K Street Cafe » myBO.com http://www.kstreetcafe.com News from the New K Street Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:26:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 The Challenge of Managing Obama’s Advocacy Organization http://www.kstreetcafe.com/the-challenge-of-managing-obamas-advocacy-organization/ http://www.kstreetcafe.com/the-challenge-of-managing-obamas-advocacy-organization/#comments Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:36:18 +0000 Jeff Mascott http://www.kstreetcafe.com/?p=781 In cased you missed it, David Plouffe, the manager of the Obama campaign, recently introduced Mitch Stewart as the Executive Director of Organizing for America in a video discussion of the future of the Obama grassroots organization. Now housed under a separate department of the DNC, the Obama Administration will use Organizing for American as an attempt to mobilize supporters to pass President Obama’s agenda in Congress.  
Click here to view the embedded video.
By all accounts, this has the potential to be as powerful of a force as it was during the election. The success of MyBarackObama.com is evidence that advocacy organizations of all stripes should not attempt to simply blast messages one way, but should engage with their members in multiple formats and encourage them to communicate with one another and organize themselves. In fact, some organizations whose members overlap could find that their members’ expectations will have increased after participating in Obama’s organization; people will want to be engaged and empowered, not just talked to.

However, it won’t likely be as smooth sailing as it was during the campaign. It’s much easier to try and organize around one single goal than it is to pass often complex pieces of legislation. Within the Obama community, there will be a number of disparate factions and interests that won’t always agree. Some “supporters” might even oppose certain goals of the Administration altogether.

Seven short months ago, when Obama came out in support of FISA during the campaign, more than 23,000 grassroots supporters joined the MyBarackObama group “Senator Obama Please Get FISA Right.”  As President, there is a real chance that his own grassroots community will box him in and keep him honest when he suggests or supports legislation that some in the community do not agree with. It’s sometimes hard to disagree with a small but very vocal few.

Take the universal healthcare debate, for example. The community includes different groups with their own unique perspective- doctors, seniors, attorneys, parents with young children, etc. Each group will have strong opinions on the specifics of any comprehensive plan.

Going forward, there is a real challenge for the Organizing for America team to manage the internal debates which could spin out of control. Advocacy organizations could even fuel the fire by encouraging their members to advocate the interests of narrow organizations.

It will be interesting to see how internal debates are managed and mediated and how the future of such an expansive, motivated organization plays out on a far more complicated playing field.

]]> http://www.kstreetcafe.com/the-challenge-of-managing-obamas-advocacy-organization/feed/ 2 Daily Specials http://www.kstreetcafe.com/daily-specials-48/ http://www.kstreetcafe.com/daily-specials-48/#comments Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:04:06 +0000 Heather Cote http://www.kstreetcafe.com/?p=659 Want to Figure Out Your Social Media ROI? Consider a Plan. (MarketingProfs Daily Fix)
Beth Harte suggests that marketing and PR professionals come up with a plan for measuring ROI in advance to show the value of social media tools and tactics.

President 2.0 (Newsweek)
Daniel Lyons and Daniel Stone weigh in on the future of President-Elect Obama’s grassroots network, predicting that any of the options will come with complicated legal difficulties and political ramifications.

]]> http://www.kstreetcafe.com/daily-specials-48/feed/ 1