Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
Google+ Released Guide for Politicians and Candidates (Mashable)
The young social network recently released guidelines for politicians (as well as activists and campaigners) to help them promote their issues across the web. “The post highlights five ways politicians and campaigns can use Google+: to share content, express support, tailor content through circles, host hangouts and share photos.”
In #HackWeTrust – The House of Representatives Opens Its Doors to Transparency Through Technology (Sunlight Foundation)
Last week, the House of Representatives hosted a public discussion on ‘how to give the public better access to congressional information.’ Check out this post to learn all the ways that the House is working to ‘open itself up’ to the average citizen.
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party: How They Appear on the Web (Huffington Post)
Chris Holden uses social media analytics to compare and contrast how two very different movements – OWS and the Tea Party – are represented online. The results might surprise you!
“Time Shifting” Reinvents 2012 Voter Campaign Message Consumption (Business Insider)
A must-read for digital campaign strategists. The most important takeaways? Strike a balance between traditional and new media outreach, leverage SEO, and pay close attention to KPIs when it comes to website analytics.
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
Social Media in Congress Growing, Yields Limited Results (Daily Campus)
Despite the fact that Internet correspondence in Washington is growing rapidly, constituents are not communicating to their elected officials via social media as much as expected. “The only trouble with social media is that not everyone uses it,” Geoff Skelley, a scholar at the Univ. of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said. “Most of the people who follow members of Congress using social media tools are politically active individuals who do not exactly represent the typical voter.”
9 Tips for a Successful Facebook Presence (PR Daily)
Do you have custom tabs (and are you directing traffic to them?) Are you unintentionally ’spamming’ your fans? Are you optimizing your page for feedback? Find out how to make your Facebook page alluring to all users.
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
As Social Media Tastes Change, Can Campaigns Keep Up? (Campaigns & Elections)
When it comes to social media platforms, Katie LaPotin argues that Tumblr may be poised to overtake Twitter in popularity during the next election cycle. Will lawmakers be able to keep up with the change?
Google Cutting Knol, Wave, Other Fringe Projects (Forbes)
Among them: Google Bookmarks List, Google Friend Connect, Google Search Timeline & more.
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
New iPad App Hopes to Modernize Lawmaking on the Hill (techPresident)
Last Thursday, PopVox unveiled “MarkUp,” a new iPad app that enables Hill staffers to work on legislation ‘in virtual form.’ According to PopVox founder Marci Harris, ‘MarkUp delivers…[information] right into the hands of Members of Congress, who really want to know what their constituents have to say about pending bills.”
Are You Measuring the Right Social Media Metrics? (Econsultancy)
According to Econsultancy’s Chris Lake, “The key to measuring social media is to track all of the usual ‘hard’ metrics, but it’s also to step back and correlate performance against the major business key performance indicators.” Read more here.
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
Should OWS Switch to Online Enabled Guerrilla Actions? (e.politics)
Colin Delany argues that “[Occupy Wall Street's] occupation of physical spaces has attracted the movement worldwide notice, but its very success contains the seeds of its own decline, since the long-term encampments provide both authorities and criminals convenient targets.” Read through Delany’s thoughtful alternative to OWS’s current strategy.
Google+ Integrates with Social Media Brand Platforms (ClickZ)
Buddy Media, Context Optional, Hearsay Social, Hootsuite, Involver, and Vitrue have already partnered with Google+ to make it easier for brands to manage their content.
Cross-posted from e.politics
Originally posted on November 3, 2011
Do recent changes to Google and Facebook affect political and marketing communicators? Potentially a lot, so let’s take the sites in turn. First Google, which announced today that it’s making major changes to its search algorithms to update its main search index more frequently. Also, results pages for many queries will feature more recent content (including breaking news) over information that might have grown stale.
Overall, this change in emphasis is potentially really useful for users, particularly if Google can follow through on the idea of separating searches for evergreen content (“learning from Obama online campaign PDF“) from those for ephemeral content and recent news (“Herman Cain harassment suit“). One implication for political communicators: this emphasis on the new and the now gives us even more reason to jump on news stories quickly, since Google’s main search function should have a better chance of highlighting relevant recent content. Crank up those blogs and rapid response machines, kids: catch a news wave, and your words might spread far and wide. (more…)
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
3 In 5 Expect Candidates to Be on Facebook (All Facebook)
Check out this infographic by Digitas, which shows how social media users expect politicians to engage with them on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
40 Useful Tweets to Share with Your Followers (PR Daily)
It can be tricky to come up with fresh content on Twitter; read this post to learn how to offer something new and stay relevant to your followers.
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
The Keys to Mobile-Display Relevance (ClickZ)
If you are considering adding mobile to your advocacy strategy, make sure to read this article. The top three important factors to consider: location, creative and platform.
Infographic: How the Top 50 Nonprofits Do Social Media (PR Daily)
Check out this awesome infographic, created by Craig Newmark (of Craigslist fame.)
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
Sunlight Foundation Follows Lobbyist Tweets (POLITICO)
If you’re a lobbyist, there’s a good chance that Sunlight Foundation is watching you (on Twitter, that is.) Says Sunlight Foundation Gabriela Schneider: “This is a way for Americans and people online to see how certain lobbyists are wielding their influence.” Find out more about the nonpartisan org here.
The Technology Firsts in Ohio’s Issue 2 Campaign (techPresident)
techPresident’s Nick Judd: “Yesterday’s Ohio elections culminated an unprecedented online-driven issue campaign in which both sides honed online tools and tactics that in some cases they were using for the first time.” Those tactics included using social media to organize a march and the orchestration of massive conference calls.
