K Street Cafe

Will Social Media Help PR Weather the Storm? (PR Squared)
As everyone continues to feel effects in the aftermath of the bailout legislation’s passage, organizations can take advantage of social media as a cost-effective way to increase market share and keep their name out among consumers.

Twitter An Antidote to Election Day Voting Problems (Tech President)
Election day can be busy and chaotic for many reasons … Nancy Scola and Allison Fine examine how Twitter can help reduce some of the problems facing voters at the polls.

Google Has Changed Political Debate Forever (Read Write Web)
Marshall Kirkpatrick takes a look at Google’s tracking of search trends that occurred during the Vice Presidential debate and how these patterns of Internet usage demonstrate the fundamental shift in how voters engage in the political process.

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. READ MORE »

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. READ MORE »