DCI Group Public Affairs

In my childhood things were pretty basic, not simple just basic. I was thrilled at a new pair of sneakers because they were new. I could care less what store they came from or what label they brandished. I ate food because it tasted good.

Calories per serving, food coloring, saturated fat, polysorbate-80 went over my head like an unheard, invisible fly that no one could catch. I drank my blueberry-cherry slurpee and marveled that my tongue was the same color as my frozen drink of choice.

When you are a child you try things just because you can. You can turn anything around you into a passionate, new game that you want to win. You’re inspired by new sounds, emotions and life in general.

Fast forward to the present. My very adult resume says I am a graduate from an expensive New York art school, worked for some of the top companies in my field, and art directed beautiful campaigns with some very brilliant colleagues. And after 15 years of art directing, the basics from my childhood still very much apply to my being fulfilled and happy in the work that I do.

1. Here are my top 5 basic childhood things that I apply to design:
   1. Be fearless.
   2. If it does not look good it’s not.
   3. Use complimenting colors from the crayon box when you color.
   4. If you have a bad attitude no one will want to play with you.
   5. Collect things that you like and hang them up.

My inner child waves her hand frantically every time I begin a new assignment or discover a different way to communicate using art direction and design. She always challenges me to new games with new rules and cheers when I make mistakes that turn into good ideas. I like having her around.

A week from Sunday Washington D.C. will host the Nation’s Triathlon.  I’ve been a runner for quite a few years, but just recently got into triathlons this year.  When I came on board with DCI a few months ago one of the first things I heard about was the Magic Bullets – DCI’s running club.  Over the past three months I’ve come to meet the handful of people who participate in triathlons – which leads me to a week from Sunday.

On September 12^th amongst the thousands of participants will be several DCIers.  While we may not win the race, we each have our own personal goals for the day.   Of course the months leading up to the race have not been without friendly banter on who will have the top time amongst the group. At stake in this friendly competition is the All Imaginary All DCI Cup.

Good luck to all of those racing especially my co-workers: Scott Schmidt, Aaron Gardner, Daniel Combs, Paloma Zuleta, Kent Lassman, and Alyson O’Connell.  Stay tuned for updates on the competition and this year’s winner of the coveted All Imaginary All DCI Cup.

A 1980s hip-hop group called Whodini had a hit song called “Friends” The lyrics go like this – Friends how many of us have them?  Friends, the ones you can depend on?

Many of my peers in the public affairs industry are probably tired of hearing this, BUT relationships and friendships matter.   It’s true, right?  Particularly, in the sport of politics – - learning to leverage relationships is an important part of being successful.  To our clients and strategic allies, I’m the first to acknowledge that DCI Group is in the friends business.  Our recent recognition by the National Black Chamber of Commerce at their 18^th Annual Conference in Houston highlights just that.  Although, I cannot take credit for starting this relationship, I understand the need to have a friend in groups like NBCC.

We all have relationships that we’ve formed with folks from all political stripes – the question that I’d like for you to ask yourself is – how can you build on these relationships to support the public affairs issues you’re working on?   We’re all third party experts and should always be thinking of ways to connect the dots for the issues we’re working to promote.   I’d like to encourage you all to think of ways to bring new voices to the table for future issues and campaigns.  It’s always a challenge finding those authentic voices when we need them most, but my philosophy is simple, nurturing relationships over the long-term will be extremely helpful when you’re looking to engage the right voice at the right time.   That’s what friends are for, right?  Listen to the song by Whodini and they make the same point:  “Friends – how many of us have them? Friends, the ones you can depend on… “

How many can you depend on for your public affairs campaign?

I took part in an interesting conversation last week at a Department of State event called Celebrating our Caribbean Heritage. The session focused on using technology to organize Diasporas. It was part of a larger Department of State focus on working with Caribbean Diasporas, people who left their homes in the Caribbean and now live or have citizenship in the United States, to establish the kinds of public-private partnerships that can drive social and economic innovation.

I noticed what felt like a shared frustration among many of the participants. Young people spend too much time online. They stay inside and play video games, instead of going outside to play. They text each other at the dinner table. They are addicted to the technology.

This wasn’t just about young people: it was a fear that technology adoption and use will cause people and communities to lose each other and slowly fall apart.  This prospect can be an emotional one for organizations and nonprofits tasked with uniting people to solve problems in the country of their birth.

However, in the words of my fellow participant Dr. Raul Hinojosa, “technology isn’t an either-or. “ Mobile handsets and social media aren’t a replacement for in-person interaction. When used well, they enhance it and “strengthen cultural bonds more than ever.”

Dr. Hinojosa talked about using teleconferencing in some towns in Mexico to help people participate in the political process when they can’t go to meetings.  Tactics like these, he said, can meet the goals of real foreign policy by helping members of the Caribbean Diaspora connect to each other and facilitate innovation, and solve problems.

Katherine Kinzer, a program manager at International Youth Foundation, works with young people who have formed nonprofits or other organizations. International Youth Foundation uses real-world and online solutions to provide leadership training and access to resources.  Kinzer suggested that before organizations pick a tool or a platform to use, they should focus on developing a shared narrative and building relationships.

“Figure out what your piece of the story is and how it fits into the larger narrative,” Kinzer said. “How can we work together to share resources and reach others. The relationships are already there. How do you access them?”

This was the goal of last week’s event: be the spark that lights a thousand conversations in real world gathering places like the Department of State, around dinner tables, over text messages, and online. Then harness the power of those conversations in innovative and exciting new ways across the Caribbean and here in the United States. Count me in.

Ponder the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Typical digital video formats play at 30 frames per second. A frame is essentially a picture. By the same formula, a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. Video, this highly effective tool of communication, was for a long time monopolized by entities rich enough to buy TV advertising times and hire expensive production studios. As cameras, editing software, and online video sharing platforms become cheaper and more accessible everyday, it is now impossible to talk about the ubiquity of online videos in public affairs campaigns without sounding a little clichéd. Even the privilege of live broadcast has now proliferated to anybody who can afford a camera, a laptop and Internet access.

Live streaming, online distribution of video footages in real time, has been used in sporting events, concerts, political rallies and all types of conferences and interviews. Just one glance at www.ustream.tv, one of the leading providers of live streaming services, is enough to convince you that “having your own live show” is as mundane an affair as making an intercontinental phone call today. Compared to recorded videos, live shows offer viewers the unique sense of involvedness, simultaneity and interactivity. Also, live shows bypass the long turnaround time and high postproduction costs that are usually associated with producing recorded video.

Anybody can be trained to use the Ustream.tv interface within 30 minutes and the service is free. A less than $500 initial investment is all it takes to broadcast one’s life 24/7 like Jim Carry’s Truman Show. For Public Affairs companies though, the biggest challenge in running these low budget live streaming events is hardware compatibility. Unlike broadcasting from a studio or an office, Public Affairs campaigns happen in auditoriums, town halls, restaurants and even moving vehicles. Campaigns are highly dynamic environments. Equipment must be up and running at very short notice, but every venue has its own network and audio infrastructure. These highly variable local infrastructures are not always compatible with the equipment of the visiting crew. A joke among live streaming crews is that “every time we come to a job, the first thing we look for is where the nearest Radio Shack is”. This also means not everybody can be a live videographer for such campaigns without training in IT and audio equipment. Jargons like “Static IP” and “male 1/8 inch TRS” make ordinary employees shy away from doing live streaming in unfamiliar venues.

A commercially available robot, costing less than $200, may solve some of these the hardware compatibility problem. “Rovio” is the name given to a mobile webcam made by WowWee Group, a leading developer of consumer robotic technology. While it isn’t perfect, Rovio holds a lot of promise for the future of videography. At first glance, Rovio looks like an alien probe from a Sci-Fi movie or a Mars Rover launched by NASA. It has a pentagon shaped platform, mounting on three Omni-directional wheels. The camera is located on Rovio’s “neck,” a robotic arm that can extend from the pentagon platform. Rovio’s neck can perform pedestal and frontal tilt movements similar to a small tripod. The three Omni-directional wheels enable Rovio to perform what cinematographers consider as panoramic rotation and dolly action. Rovio has built-in microphones and speakers. It is remotely controlled through Wi-Fi signals.

Rovio’s built-in audio system means that live streaming no longer needs to draw audio feeds from the local sound mixer. Traditionally, video crews either have to bring their own microphones and mixers, which entails financial cost to the client and it takes a long time to set up; or they have to bring multiple cables and connectors hoping the local sound mixer will have a spare output and the right socket type. Built-in microphones in cameras are usually dismissed as an option, because these microphones have to stay very close to the sound source to capture good quality sound, while the camera operator usually stays at the back of the room. Rovio, given its small size and remote controllability, can get “close and personal” to the people speaking without blocking the live audience’s view of the speakers.

Traditionally, setting up an Internet connection for live streaming at a strange venue can be a daunting task. People without decent IT knowledge are ill equipped to run this type of live show. Most Public Affairs companies do not have a very large video department. Video specialists in these companies either have to travel constantly, or ask for bigger budgets to hire local crews. With Rovio, any employee, who does not have to be an IT and video expert, can just bring the robot to the venue and set it up with ease. He then calls up the video specialist at his corporate office and the video specialist will handle the rest remotely. A video specialist can run a show in DC in the morning and another show in LA by lunch without ever leaving his office in Chicago. Even running multiple shows at the same time becomes a possibility.

It has to be noted that Rovio has some obvious flaws. It is more a step in the right direction, rather than the ultimate solution. For example, live streaming through a Wi-Fi network is generally not advisable. Wi-Fi networks can barely produce the upload speed necessary for live video distribution and wireless connections are open to many types of interference. Another shortcoming is that Rovio’s viewer-end interface is not designed for massive distribution. Its current design is more suitable for small-scale videoconference. If the stream is embedded on a public facing website, Rovio’s streaming bandwidth may not support hundreds of viewers watching at the same time.

Nonetheless, the advent of Rovio shows that the Robotic Age of Public Affairs is a lot closer than most people would have guessed. This genre of technology is worth keeping an eye on. Wireless networks are getting faster and more robust everyday. Do not be surprised if your competitor brings a self-docking, free-roaming robot to their next pitching presentation.

This month Campaigns and Elections Magazine en Español asked me to write about new tools and applications for the political space.  The two types of tools that seem to generate a lot of interest when I travel to teach in Latin America are mobile applications and online, townhall-style tools that can enhance offline political events.

I focused on these two types of tools in my article because they combine traditional with technology-enhanced campaign tactics.

 For example, a mobile strategy that organizes supporters and drives them to take action can have great implications for geographical areas in which broadband penetration and personal computer use is low. They can be simply designed, easy-to-use, and affordable, depending upon the specifications and requirements. The Obama campaign showed how successful a text messaging campaign focused on connecting people to real-world activities (like volunteering, voting, and catching Obama on television) can be. Today, a mobile campaign can and in some cases should include applications that allow supporters to take a number of online and offline actions from anywhere in the world – all from one device.

Campaigns and tech start-ups have explored ways to recreate a traditional townhall experience online. The idea – gathering people on their own time and in their own homes or offices to address common issues – is a good one, but it has occasionally failed in execution. One of the things I look for in a potential townhall tool is its ability to tap into pre-existing networks and habits. Can it be used on the social media sites people already go to, or does it require a separate log-in? Does it tap into a pre-existing community environment in which participation can spread virally, from friend to friend?

You can read the whole article in Spanish here.

The English version is below.

Campaigns and Elections en Espanol
New Technologies in Political Campaigns
Julie Barko Germany

As citizens and voters use more sophisticated tools, from smart phones to social media, to communicate with each other, campaigns and politicians will continue to adapt those same tools to help meet their goals. This has certainly become the case with mobile applications designed to communicate with their supporters, organize advocacy, and fundraise. Political organizations have also started building and adapting different social media tools to create an online townhall experience online.

 What are some of these new applications and tools? How have politicians, political parties, and candidates used them successfully this year to engage voters, organize activists, and fundraise?

Mobile Tools and Applications

Applications designed for smart phones like the iPhone, Blackberry, and Droid help consumers do everything from picking a restaurant to reading news articles to planning a trip.  Now, politicos are building their own mobile applications to help meet the needs of their political parties and campaigns.

U.S. Representative Eric Cantor, the Minority Whip in the U.S. House of Representatives launched a mobile application for iPhone and Blackberry called WhipCast in October 2009. WhipCast delivers text, audio, image, and video updates to users, as well as Republican talking points, policy discussions, polling information, and floor schedule updates.

It was designed to inform and organize Republican Members of Congress, but it was also used by Republican supporters to stay informed and on message. While Cantor’s office can’t give us a definite number, we do know that the WhipCast application has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times by Republican supporters across the United States.

This June Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and entrepreneur  Jim McKelvey launched Square, a device that allows iPhones to accept credit card donations for non profits and political candidates. Just plug Square into your iPhone, and it turns into an instant fundraising device.

Square was launched at a political fundraising event for a political candidate named Tommy Sowers, who is a running as a Democratic Congressional Candidate in Missouri.

Depending upon how complex your mobile application is (and how many devices you want it to work with), a mobile application like WhipCast could cost from $15,000 to $30,000 to develop over a time period of a few months, depending upon your specifications and the vendor you select to develop the application. Simple iPhone apps could cost as little as $5,000 to develop – if you find the right developer and have the right expectations for what can be accomplished at a lower price point.

Before you begin designing and building a mobile application, consider your audience. WhipCast was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times by supporters. This interaction makes the costs of building those applications seem reasonable, especially compared to the large amount of people who downloaded them and took some kind of political or advocacy action using the applications. Both Cantor and the HRC are well-known entities with built-in audiences of people who can afford iPhones. Smaller political campaigns and organizations without that kind of following probably can’t expect the same results and might want to consider looking at different ways to incorporate mobile technology into their political communications and outreach efforts.

Online Townhalls

Politicos are no longer limited by the constraints and costs of holding real-world campaign events to help them reach and communicate with voters. Some elected officials, political parties, and candidates are using online townhall applications, combining video and text in a way that allows all voters to participate in the discussion – on their own time and in the comfort of their own homes. Some applications can even be applied to the policy-making process, as a way to engage voters in legislation.

Some of these services are free. Others cost a little bit of money to set up but often give the campaign more control over participation and data. The Obama White House used Google Moderator to manage its Open for Questions sessions with President Obama and other senior White House officials. Citizens could submit questions in video or text form and vote on which questions they wanted the president to answer.

In March 2010, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty chose Facebook Townhall. Pawlenty, whom many consider to be a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, answered constituent questions for 30 minutes during the townhall.

Another tool developed by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, called YouCut, uses similar concepts to engage voters in reducing the federal budget. YouCut allows users to vote by text message and online on spending cuts they want to see the House of Representatives enact.

The amount of interaction that collaborative tools like these produce can be an incredible asset for political organizations by raising their legitimacy and giving them a platform to hear directly from voters. Since different townhall tools are available at different price points, cost is not necessarily a disabling factor.

However, if you’re considering this approach, plan to focus some of your resources and energy on promoting your tool and recruiting users. Begin planning your outreach strategy early in the process, and continue to build momentum after the lunch by cross-promoting your townhall tool online, in the media, at political events, and through traditional mediums. Remember, no tool or application is so great that it exceeds the value that your supporters and voters will bring to your organization if you engage them in your campaign or issues.

How would your target audience rate your site?  It’s not a question often considered by grassroots organizations or coalitions when building a website.  The question usually drifts even further out of mind once the website is up and running for some time.   Rather than continuing to publish content and find ways to put it up on the website, it is beneficial to step back from time-to-time and ask how your target audience – your customers – would rate your site.

Last week, ForeSee released its Annual E-Business Report for the American Customer Satisfaction Index.  This was the first time social media sites were listed on the index, and somewhat surprisingly, their showing was quite poor.   For the size of the market share and influence online, Facebook and MySpace both had very poor customer satisfaction ratings.   However, despite the poor rating, customers clearly continue to frequent these sites: “Customers are willing to suffer through a poor experience in return for the benefits Facebook provides.”    ForeSee goes on to note, “usually customer satisfaction is intertwined with market success.  The few exceptions to this rule are operating in a sphere where there are no standouts, so the bar is low.”

While Facebook and a handful of other sites may be able to maintain, even grow, their customer base without taking into account user experience this is the exception rather than the rule.  When building a grassroots advocacy or coalition site, it is important to take a few moments to think through the user experience.  While advocacy sites are often short –term microsite sites based on a specific issue, it doesn’t mean user experience should be an afterthought.  Review your content plans and site map from the perspectives of your target audience; take into account the different interaction scenarios.  Any website, regardless of the lifespan, is an opportunity to build a brand and engage visitors.

News and information sites fared much better than social media sites in Foresee’s annual report.  Fox News debuted at the top slot in the category, thanks in part to their “distinct, loyal audience, which usually correlates with higher satisfaction.”   Foresee also noted that Fox News’ customers “rel[ied] much more on FoxNews.com as their primary source of news compared to visitors of other sites and news sources (who tended to rely on multiple sources).”  Findings in the annual report also point to customer satisfaction being hurt by websites “trying to be too many things to too many people.”

Grassroots organizations and coalitions often focus their websites on a specific issue and are looking to reach a target audience.  As a part of building a website, it is important to note this target audience and work to make the site relevant to them.  Rather than trying to ensure content is posted on the site, it is of greater benefit to ensure the content posted is relevant to the target audience.  Understanding the target audience of the website provides the framework for content, tools and widgets when building a site.  It also provides a guide to development and content updates throughout the course of the campaign.

Four Things to Consider for Your Site:

1. Who is your target audience?
   Before launching a website, take a few minutes to determine a clear picture of the target audience and possible secondary audiences.  Go beyond “media” or the “public” and delve into specifically which media and who in the public.  Don’t fall victim to trying to reach everyone, focus on reaching the audience which is central to your issue or goals.  Remember to keep the target audience as a central focus throughout the campaign.  Continue to assess if the target audience has changed based on the goals and if the content and messages of the site are geared to reach this audience.
2. Why should your target audience be interested in your site?
   Simply creating a website and putting it out there for the world to see will not guarantee you any web traffic let alone the right web traffic.  Take a moment to answer the “why” of your website.  Clearly define why your target audience is interested in your site; what messages, content, tools or information does your site provide that is of interest to them.   Most importantly, when new content or tools are being considered for your site, ask “why would our target audience be interested in this?”  If you can’t answer this question, then they probably won’t be interested.
3. What one message do you want your audience to take away from the website?
   The average web page is viewed for 55 seconds, making it crucial for your key messages to be clear and forefront on your site.  Pinpoint the one key message you want the audience to teak away from your site.  Then focus your site structure and content to ensure this message is at the forefront.  Think of this message like your front page headline, and don’t burry it on page 6 – keep it on the front page.  Updates to content and structure should be done in consideration of what the key message is, and ensure that message is still clear to your target audience.
4. Are you looking to inform your audience or have them take action?
   Don’t just say both.  It is possible to have both as a goal of the site, but truly consider what you are looking for from your audience.   Information and action goals are not mutually exclusive choices.

Also be sure to consider what the campaign may look like three or six-months down the road.  The first few months may be spent trying to raise awareness and inform your target audience while the next few months may be focused on sending letters or signing a petition.  Determine what potential needs may be upfront to prevent having to hand-jam the content on the site down the road.

After determining whether your site is seeking to provide information or incite action, develop your structure and content to support the goal.  Make the central purpose the easiest to access and find on your site.

Would your site make the grade?  Share some sites which you think deserve an ‘A’ for customer satisfaction and those that fall far short of passing.

The last week of July was a busy time for online advocacy conferences on both the left and the right.  Netroots Nation, the largest gathering of progressive online activists, and Right Online, a newer conference (founded by three years ago by Erik Telford to train the rightroots), occurred on the same weekend in Las Vegas.

As a nonpartisan person who has worked with individuals and groups from both sides of the aisle, I had the opportunity to absorb new ideas and people at each conference with an open mind.  Part of that experience involved speaking on a panel called What’s Next: Emerging Trends and Tools at Right Online.

Instead of outlining new companies and applications that will inevitably become so last week, I wanted to walk the audience through some of the factors that I look for before I adopt a new tool, application, or website for our clients here at DCI Group. I look for new tools that:

Connect online relationships, interests, and activism to the offline world (and vice versa). I never underestimate the importance of real relationships in driving action. For some, the more important relationships are those we develop in the real world. For others, the kinds of relationships that develop over all-night multi-player gaming sessions on World of Warcraft might be just as real. I want tools that help activists use the kinds of positive peer pressure that develop from those relationships to persuade their friends to take an action, similar to the way that Obama supporters used the campaign’s My Barack Obama application during the 2008 campaign.

Decentralize/distribute the role of the leader. I want tools that enable supporters to, “be their own generals,” in the words of Nate Wilcox and Lowell Feld, authors of the 2008 book Netroots Rising.  Last year researchers at the University of Cambridge used mathematical models to look at swarming behavior – the kind of situation that may occur during a successful protest or online movement. Their research has helped them identify two new characteristics of effective leadership. The first and most applicable characteristic is the ability to distribute the role of the leader to as many followers as possible. MIT Tech Review blogged about their findings in July 2009.

Move an issue organization from just informing people to engaging them in activism. Many organizations are good at using new tools as part of the messaging process to push out talking points and headlines to a target audience.  We can achieve a much bigger impact when we use those same channels and relationships to generate activity and engagement in our issues.

Break through the filters we are building around ourselves.  A few weeks ago on the DCI Group blog I wrote about a phenomenon called “email apnea” and the practice we all seem to be engaging in of deleting, blocking, avoiding, or flagging unwanted messages as spam. As we struggle in an online and offline environment in which we are constantly interrupted and wired to multiple communications mediums 20 hours a day, many of us have started to develop techniques that filter the noise, including unwanted, unnecessary, unexpected, faceless, impersonal communications. What new tools can help us reach people in ways that email or Twitter perhaps cannot?

Aren’t limited to one website, social network or device but can be taken everywhere.  I’m very skeptical of new tools or applications that limit users to one website or anchor them to one device, like a desktop computer or mobile phone. I’m more interested in new tools and applications that can be used across multiple channels and on many devices to connect people to each other, as well as to news, information, and potential advocacy opportunities.

With these factors in mind, some of the new things I’ve been playing around with (or want to play around with) when developing tactics for our clients include:

• Layar, an augmented reality browser that uses your mobile phone’s camera, GPS, and compass to identify your location and retrieve data about it.  We are using it now to build an iPhone app for one of our clients that will allow activists to tag the physical location of their MOC’s congressional office with a message.
• TwittARound, which allows you to see live tweets pop up on your iPhone based on location. 
• Augmented ID , developed by Swedish software company TAT, is a facial-recognition technology that pulls data points from a user’s social networking profile. Users create a profile. When other People hold their phones to you, they can see the data you’ve associated with yourself, drawn from your business card, Facebook profile, Slideshare presentations, etc. (watch a clip)
• Kimbia , an online fundraising tool that helps your supporters create their own donation pages and post them anywhere – on their blog, website, Facebook profile, etc.
• Meeting platforms from Facebook Townhall, Google Moderator, Microsoft Townhall, and Meetup Everywhere all allow you to set up your own online townhall programs, and in the case of Meetup Everywhere, help people organize their own events for your issue or organization all over the country.
• Codeathons, real world events that non-profits and advocacy groups have been holding to harness the collective power of the developer community towards solving a common problem or goal. Sunlight Foundation holds Apps for America contests with cash prizes. Last year’s winners included Filibusted.us, which tracks Senators who block legislation, and Legistalker, which trackers online activity of Congressional Members.
• Square, a tool launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and entrepreneur Jim McKelvey that allows iPhones to accept credit card donations for non profits and political candidates. Just plug Square into your iPhone, and it turns into an instant fundraising device. Square was launched at a political fundraising event for a political candidate named Tommy Sowers, who is a running as a Democratic Congressional Candidate in Missouri. 

The most important new tools and tactics aren’t necessarily the trendiest. Rather, they help our clients meet real goals, enhance resources and capabilities (instead of draining them), and enable supporters to become activism leaders. A little less emphasis on flash, a little more emphasis on function.

You can teach anyone to use a social media platform like Twitter, but if she doesn’t connect with real people immediately and at every log in, then I don’t expect her to continue using it for very long.

Moses Ma wrote about this for Psychology Today in March 2009:

Twitter aims primarily at social needs, like those for belonging, love, and affection. Relationships such as friendships, romantic attachments and families help fulfill this need for companionship and acceptance, as does involvement in social, community or religious groups. Clearly, feeling connected to people via Twitter helps to fulfill some of this need to belong and feel cared about.

As I posted a few months ago, nobody goes online to get pounded with ads.  There is that desire to connect with us, and I will add a need to stay informed that drive us back to a social media site. We don’t want to talk to brands. We want to talk to people, but doing so can blur lines between “brand” and “individual,” or “professional” and “personal.” Some people or organizations are very uncomfortable combining these worlds. Sometimes a strictly personal approach doesn’t seem to fit the issue. 

At a panel called Beyond the Tweet at last week’s Netroots Nation, new media operative Tracy Viselli argued for the importance of implementing an element of the personal on campaign and advocacy Twitter streams:

People respond to candidates that are personable. It’s good to give out bits of personality because that is what people respond to. Claire McCaskill on Twitter feels very personal. For issue initiatives, you still need a personality or a group of personalities. Identify the people that are going to be tweeting for an organization or effort.  People identify the personality or voice that comes through that account. That’s what people respond to.

Amongst the attendees, Cynthia Samuels, a blogger and Managing Editor at Care2 Causes whose previous career was in broadcast TV, compared this kind of relationship to the world of broadcast news. “The broadcast anchor determines the audience,” she said during the question and answer period. “It’s the person the audience builds a relationship with,” not, I would add, with the broadcasting entity or the program.

What can you do if you are hesitant to personalize the Twitter stream of your organization but still want to build a following? Viselli and her fellow speakers Jim Gilliam and Nate Thomas discussed a few tactics at their session. I’ve added a few of my own.

• Before you begin, decide who will tweet, what kind of voice to use, and how much that person can interact with other users on Twitter.
• Consider possible “human” voices for your organization or issue, like the main spokesperson, campaign manager, or other personalities.
• Set realistic expectations about results for your Twitter profile. For example, you can’t measure who reads a tweet, but you can use some Twitter clients, like Hootsuite, to get a sense of who has clicked on a link in your tweet.
• Listen to what people are saying about your issue or organization. Then target people who are influencers and can help you spread your message.
• Look for moments when you can take advantage of the situation – somebody says or does something that you can immediately react to.
• Give your followers an action at the very moment they are impassioned that empowers them and shows them how one action and snowball and spread virally to make a huge impact.

Finally, look at some of the suggestions of one of DCI Group’s resident social media experts, Sarah Hoffman, posted a few weeks ago on using social tools for advocacy 

Ambassador Blackwill’s opinion piece on U.S. policy in Afghanistan, “America must give the south to the Taliban” was featured in Financial Times.  Read the complete article on the Finanical Times (registration required).