do it quickly. We provide services. The more tools we provide, the better we will be able to convert them. The trade off of this multi-tier action is that you have to give them your trust and let them run with it. Getting rid of this central control closes the bottle neck.
Personal contact is a much more valuable way to convert people to your cause.
There are many tools in place that can track volunteers, and keep everyone updated in real time. "leaderboard" can leverage how many people made calls, recruiting, fund raising efforts. It helps motivate the volunteers.
People come back to a candidates website not because of the candidate, but because of the relationships they build with the other people they have met on the site.
They are much more likely to show up to an action with inclimate weather in order to not let down their buddies.
One can re purpose traditional canvassing using technology; emailing a pdf that can be transformed into a yard sign. Doing it this way offsets the expense as well.
