The site even provided a comment box that  gave people the opportunity to write directly to their local papers without leaving the site. They encouraged users to utilize the talking points just for informational purposes. “Do not use these points verbatim,” the site read in bold. “Your letter must be original and should focus on your personal views and experiences.”

Well, not everyone listened carefully to the instructions.  Over the course of the next few days, newspapers across the country printed the talking points verbatim.  In all, 72 newspapers reprinted the exact words from the campaign Web site.

While you could argue that this is really the fault of a lazy press (some already have), it is certainly an example of successful messaging for any organization interested in advocacy.

Here’s what Organizing for America did right:

1) They provided clear information to help activists write their letters.

2) They made it as easy as possible to write letters to their local editors. You will lose a lot of people if they must actually find the newspaper email address and pen a separate letter. The site provided all of that information for them, and even included an internal email system that would send people’s letters directly into the email box of newspaper editors.

3) They coordinated the campaign with other social media outlets. President Obama’s Facebook page directed activists to the online form and encouraged them to write letters.

Here’s the list of sources where they get their numbers.

After reading the young Brit’s report, most of the information is obvious: Kids don’t read newspapers, boys play video games, and no one uses the yellow pages anymore. But his comments about Twitter are what are making headlines.

In his own words:

Facebook is popular as one can interact with friends on a wide scale. On the other hand, teenagers do not use twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realise that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). In addition, they realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their ‘tweets’ are pointless.

Coincidentally, I just left a fascinating panel discussion put on by Campus Progress in which blogger Latoya Peterson touched on this very thing: The under-21 crowd just isn’t into Twitter. But, she explained, people 23-35 are really into it. Go figure.

And if you think you’re not old, you’re fooling yourself. (But I’m only 23! you say)  To a 15-year-old, you may as well be knocking on death’s door.

Despite how relevant the boy’s comments are, they do leave us with a few questions to chew on: Is Twitter really the future? Is this kid just not with the times? Maybe he’ll grow into it? Has this child turned our world upside-down?

Discuss.

I visited AEI’s Web site a while back, and found a dated platform with no obvious plans to engage in social media outreach.

Imagine my surprise today when I received an email that proclaimed, “AEIOnline is now following you on Twitter!”

Say what?

I checked it out, and sure enough, there was AEI tweeting away. Even AEI’s President, Arthur Brooks, is firing off tweets from his own account. He’s using hashtags and everything!

Surely if they’re on Twitter, there’s a Facebook page floating around here, I thought.

Yup, AEI is on there too, and they’ve done a pretty good job putting it together. Although, since it’s AEI, it did give me the same feeling I get when my parents’ 60-year-old church friends send me friend requests.

I called over to AEI to see if they had hired a new media guru to handle all these new developments. I asked the woman who answered the phone if I could talk to the person who was directing their Web 2.0 projects, and dropped a couple new media terms.

“I don’t know anything about this FaceTwitter thing, do you have the right number?” she asked.

I was transferred to their press department and got the full scoop from one of their media directors. While she had her doubts, she said they were giving it a shot. According to their Web site, AEI has plans to produce online videos, podcasts, RSS feeds and offer new individualized user accounts. Will they have a blog? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Will this Washington dinosaur evolve into a social media bird, tweeting, tagging, hyperlinking and blogging? That is yet to be known.

But at least they’re dipping a toe into the water.

You’re next, Brookings.

If you’re like many organizations with a Facebook presence, you probably spent a day months (or years) ago carefully crafting your Facebook fan page to look like an institutionally approved multimedia brochure. Your blog’s RSS feed was automatically posting on the side panel; your YouTube videos were displayed handsomely in the center; and the description of your organization’s goals, policy positions and political philosophy were clear and brilliant. Anyone who clicked on your page was greeted with a clean, carefully crafted page.

Perhaps there were a few comments here and there, but not much of a discussion.

You were in control.

Then you woke up one morning last month and found that all your work had been turned upside down.

Facebook decided that it wanted to be “new.”

Now it’s back to the drawing board. Here are a few things you can do to make your page shine again:

The first thing you’ll notice is that your page looks a lot less like a brochure, and more like a discussion forum. Gasp! You’re no longer in control of how your page looks every minute of the day. In one fell swoop, the masses have taken power over the content and the look of your page.

Wisely adopting one of the cardinal rules of social media, (It’s not about you, it’s about them), Facebook made your page a hot bed of discussion and interactivity. While you can still post your policy papers, advocacy alerts, events and blog posts, your audience’s comments are now displayed front and center.

If you haven’t already, start by setting up an RSS feed that will automatically post your content to the page. This will allow a steady flow of content for your fans to digest and discuss. If you have more than one RSS feed, you can combine them all into one feed using Yahoo Pipes.

Now for the best part: The “status update” feature is by far the most effective way to engage your users. Facebook has made it so that this portion is included on your fans’ news feeds alongside their friends’ status updates. Facebook has also made it very easy for people to give feedback and comment on what you post, so this should be one of your most important tools on the new format.

At this time, there is no way to sync status updates with your Twitter feed, but maybe this is for the better. The last thing we need is for our news feeds to be clogged with robot tweets full of hashtags and ‘@’ signs that mean nothing to the Facebook community. So you’ll have to do it manually.

The main thing to keep in mind with the new format is that it craves information. If you don’t have fresh content flowing through your page on a constant basis, it’s going to look dated and dead very fast. Gone are the days when you can neglect your Facebook presence, because first-time visitors will now be greeted with irrelevant information.

Remember, New Facebook is needy, so give it love.

In the end, this is all for the better. It puts your fans in control and allows you to interact with them with a lot more ease. You’ll also be able to gauge your success much easier than before, based upon the amount of comments and “thumbs up” signs you get from people who like what you’ve posted.

So go back to that dusty Facebook page you haven’t touched in a while, and give it a cleaning.

After seeing how much traffic it can bring to your site, you’ll be glad you did.

For a few examples, check out The Heritage Foundation, The Center for American Progress or the Cato Institute. (If you are not a fan of these pages, Facebook will probably take you to the “Boxes” tab. Click on the “Wall” tabs to see how the page looks to fans.)

On their campaign Web site, the Chamber makes it incredibly easy for activists to rally around the cause by offering a simple form that users can fill out, which will send a letter that addresses the issue directly to their legislator.

But wait, there’s more!

Instead of the old “Thanks for submitting your letter — by the way can we have some money?” email that usually comes next, the Chamber takes their online campaign a step further on the social media ladder: Activists can create a personal avatar that you can tweak to match your physical features. (Think Nintendo Wii characters).

Once you have submitted your personal info and created your own avatar, the site directs you to a satellite image of the National Mall, where you will see thousands of “virtual protesters” marching on Washington. And look, there you are! You can also find yourself on a map of the country, and see more than 13,000 others who have signed onto the campaign.

So instead of taking that long bus ride to march on Washington, the Chamber of Commerce has found a fun way activists can get involved and still make their voices heard.

They also created a Facebook application that will show that you’ve taken a stance on the issue. This fulfills the most important rule of social media: Make it easy for people to tell their friends. People are far more likely to take up a cause if a friend makes them aware of it than if an institution makes the pitch.

The card check issue is just one part of the Chamber’s Vote for Business campaign, which incorporates social media to get the word out on lowering taxes, addressing energy policy, health care reform, transportation issues and more.

The ATLAS Economic Research Foundation’s Jason Talley will kick things off for New Media TV with a discussion about Facebook fan pages, Twitter and the social networking aspects of YouTube. Viewers will be able to discuss the video in a live chat on the site.

The presentation will begin today (Friday) at 3:00 pm EST and will be archived for future reference.

For Web 2.0 experts who want to appear on New Media TV, contact Nicole Williams at will...@spn.org.

But long before the ink was ever set to paper, thousands of people across the country had already seen the ad, and were commenting on it and sharing it with friends online.

By making the ad available to bloggers before it ran in the papers, Cato was able to generate a media buzz long before our main product even existed. Most of all, we gave bloggers the opportunity to scoop old media giants like The New York Times.

Here’s how to do it:

1) Start with well-known allies: When running a campaign, make a list of the bloggers you know are not only going to post your product, but will actively help spread the word.

2) Make your product available in a number of different forms: Not everyone likes a PDF, and not everyone fancies an embed code. Give bloggers the option. Send them the PDF, JPG and the embed code of your product so they can choose how they want to share it.

3) Lead by example: Be sure to post the product on your blog first. How’s it going to look if you’re asking all these bloggers to post something, and you haven’t even posted it yourself?

4) Engage your Twitter community: Be sure only to ask for retweets when necessary. In Cato’s case, we want to make sure people know that if we ask for retweets, it’s something very important.

5) If bloggers help you spread your message, thank them: In the blogosphere, the hyperlink is the highest form of gratitude. At Cato, I try to keep bloggers engaged by linking to them on Cato@Liberty every few days.

6) Follow up: Even if your campaign is nearly over, be sure to take advantage of the opportunity by making personal contact with bloggers who helped you along the way. If they live in the area, treat them like you would a mainstream reporter and take them to lunch. After all, they helped fight for your cause.

7) Create two versions of the product for both old and new media: For example, Cato created a special online version of the ad that bloggers can put on their own site during the stimulus debate. Any blogger can simply copy and paste the code found here by clicking on “Spread the word.”

By taking a few extra steps to engage bloggers, you will keep your campaign alive long after last week’s newspapers are crumpled up and thrown into the recycling bin.