K Street Cafe

In my column today in The Hill, I make the case that corporate government affairs offices should consider whether to engage policy debates online by establishing a blog:

At the very minimum, corporate government affairs offices and public affairs professionals need to seriously consider whether the organization they represent should engage in the conversation taking place online by creating a blog presence.

Discussions and debates about public policy issues are taking place all the time within the blogosphere — with or without your organization’s involvement. While the concept of blogging continues to be met with skepticism and reluctance at the C-Suite level, the D.C.-based offices of corporations and associations should nonetheless consider creating a blog as part of their overall communications and lobbying strategies.

Relatively few corporate government relations offices have waded into these waters. But those that do – when they do it well – can have a great impact. (more…)

Think tanks have long been known for producing serious policy research usually in the form of lengthy papers, charts or bound reports. With people on the go and consuming information at an extremely fast pace, however, it’s more challenging than ever to market this extensive research to key constituencies.

As I wrote Monday, think tanks need to adapt to the changing world of the web. I covered a textual way to have a greater impact through the use of better headlines. Now I want to share my experience at The Heritage Foundation with the use of video.

Back in November 2006, Heritage began actively using video to spread our policy message. Our first video upload to YouTube about the reasons we must win the war in Iraq became the model for more than 300 that we’ve produced since then. They are a critical way of spreading our research to Capitol Hill, journalists and conservative activists. (more…)

Senate Updates Web Rules to Allow YouTube Videos (Roll Call)
Due to a change in Senate chamber rules, senate offices can now embed Youtube videos and Flickr albums.

Social Mention Scours Through All Social Media Content (Rotor Blog)
Social media is jumping into the presidential election with a new event on Twitter which allows users to rate and score the presidential nominees.

Twitter Presidential Debates (Web Strategist)
With all the social media and networking sites available, companies and organizations now have a way to monitor how their message and customers are responding.

The New York Times Goes Social, Too (Rotor Blog)
The New York Times has started its own form of social networking with a program called TimesPeople. The program will allow users to share their favorite stories, make comments on blogs and post reviews of restaurants.

MyPRGenie Launches Version 2.0 and Adds Social Networking and Publicity Engine (Center Networks)
MyPRGenie, known for its free to low-cost services with press releases, has released a new version that helps organizations to manage their press releases and contacts, while allowing other users to discover and learn more about different topics.

The New Battleground (PR Week)
There is no doubt that presidential nominees are using digital media more than ever before in their campaigns, but how will these new forms change communications in the long term? Erica Lacono examines both the historical use of digital media in politics and where it could lead to in the future.

When I graduated from journalism school, I never envisioned being the editor of a think tank’s website. For nearly the past year, though, I’ve been overseeing Heritage.org. The experience has been interesting and educational — similar in some respects to running a news website and also challenging in its own unique ways.

My first few posts at K Street Café this week will examine the various ways think tanks can spread their message more effectively online.

I’d like to start at the top — literally. Writing a good headline or title can make a huge difference in the number of eyeballs on your research. (more…)

I’m cross-posting today to a blog I wrote the other day for Media Future Now about mainstream radio using streaming video.  (As if that makes any kind of sense.)

What amazed me is the power of interactivity actually realized by video coverage of the Democratic and Republic National Conventions last month.  I’ll simply refer for the immediate moment to coverage of KCRW radio in Santa Monica, reported on by Anne Eisenberg last week in the New York Times.  Eisenberg’s story in the Times ogled at 124,000 views of 67 convention clips shot by KCRW staffers the Democratic Convention last month in Denver. (more…)

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy (New York Times)
The invention of Facebook, Twitter and the like have created a way for people to both connect and foster relationships with more people than ever before.

Yoo-hoo, Young People: Carriers Add Social Net Hubs (Media Post)
AT&T and Verizon Wireless have announced plans to offer programs on their phone which connect users to all of their social networking accounts.

It’s Time for Brands to Embrace Text Messaging (Ad Age)
These days, people are using their cell phone for more things than just conversations and texting. This article examines why advertising and marketing should be keeping up with the latest technology trends.

Cross-posted on e.politics

A tough question came up in a conversation with a visiting group of Danish communications professionals last week — how do you actually measure the effectiveness of social media outreach? At that moment, the questioner seemed to be looking for some grand sweeping mechanism, but I think the reality is much more complicated: how you measure social media depends on what you’re trying to make it do.

Trying to Grab Hold of a Cloud

Here’s the problem: as with so much communications work, the effects of social media outreach can be quite diffuse. Say your advocacy campaign has a video on your issue out on YouTube — how do you measure the influence it has on the public mind? Some thing with that network of activists you’ve laboriously built up through Facebook — how do you find out how much good they’re actually doing you?

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The coming of age of the Millennial Generation, the first civic generation since the GI Generation (dubbed the Greatest by Tom Brokaw), is converging with the arrival of the most civic-friendly communication technologies we have ever seen. And with this convergence, American politics is being reshaped. That was the message delivered yesterday by Morley Winograd and Michael Hais at the Internet Advocacy Roundtable. The authors of Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube & the Future of American Politics provided some serious grist for the mill to the audience gathered at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Building on a rich body of research about political realignment in America, Hais and Winograd explained that a key driving force in realigning the political landscape is the arrival of new communications technology, and the coming of age of a new generation that embraces the technology and demands its incorporation into the political process. The rise of radio in the 1930’s and television in the 1960’s both reshaped politics in this country. And today, the rise of online social media is doing it once again. (more…)

An inaugural post is always hard lame odd. So I’ll spare you the James Stockdale introduction and just get to it.

One of the reasons you might be here at K Street Café is to get a better understanding of the power of the “network of networks” and tap into the new tactics of the old game.

Understanding the how and why of this new world is important.  So, with apologies to the Kennedy family, ask not what the internet can do for you, ask how it is changing the balance of power in the influence game.

To get a better understanding of how these emerging networks of linked citizens is changing that balance, my humble suggestion is to start by reading The Cluetrain Manifesto. It has long been required reading for bloggers, it’s time others glean from its lessons, too.

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