Utilizing the New Media :
Invite, Engage, Promote on Principle
By Engage the Nation Founder, Princella Smith
The world is continually shrinking, largely due to the internet. The internet is having an increasing effect on everyday life and on an international scale. So true is this that one can hardly imagine owning a business without having a website to brand it. Political campaigns are now at the mercy of blogs, internet rumors, and the success or failure of their e-campaign strategies.
Think of daily life. How often is the internet searched for information about the weather, latest news, best shopping deals, or general inquiries? It has literally consumed us.
NEW MEDIA
New media is defined by most as a term meant to encompass the emergence of digital, computerized, or networked information as a means of technological communication that surfaced in the latter part of the 20th century, i.e. the internet and all its appendages.
I have taught several classes on it for different entities, and many political activists have inquired about this new way to communicate.
My answer has been coined into three steps: Invite, Engage, and Promote on Principle.
Try to look at new media as an invigorating method of grassroots organizing. Many political activists have been the best at traditional forms of coordinating, but now there is an entirely new way to connect the activist ground game.
INVITE
For those of you who are involved in volunteerism, activism, or employment with a political cause, do you remember how you first got involved in politics?
I'll bet someone told you about an event or volunteer activity, or you saw an advertisement, campaign sign, or flyer.
In other words, you were invited.
My involvement in politics began in 2001 when I was invited to intern for then Arkansas Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller. The following summer, I interned for then Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
The internships encouraged me to dig deeper into political ideology.
Sure enough, I found that politics and public service were my passions. They still are to this day, and it all started with an invite!
Through new media, you can invite people to join a political movement.
At the very least, you can invite them to see what your political movement is all about.
The current national political environment is toxic for many partisan activists, but if we can use the mediums of great web sites and modern technology to promote good candidates, ideas, and events, we might be able to entice more people of various backgrounds into our political activities.
ENGAGE
People must have something to DO. This is an issue particularly prevalent among energetic new enthusiasts. They get invited into a movement, decide to join, and then feel stuck in a rut when there is seemingly nothing immediate for them to do.
What new media does is empower the "average Jill or Joe" to make their views known and have their voices heard.
One way that President Obama defeated Sen. McCain was that he mobilized the grassroots by empowering them through his web site.
He created Facebook-like applications on his web site. People were able to track him at rallies and attend. They were able to donate even at the smallest of levels.
They created their own blogs for him, promoted his agenda to their own e-mail lists, and were able to make their own mini sites on his site.
It gave them a sense of ownership, and so many people felt like they had a hand in his "change" that they attended his inauguration in droves.
In short, they felt engaged.
PROMOTE ON PRINCIPLE
This is the most important aspect of new media and any other form of grassroots activism. The number one force of power behind any movement is what you are pushing.
It's the product.
In the 2009 off-year election cycle, VA Governor, Bob McDonnell (Republican) was a stellar candidate who pushed his message as the prime the product. Normally, the candidates themselves are the product, and, although he turned out to be a more impressive candidate than Creigh Deeds, McDonnell took significant focus away from himself and directed it to policies that were important to Virginians such as jobs, transportation, and energy.
It caused an overwhelming response from Virginians who were then inspired to use new media to promote his message.
He won handily.
If political activists want to utilize new media to its capacity, we have to start by reaffirming our principles—not changing them.
We must not lose our identity.
Activists must use mediums like new media to push new ideas.
In a way, our elected officials and leaders need US to help lead THEM.
They need us to spread the word about new messages that they are pushing and even to come up with new ideas ourselves!
Again, this doesn't mean that we change our principles. It means that we use our principles as a basis upon which to develop new ideas.
For example, the issue of Social Security concerns me because many experts say that my generation won't have it! Why don't we push for personal Social Security Savings Accounts that are optional with workers given the choice of continuing to depend on the current system?
Why don't we use new media to push for a worker's right to a secret ballot, or to promote the abolition of the death tax?
Why don't we use new media to inform the American people that the $787 billion stimulus package passed in 2009 will cost future American families $30,000 each, and that we can't afford to throw more money into a dark hole?
This is why it's important to utilize new media. It's a tool. A mechanism. A vehicle for real change.
However, please remember that as popular as the new media is, not everyone uses the web. Good old-fashioned grassroots have not entirely been replaced. It is indeed the old-fashioned method of campaigning that is the baseline for a successful new media campaign.
Contact Engage the Nation to come and conduct a seminar near you. You'll see how we explain this and provide a better understanding of how to fuse new media and old-fashioned grassroots to Spread the Word.
[Please link "Spread the Word" to a page where we allow people to request us for Spread the Word seminars.]