Conservatives have finally caught up to moveon.org and the left and surpassed them in their use of the new online media. Twitter, youtube, facebook, social networking sites, etc.
There is a new conservative movement sweeping the country, and it is taking place in technology. As the entire internet moves toward social networking sites and interactive media, transitioning to the Web 2.0 next generation of the internet, conservative activists are riding the crest. Frustrated by the Left`s success at mobilizing activists through moveon.org and other left-leaning internet savvy organizations, the Right is aggressively catching up. Web 2.0 is the new way of communicating on the internet in real time with others using applications and technologies like blogging, Facebook, Twitter, podcasting, social bookmarking sites, and wikis.
Led by a younger generation of conservative tech-activists including the Sam Adams Alliance, Eric Odom and others, and embraced by edgy grassroots conservative organizations such as Americans for Prosperity, the movement has christened itself #dontgo. The pound sign is a reference to the Twitter moniker for a group channel, and the name was conceived as a reaction to moveon.org. This new wave of conservative internet media activists are not the geeky computer types. Now that computers have become mainstream, political activists under age 40 find using the new media to be as routine as driving a car. Julie Banderas, a gorgeous broadcaster on Fox News, touts her Twitter channel, twitter.com/juliebanderas, on every show.
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Rachel,
These are great starts, but there is a really important challenge that will need to be overcome before any of these social media tools have a lasting effect. Thinking of social media as simply another channel to push messaging to a constituency works, but it's no better than traditional forms. I still read Karl Rove's Op Ed pieces in the WSJ, regardless of whether he's tweeted about them (and I suspect his other 9000 followers are of a similar ilk.)
The lesson here is that the underlying models of constituency engagement need to change along with the tools. The fact is that social media really should be thought of as “a collaborative engagement platform.” While that may seem obvious, or a trivial label, it’s an important distinction. Collaborative engagement platforms have the power to truly transform the way organizations operate.
There's a parallel with business adoption of Enterprise 2.0 (the made-up label for Web 2.0 in the boardroom). When you can leverage user controlled/contributed content in a collaborative decision-making fashion you enable a productivity boost amongst traditional knowledge workers that is akin to robotic automation of traditional manual labor.
The problem is that operating models in nearly every organization are based on a post-industrial revolution command/control structure and haven’t changed in the last 100 years. Sadly, most efforts aimed at leveraging the great platform components you’ve described here try to do so in these outmoded operating models (imagine a monthly “blog” written by the CEO … that’s precisely missing the point!)
Here’s a link to an approach that a few companies have started to realize is necessary to really get the juice from squeezing the web 2.0 fruit:
http://www.bis-insight.com/Site/The_Future_of_Productivity.html
The same holds true, regardless of organization and its objectives: whether a social organization, a political organization, a non-profit or for-profit business. It's not the tools, it's the engagement model built upon those tools
My name is Paul Miller and I am Communications Director for the Sam Adams Alliance. Let me start by saying thank you for recognizing our efforts.
The Sam Adams Alliance is leading a new revolution for liberty by training, inspiring and empowering people to utilize new media tools to advance economic freedom and individual liberty.
It important that the truth always prevail and with that said I want to clarify and important part of this article.
The Sam Adams Alliance respects the work of the Dontgo movement, but our organization is not a part of it. The success they endure strictly belongs to the hard work of Eric Odom and his colleagues.
Paul Miller
A very good sign indeed. It demonstrates that the GOP is wise and active enough to change with the times, and utilize new technologies to get the message across.
Besides, it just feels good stealing some of the Democrat's thunder, just a little bit…