K Street Cafe

Adfero Group’s Chris Battle recently wrote an article titled, “Why Washington doesn’t get new media ,” which was published in The Hill.  Check out an excerpt from the piece below, or read the full article here.

When I first started working in Washington, in the ’90s, websites were still a novelty — a bad novelty. The average congressional website was little more than an electronic pamphlet featuring the face of a member of Congress smiling out like a trial attorney airbrushed onto an interstate billboard.
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Last week, The Cato Institute placed a full page ad in many major newspapers with a statement that showed there is not full agreement among economists about Obama’s stimulus plan.

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. (more…)

Facebook for suits (The Economist)
In recent weeks, business-focused social networking Web sites have seen an increase in activity due primarily from the uneasiness regarding the financial markets.

YouTube Accord Eludes House (Roll Call)
The Senate’s recent approval of third party Web sites, such as YouTube, has left the House wanting a similar resolution.

Will Social Media Change the Political Process? Has It Already? (Social Media Explorer)
With over a third of Americans having watched a political video on the Internet, could the predictions that this years election will be the “Social Media Election” be true?