Government – Page 5

Vine, Instagram and the Role of Short Video in Politics

July 6, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Candidates, elected officials and the media are beginning to experiment with short video platforms such as Vine, Tout and Instagram Video. Because of the shortness of the videos created and shared on social networks, these platforms are ideal for the emerging mobile market, which is growing exponentially.

C-SPAN used Tout at the 2012 GOP Convention in Tampa. Delegates to the RNC Convention were encouraged to submit 15-second Tout videos of their experience. Several submitted videos by RNC Delegates were aired on C-SPAN. Earlier in 2012, C-SPAN sent its Campaign 2012 bus on a week-long tour of universities and towns in North Carolina to get feedback from students and citizens on the Presidential campaign, asking them to submit their thoughts and ideas via Tout.

Vine, a mobile app owned by Twitter has grown significantly in popularity. Vine allows users to create six-second videos and share them via Twitter and Facebook. President Obama recently signed up as a Vine user and has posted short videos ranging from the White House Science Fair to a note commemorating the anniversary of the Library of Congress. Several members of Congress have used Vine to mark everything from the submittal of legislative bills to the welcoming of constituent visitors to the Capitol.

The National Republican Congressional Committee produced one of the first political ads on Vine in April targeting Elizabeth Colbert-Busch in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District special election. The ad focused on Colbert-Busch’s support from Union groups after a recent controversy regarding the National Labor Relations Board and its initial opposition to the location of a Boeing plant in South Carolina. The ad received a good deal of earned media coverage.

Instagram video is new to the short video platform scene having been just released by Facebook in June. Instagram video allows users to create 15-second videos and share them via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare and e-mail. In another differentiation from Vine, Instagram has a “cinema feature” which helps to stabilize video shot within the app. Those elected officials who have long had Instagram accounts such as the White House and members of Congress, are starting to utilize the Instagram video feature. First Lady Michelle Obama recently uploaded videos of her South Africa trip with the President to her Instagram account. House Majority Whip, Kevin McCarthy recently uploaded an Instagram video of him playing Frisbee with the family dog at his home in California. Congressman McCarthy’s video received over 2k likes on Instagram.

Will other campaigns and elected officials follow suit in using short video platforms? Only time will tell. One current challenge with using these platforms, are that they only allow you to shoot video with a mobile device and do not allow for the uploading of professional quality video shot separately. This results in less quality production of video for an ad. For example, Vine political ads have the quality of early release bootleg video recordings of movies playing in theaters, as they are a smartphone recording of a video produced elsewhere. Campaigns may be well-advised to use Vine and other short video platforms for “insider” type shots and quick interviews that are shot originally on a smartphone.

Due to the continued growth of mobile, platforms such as Vine, Instagram and Tout are idyllic for the sharing of short video which users can view quickly while running errands or taking a break at work. Short video fits into the BuzzFeed news model of heavy and light content that the news is evolving into. However, these short video platforms are best for producing light hearted content until they have the capacity to upload production quality video.

The Effectiveness of Political Social Advertising

March 30, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Political advertising in national and statewide races has historically been dominated by large media buys on television. Of the billions spent on election ads, a small percentage has been spent on social media advertising, but that is about to change. Voters have gone off the grid.

In election 2012, over 40% of likely voters preferred other video sources to live TV, including laptop or PC and streaming devices such as DVD and DVR. The majority of live TV watching was sports related. The average time spent watching video was still high at almost 20 hours a week, but nearly half of that time was not spent on live TV. Also, nearly half of likely voters owned a smartphone and 32% of likely voters owned a tablet.

We are moving to a new advertising paradigm in politics, and social advertising is a key part of it. With candidates using Twitter and Facebook to stay connected with voters, keep up on news and contrast themselves with opponents, paid social is a natural fit for politicians. Social advertising is powerful as voters spend on average 10 hours per week on social apps and interest graph targeting helps candidates zero in on key voters. In the time that it takes to create 1 political 30-second spot, 15 paid social campaigns can be launched. These social ads can be created from breaking news and events in real time.

While Tumblr and LinkedIn offer ads, the overwhelming majority of social advertising is on Twitter and Facebook. Both Twitter and Facebook ads have proven to be effective in the area of politics.

Facebook messages have been shown to be an effective tool in get-out-the-vote efforts. In the prestigious journal, Nature, political scientist Dr. James Fowler found that a single get-out-the-vote message could produce a 2.2 % bump in voter turnout. More importantly, 80% of the impact came from friends sharing the message with others. This is the first definitive proof that social networks, as opposed to television or radio, have uniquely powerful political benefits. As Facebook bleeds into older demographics, campaign messages could have a much larger impact than the study found. Another key finding of the study was that candidates need users to voluntarily share the ads and messages with their friends for maximum effectiveness.

Many campaigns initially used basic Facebook Marketplace type ads, with a 25 character title, and a 90 character body, a 100 x 72 pixel image, which are the least ideal message delivery vehicles on Facebook. However a growing number of campaigns have found greater success at using ad units such as “Like” ads and sponsored stories, which encourage both current and potential fans to interact with page content. Facebook has also recently allowed ads to be placed directly into Newsfeed which has resulted in better results.

Mitt Romney’s campaign for President utilized Facebook mobile ads last election cycle. These ads, which showed up in a Facebook user’s news feed, linked to Governor Romney’s page and indicated which friends were fans of the candidate. Zac Moffatt, digital director of Governor Romney’s campaign, claimed a remarkable click rate of 10% among people who viewed the ads.

Twitter ads have been proven effective to drive get-out-the-vote messages and target voters. Political campaigns are spending on the “promoted tweet,” which looks like a regular Twitter post and which advertisers pay to have show up at the top of a stream of tweets, or to people who might not see the tweet otherwise. Other political Twitter ads that may be placed are for Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends. Like business ads on Twitter, political ads are clearly labeled as promoted with a purple promoted icon and information about who has purchased the ad. Based on demand from political campaigns, Twitter has allowed advertisers to tailor paid messages to people by state or region.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who faced Milwaukee’s Mayor Tom Barrett in an historic recall election in 2012, used Twitter political ads successfully. Governor Walker’s campaign utilized Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts to drive a get-out-the-vote message to targeted voters and influencers. The Walker campaign’s use of Promoted Tweets drove voters to landing pages with details on the Governor’s stance on key issues and strong calls to action to pledge to vote. A week before the election, Governor Walker’s campaign also used Promoted Accounts to grow followers among targeted influencers who could help spread the campaign message through retweets. Governor Walker’s Promoted Tweets campaign garnered an average engagement rate of 6%. In addition, the Governor increased his followers from 16,600 to over 23,000 with his Promoted Accounts campaign. Overall his Twitter ad campaign reached 946,000 potential voters. Governor Walker’s effective use of social advertising was a key component in mobilizing voters in his defeat of a recall.

The use of social advertising by political campaigns will continue to increase. Social ads are an attractive selling point to campaigns looking for a way to maximize their impact for little cost. However, these ads should only be run as a part of a larger digital strategy that promotes great content such as a video, an image or interactive experience. Great content and socials ads to promote it is a winning combination for candidates that have a need to get their message out in a cost effective way.

The Top Ten Most Social Media Savvy Grassroots Organizations in America

February 28, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns 1 Comment

The recent legislative battle over the SOPA bill between the Motion Picture Association of America and the technology industry highlighted the evolution of tactics in advocating for or against legislation and policies. The Motion Picture Association of America pursued traditional lobbying tactics, while the technology industry mobilized their grassroots supporters via social media and the internet to support the cause of internet freedom. The technology industry’s victory over the Motion Picture Association of America last year showed the effectiveness of grassroots organizations united behind a cause and its anniversary was marked this year as Internet Freedom Day.

Grassroots organizations with their organic nature and individual member support for specific causes stand to grow in influence and benefit from the advent of social media as an advocacy tool. Social media as a platform is most conducive to the passionate and intense nature of grassroots organizations and the causes that they support.

Arc 3 looks at the top ten most social media savvy grassroots organizations. The list was compiled analyzing the Klout Scores and number of Twitter and Facebook followers for the largest and most powerful grassroots organizations in the country.

1. National Rifle Association (Klout Score 89) – Few groups match the grassroots-powered influence of the NRA, which faces an intense fight with the Obama administration over its push for stronger gun control laws in the wake of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The NRA has a strong social media network to mobilize and inform its members with over 131K followers on Twitter and 105K likes on Facebook.

2. Sierra Club (Klout Score 88) – The Sierra Club has spearheaded strong opposition to the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline with a solid team that includes Dave Hamilton, leader of the group’s “Beyond Coal” campaign, and Melinda Pierce, a veteran of the fights over Arctic drilling. The Sierra Club is one of most savvy social media grassroots groups with 183K likes on Facebook and over 58K followers on Twitter.

3. FreedomWorks (Klout Score 86) – Despite the recent departure of its former Chairman Dick Armey and the turmoil that ensued, FreedomWorks continues to exert considerable influence as a grassroots organization advocating for economic freedom. With over 98K followers on Twitter and 4.2 million likes on Facebook, FreedomWorks is a force to be reckoned with in the social media space.

4. Natural Resources Defense Council (Klout Score 86) – With over 1.3 million members and online activists, the NRDC is a strong force in opposition to the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline. David Hawkins of their group is considered one of the top experts on global warming. With over 81K followers on Twitter and 195K Likes on Facebook, the NRDC is a social media powerhouse.

5. The Wilderness Society (Klout Score 84) – With legislative efforts led by David Moulton, a former top adviser to Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), the organization is a strong advocate on climate change policy as well as conservation. The Wilderness Society has a solid social media presence with over 21K Followers on Twitter and 34K likes on Facebook.

6. Public Citizen (Klout Score 83) – Co-founded over 40 years ago by Ralph Nader, the group has focused heavily on campaign finance reform and the passage of ethics reforms in Congress in recent years. With over 14K Twitter followers and 23K likes on Facebook, Public Citizen has an agressive approach to social media in the tradition of its founder.

7. Human Rights First (Klout Score 83) – Led by Elisa Massimino, the organization is focused on keeping individual liberties front and center as the United States grapples with the changes that are sweeping the Middle East. Human Rights First has over 23K followers on Twitter and 33K likes on Facebook and a social media presence that helps the organization to highlight its many human rights concerns around the world.

8. Americans for Tax Reform (Klout Score 82) – Led by Grover Norquist, the father of the anti-tax pledge signed by most congressional Republicans, the group has been tested by members of Congress who are looking at tax increases and elimination of deductions as a way to shore up budget deficits. Americans for Tax Reform has over 14K followers on Twitter and 39K likes on Facebook and a social media network that could create a firestorm for any member of Congress who abandons their anti-tax pledge.

9. National Wildlife Federation (Klout Score 80) – Jeremy Symons, who previously handled climate issues for the EPA and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) serves as top political strategist for the influential conservationist lobby. Recognized as one of ” Top 5 Enterprises Using Social Media” by Mashable in 2010, the National Wildlife Federation has shown a commitment to social media to help raise awareness and build community. It currently has 125k Twitter followers and 118k likes on Facebook.

10. American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (Klout 80) – President Obama will visit Israel in March for the first time as President. However, the relationship between the Obama administration and Israel has been rocky. Former diplomat, Bradley Gordon and current top lobbyist for AIPAC, will have to use all of his negotiating skills to get the administration more in sync with Israel. With over 17K followers on Twitter and 36K likes on Facebook, AIPAC has a social media prowess that can exert pressure on members of Congress and the Obama administration at key moments in time.

At the early part of 2013, these are the top ten most social media savvy grassroots organizations. In the upcoming months, innovation in social media by grassroots groups will drive up their membership and result in legislative and policy victories. A grassroots organization’s effectiveness will depend on their creative use of social media to mobilize and educate their members and the media.

The Top Ten Most Social Media Savvy Trade Associations in America

January 30, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

With the inaugaration of President Barack Obama and the convening of the U.S. Congress, the business of governing truly begins in earnest. With the business of governing, comes the creation and passage of legislation and policies that affect important constituency groups. Some of the most powerful constituency groups are those that represent specific industries that employ hundreds of thousands of Americans. The “trades” that these associations represent vary from sectors such as high technology to small business to health care and energy.

With the widespread adoption of social media by elected officials, the media and the public; social media has become a critical part of the advocacy toolkit for trade associations. The recent legislative battle over the SOPA bill between the Motion Picture Association of America and the technology industry highlighted the evolution of tactics in advocating for or against legislation. The Motion Picture Association of America pursued traditional lobbying tactics, while the technology industry mobilized their grassroots supporters via social media and the internet. The technology industry’s victory over the Motion Picture Association of America last year sent shock waves through the K street community that they must evolve and change.

How have they done? Arc 3 looks at the top ten most social media savvy trade associations at the start of 2013. The list was compiled analyzing the Klout scores and number of Twitter and Facebook followers for the largest and most powerful trade associations in the country.

1. National Federation of Independent Business (Klout score 81) – Led by Dan Danner, this organization promotes fewer regulations and lower taxes. Despite seeing its challenge to the Democratic healthcare law fall short, the NFIB is one of the most social media savvy trade associations in the country with over 34K followers on Twitter and 171K likes on Facebook.

2. American Bankers Association (Klout score 81) – Led by Frank Keating, the former governor of Oklahoma, the ABA has evolved its communication strategies and embraced social media during a time of upheaval for their industry. The ABA has over 13K followers on Twitter and 1K likes on Facebook. The ABA’s high Klout score is attributed to it constant updates, as its Twitter account has over 10K Tweets.

3. Business Roundtable (Klout score 79) – Led by John Engler, a former Michigan governor, the corporate leaders of the Roundtable support a lower corporate tax rate and more trade deals. The Business Roundtable has over 12K Twitter followers and 13K likes on Facebook and a steady stream of tweets and posts to inform the media and its members.

4. U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Klout score 69) – Tom Donohue leads a powerful business advocacy group which donates millions of dollars to business-friendly candidates every election cycle. The Chamber is also a digital powerhouse with over 312K likes on Facebook and over 97K followers on Twitter.

5. National Retail Federation (Klout score 67) – NRF’s communications efforts are led by Bill Thorne, a former senior director for advocacy and outreach at the Walmart Corporation. Thorne has built a strong digital effort for the association as it pursues the passage of a national online sales tax. The association’s over 16K followers on Twitter and over 4K likes on Facebook are competitive with its online sales tax opponents in the technology industry.

6. National Restaurant Association (Klout Score 66)- Led by Dawn Sweeney, the restaurant trade group has expanded its policy and digital efforts. With over 11K followers on Twitter and 13K likes on Facebook it is clear that the association has picked up some social media tips from its member restaurants who have long been in the business of creating brand evangelists.

7. National Association of Realtors (Klout Score 66) – Led by longtime NAR veteran Dale Stinton, this association has battled a brutal housing market and a Congress considering housing finance reform. The association has solid digital resources to back its legislative efforts with 62K followers on Twitter and 109K likes on Facebook.

8. American Medical Association (Klout Score 65) – Led by Dr. James Madara, the AMA has gained bi-partisan support and is working to replace a Medicare payment formula that threatens doctors with drastic cuts. To build support for its efforts the association has a strong social media presence with over 269K followers on Twitter and 26K likes on Facebook.

9. American Wind Energy Association (Klout Score 63) – Led by Rob Gramlich, this association recently saw Congress extend an industry tax incentive that has led to explosive growth in wind power. AWEA has the wind at its back with a social media presence that has over 43K likes on Facebook and over 22K followers on Twitter.

10. National Association of Home Builders (Klout Score 63) – Led by Jerry Howard, this association’s primary goal is to defend the mortgage interest deduction amidst members of Congress who may see its elimination as a potential way to alleviate budget deficits. NAHB has a solid social media presence with over 16K followers on Twitter and over 28K likes on Facebook.

At the start of 2013, these are the top ten most social media savvy U.S. trade associations. The list is dominated by traditional industry associations that have strengthened their social media presence for what will be a very tough year in the Congress as the budget deficit looms over all discussions. Difficult times will require associations to be innovative in their mobilization and education of members about important and timely legislation and policies that could alter the course of the industries that they represent.

The Top Ten Most Social Media Savvy U.S. Politicians

January 11, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Social media played an important role in helping to secure the re-election of President Barack Obama in 2012. President Obama’s utilization of social media also played a key role in his defeat of Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries and then Senator John McCain in the general election in 2008. In 2012, President Obama essentially took up where he left off in the last Presidential election and developed a decisive advantage in the area of social media over Mitt Romney. The Obama-Biden campaign’s utilization of social media for get out the vote efforts and its analysis of social data for the prediction of voter behavior, targeting of messages and media buying was truly remarkable.

But who are the other success stories in social media amongst politicians besides President Obama? Through the analysis of Klout Scores, Facebook Likes and Twitter followers amongst politicans across the country, Arc 3 has compiled the top ten most social media savvy politicans. In order to qualify for the list you must either have held elected office or been a candidate for elected office within the last year.

1. Barack Obama (Klout Score 99): President Obama maintained a substantial lead in both Facebook likes and Twitter followers over Mitt Romney. By the end of the campaign, Obama had 22.7 million followers and 32.2 million likes, compared to Romney’s 1.8 million followers and 12.1 million likes. The Obama-Biden campaign’s posting of an image of Barack and Michelle Obama in an embrace, accompanied by the message, “Four more years” set two social media records, receiving more Twitter retweets (755,000) and Facebook likes (3.5 million) than any other post in history.

2. John McCain (Klout Score 92): The U.S. Senator from Arizona and former Republican Presidential candidate in 2008 shows considerable strength in social media, outscoring both Vice President Joe Biden and Mitt Romney. Senator McCain has 880,594 Facebook likes and 1.7 million Twitter followers. His independent streak and reputation for bluntness are highly suitable for the medium of social media.

3. Joe Biden (Klout Score 90): Vice President Biden’s social media presence benefited from being a part of a very gifted Obama-Biden campaign digital team. Vice President Biden had 555,571 Facebook likes and 116,900 Twitter followers. Biden is known to be prone to verbal gaffes in the real world, but his digital world is very disciplined and tame in comparison.

4. Mitt Romney (Klout Score 89): Throughout the Presidential campaign, Romney’s number of followers on Facebook and Twitter were greatly outpaced by President Obama. At the end of the campaign, Romney had 1.8 million followers on Twitter and 12.1 million Facebook likes. The President had 12 times more followers on Twitter and 2 times more followers on Facebook than Romney. It was not all bad news for Romney’s social efforts, as Romney’s Facebook strategies did at times have him leading President Obama in Facebook engagement with his “People Talking About This” numbers being higher.

5. Nancy Pelosi (Klout Score 89): The current Democratic leader in the House has a solid social media presence consistent with her wired constituents in her San Francisco Congressional District. Pelosi has 285, 926 Twitter followers and 67,776 Facebook likes.

6. Newt Gingrich (Klout Score 88): The former Republican House Speaker and Presidential candidate had one of the strongest presences on social media out of the Republican candidates for President in 2012. Winner of the first Republican Presidential primary in the South, South Carolina, Speaker Gingrich has 292,262 Facebook likes and 1.4 million followers on Twitter.

7. Jerry Brown (Klout Score 88): The current Governor of California, home of Silicon Valley, logically has a solid social media presence. He is very strong on Twitter with some 1.05 million followers and has 136,190 Facebook likes. Governor Brown’s followers prefer Twitter almost seven times more than Facebook. A former Presidential candidate who earned the nickname “Moonbeam”, there is no shortage of content on his Twitter stream.

8. John Boehner (Klout Score 87): The current Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has strongly promoted social media over years amongst his GOP caucus members. Once issuing a press release entitled “PWNED: House GOP Dominates Twitter, YouTube, Social Media in Congress”, he has taken the lead and shown his members how to be social media savvy. (Note: PWNED is trash talk that means you “owned” your opponent). Boehner has 320,479 Facebook likes and 220,763 Twitter followers for his campaign accounts.

9. Ron Paul (Klout Score 86): The former Congressman from Texas and Republican Presidential Candidate in 2012 has a considerable social media following reflective of the passion his candidacy generated among tech savvy millenials and libertarians. Paul has over 1.1 million Facebook likes and over 200,300 Twitter followers.

10. Cory Booker (Klout Score 85): The Mayor of Newark, New Jersey utilizes Twitter as a way to hear constituent concerns. The Mayor’s twitter account has become a civic reporting system that has been a better platform for consituent’s voices to be heard than the actual telephone at City Hall. Mayor Booker has over 1.3 million Twitter followers and 128,137 Facebook likes. Many constituents in Newark say if you want a pothole fixed you need to tweet to him about it.

At the start of 2013, these are the top ten most social media savvy U.S. politicians. Will they maintain their status or will new leaders emerge and enter into the top ten? Arc 3 will be following closely to see who comes out on top at the end of what is certain to be a year of innovation and enterprise in social media and politics.

Storify and the Power of Content Curation

October 2, 2012 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Storify is a powerful tool for content curation. In today’s digital age of social media and mobile devices, everyone is now a content producer as the 24 hour news cycle yearns for instant reporting of news events. Storify is a platform upon which individuals can aggregate tweets, posts, photographs, videos and links from social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+, Reddit and Flicker to create powerful stories on any subject matter. Storify creates a new layer above the social networks that helps users create a coherent story that is interactive and dynamic.

Started in 2009 in San Fransico, Ca. by founders Burt Herman and Xaxier Damman, Storify currently has well over a million and half individual users. News media outlets from the Wall Street Journal to ABC News have reporters and editors that are using Storify to curate content from the social web. Presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama also utilize Storify in their campaign efforts. Team Romney has created 145 stories while President Obama’s campaign has created 78 stories on Storify. The Romney campaign was able to obtain over 38,000 views of a Storify story regarding a bus tour that coincided with Romney’s announcement of Paul Ryan as his pick for Vice President. President Obama’s campaign used Storify to highlight First Lady Michelle Obama’s trip to the Olympics in London to draw attention to her visit.

Our founder and President of Arc 3 Communications, Patrick Burns recently used Storify to curate content from social media to tell the story of his experience as a Delegate from Ga. to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. Patrick was able to use Storify’s bookmarklet to drag and drop status updates, photos and videos from Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, YouTube and Instagram to bring together the social media elements that best illustrated his experience as a Delegate in Tampa. Storify not only allowed for the collection of elements from social media, but also allowed for the writing of a headline, introduction and text inside his story. As one who utilized social media and pitched traditional media at the convention, Storify was an excellent vehicle to assist Patrick in pulling together all the elements of his trip and better communicate his experience. Upon completion of his story, Storify also allowed Patrick to share his story with his social networks, and notify all the people quoted in his story such as comedian, Dennis Miller; RNC Chairman, Reince Preibus; Mitt Romney; Chris “The Fix” Cillizza of the Washington Post, Erik Erickson of Red State.com and Timothy Carney of the Washington Examiner. Storify’s platform also allows readers to interact with the social media elements of Patrick’s story and share it with their followers.

Below is a link to Patrick’s story in Storify regarding his experience as a Delegate as told via the many social media networks that were prevalent at the RNC Convention.

http://storify.com/PatrickLBurns/arc-3-founder-serves-as-delegate-to-republican-nat

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