Under The Power Lines

(cross-posted at www.politicalnetroots.com)

As I write his post I sit in a hammock in Tulum, Mexico. I didn’t come here because I read about it in a magazine or saw an ad on TV. I didn’t even find it in a Google search for “awesome vacations on the beach.” I came here because my buddy Jay Hicks recommended it. When I wrote about my trip a few weeks ago on this blog, another buddy, Matt Robinson, emailed me saying that he just went to Tulum. He then sent me a bunch of recommendations, nearly all of which I tried.

When I got to Tulum, Jay was actually down here for the first night and I showed him Matt’s email. Jay just laughed and told me that he’s the one who told Matt about Tulum. I didn’t even know that the two of them knew each other.

That shows the amazing impact of “word of mouth” and combined with new technologies and connectivity, it’s killing, or rather changing, traditional marketing and advertising.

In The Blogging Church, Brian Bailey writes:

“We love to tune things out. So much so, in fact, that we’ve turned the ability to tune things out into a skill that we home with enthusiasm, admire in others, and gladly spend money on to make it as easy as possible. We fast-forward through commercials using the latest DVRs, flip past ads in magazines, turn the station when an ad comes on the radio, and pay for satellite radio to avoid as many commercials as possible. Our culture has become adept at ignoring traditional “interruption” advertising.

We listen to our friends, though. Whether it’s a restaurant recommendation, a movie critique, or a tip on a great place to take the kids, we’re eager to hear from people we trust. They know what we like, have similar tastes, and are motivated only by enthusiasm and as desire to share…

Ten years ago, your friends were largely people you knew personally – neighbors, coworkers, former classmates, and your church family. Today, many relationships are formed online; some of our most trusted voices are people whom we’ve never met.”

I agree. People have always talked. Now we are talking around the clock, from nearly everywhere. We are always connected. Because of blogs, social networking sites, and the latest and greatest handheld gadgets, word of mouth is dominating communication and the importance of advertising is diminishing rapidly.

In South Carolina Sweet Tea vodka was all the rage this year. They may have advertised, but I never saw one ad. I just heard my friends talking about it over and over again. I can’t tell you how many times I read about it on Facebook. The liquor sold out in stores across the state because of word of mouth.

Will word of mouth end political advertising? Will direct mail and television ads fall to online connectivity in the coming years?

We will see.

In my previous post I wrote that accountability + transparency = TRUST.

Here in South Carolina, many political activities occur behind closed doors without transparency and accountability. Lax campaign and ethics rules create a hard burden on campaigns, but leave many organizations operating in darkness. These are eight simple examples of how South Carolina’s legislators and General Assembly as a whole can use the web to strengthen accountability and gain trust. Although SC specific, these examples can be used to spur innovative ideas anywhere. Just remember – sunshine creates trust. Trust gets you reelected.

1. Personal websites.

Can you believe that there are some legislators who still don’t have websites? Yeah, and not just SOME. I haven’t actually done the research, but I would bet that close to 75% of South Carolina’s legislators do not have their own websites.

The Internet is the ultimate tool for transparency. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that voters are moving online and when they want to find out about you they are going to look on the web. Get active. Get online.

2. Twitter

Twitter is a social networking site that answers the question “what are you doing” in 160 characters. That’s what it was created for, but today it’s used much more as a micro blogging platform than to answer the question. Basically it’s a way for you to send a quick message to your voters in two sentences. You can tell them what you’re doing, or that a bill just passed, or that you need their help in calling Senator So and So to stop blocking whatever bill. You don’t even need a computer to use Twitter. You can do it from your cell phone or blackberry.

3. Roll call voting and a searchable database

Roll call voting just makes sense. To not tell your voters how you vote on important legislation, including all spending bills, is like spitting on accountability. But roll call voting isn’t enough. Hiding the record in some 500-page pdf that no one will ever read is ridiculous. Enact roll call voting and build an easy to use searchable database that allows voters to look up bills by subject, date, and legislator.

4. Nathan’s Bill

South Carolina State Representative Nathan Ballentine will be introducing legislation that helps clean up South Carolina’s ethics laws by mandating “after the pre-election filing, any contributions between that report and the election must be reported within 48 hours of receipt.” Amen brother Ballentine. Now make sure your bill makes it very clear that the reports have to be put online like all the other reports. Loopholes are loopholes and attorneys are DANG good at finding them.

5. Fully rewrite ethics laws

South Carolina’s ethics laws are a complete freakin’ joke. As I’ve said many times “just tell me what I can’t do and I won’t do it.” That’s the problem with our laws. They are so screwed up that the normal operative like me has no idea what we can and can’t do so we have to go blow a ton of money getting an attorney’s opinion. And their opinion is almost always completely different from another attorney’s, both of which are different from the SC Ethics Commissions. Speaking of the Ethics Commission, they have absolutely no teeth, so just go break the law. They won’t be doing anything about it.

Seriously, we need to fully rewrite our laws and give the Ethics Commission some real teeth. Then we need to put those laws in an easy to understand format on the web so that everyone knows what you can and cannot do.

6. 501c4 disclosure

Everyone else is doing it. I’m not going to harp on this one. They should disclose online.

7. Post all committee and floor debates to YouTube

Committee meeting rooms and the House and Senate floor are wired with videos so that they can be aired on ETV. No one is going to sit and watch this stuff on ETV just like one no one is going to sit and read the dictionary. It’s a research tool. These videos need be placed somewhere so that voters can go back and watch them when they need to. YouTube is the best place.

8. Video updates

Let’s come full circle. Can you believe that there are some legislators who still aren’t recording video updates and placing them on YouTube? Seriously! What are you thinking!? It’s FREE! Yes, free!

Just last week President-elect Barack Obama announced that he’s going to be moving the traditional Presidential weekly radio addresses to YouTube. Want to know why? Because that’s where folks are starting to get their information. It’s the same reason that newspaper sales across the country are declining. Voters are moving online and you should to.

I don’t agree with his politics, but his tactics continue to astonish everyone. Barack Obama is truly changing the way politics is done. Now its time for us Republicans to come together and catch up.

From the UK Telegraph:

Barack Obama launches weekly YouTube broadcasts

Barack Obama, President-Elect of the United States, has introduced his own 21st-century version of the presidential “fireside chat” by launching a regular weekly broadcast on YouTube.

The first broadcast, which aired on the video-sharing website on Saturday, focused heavily on the current global financial crisis, and has already been viewed by almost 700,000 people.

Obama made good use of the internet and modern technology throughout his election campaign, using social networking sites, Twitter, iPhone applications and text messaging to get the vote out. He was rarely seen without his BlackBerry, the mobile email device he may be forced to surrender following security concerns.

Obama has expressed a desire to be the first “internet president”. He is in the process of creating a new role within his administration, that of chief technology officer.

The encumbent will be responsible for a wide-ranging remit, managing everything from online child safety to resolving the battle for net neutrality.

Obama is also likely to introduce a laptop computer to the Oval office, and use the web as well as traditional technologies to engage with the electorate.

It will be a marked change from the regimes of outgoing president George W. Bush, who admitted to finding it hard to keep up with modern technology.

Obama’s wish to embrace the web has echoes of another president, Franklin D Roosevelt, who embraced the emerging technology of his time, the radio, to make a weekly address from the White House, complete with roaring log fire in the background.

Unemployment, high taxes, and wasteful spending are big problems. However, the primary issues that must first be addressed are accountability and transparency.

The most serious problems cannot be solved until voters trust you to solve them. Trust can only be gained through accountability and transparency, thus they must be addressed before all others.

Is there any wonder why voters distrust our leaders? We all know why South Carolina tossed out so many incumbents during the primary, national voters continue to dump Republicans, and we elected a fresh face as President on the promise of “Change.”

Think about this small sampling of stories in recent years:

-    High-powered Washingon lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sent to prison, taking down many with, including Ohio Congressman Bob Ney for accepting bribes.

-    Congressman Mark Foley resigned from Congress after making sexual advances toward teenage boys.  The Congressman who replaced him was recently caught up in a sex scandal himself.

-    The FBI found $90,000 in cash in Congressman William Jefferson’s freezer.

-    US Senator David Vitter was named in the DC Madam scandal and publicly admitted to hiring prostitutes.

-    US Senator Ted Stevens was recently convicted on six counts of making false statements in court.

Right here in South Carolina we had two statewide constitutional officers sent to prison in just six years.

Voters are mad at high-energy costs, illegal immigration, the Iraq war, and the economic crisis, but they are angrier and want change because they don’t TRUST our current elected officials to solve the problems.  That’s because you aren’t showing voters what you are doing to fix the problems and that’s because you aren’t being transparent.

People want transparency and the inside scoop.  It’s why Will Folks is so popular among South Carolina’s politicos.  You may call it gossip, but that’s what one-sided transparency is. When someone is paid to pick and choose the angle of the inside story, and no one else tells the other side, the gossip becomes the transparency. It becomes the reality.

You can choose to ignore it, but you will only kill your trustworthiness.  You are accountable to voters, so you must become transparent. You must tell the full truth to become trusted.

Transparency must start in a medium available to all voters – the Internet.

In The Blogging Church,” Brian Bailey writes “Having an ongoing conversation with people, whether customers, members, or constituents, builds a relationship of trust and connectedness. When an organization begins to share its story, including mistakes and missteps, people begin to feel a part of it. Before long, they want to help write that story and tell others.”

Telling your story creates transparency, gives the voter a sense of accountability, and makes you trusted. Bailey goes on to write “There is a new generation, though, that is no longer satisfied by this one-way relationship.  They have grown up in an Internet-driven culture that celebrates participation. The passive consumer has been replaced with an active, engaged, and empowered contributor.”

The more you become active on the web and allow voters to participate in the process, the greater their trust in you will become.  They will know you are listening to their needs and serving as their voice…accountability and democracy in their truest forms.

Tomorrow I will give you 8 examples on how you can make this happen.

Under the Power Lines is in South Carolina, but it was born in Michigan.

In 2006 Terry and Wesley were there helping a US Senate race when Wesley asked “how do these buildings get electricity? I haven’t seen any power lines since I’ve been here.”

Terry responded “they bury their power lines up north. Overhead power lines are a southern thing.”

Wesley then said “I used to live under a bunch of power lines” to which Terry promptly replied “that’s probably what’s wrong with you.”

A few weeks later, while still in Michigan, they realized that there is no one filling a much-needed niche in politics. Although there are firms that build really great looking websites, no one really spends time shaping an effective web strategy around a campaign’s game plan. There are a bunch of folks at the presidential level playing around with Facebook and Myspace, trying to figure out how to use them in political campaigns, but no one is taking new technologies and strategies to local races - the largest segment of United States politics.

One day while making a Michigan-left (they don’t allow left hand turns in large Michigan intersections – you have to pass the intersection and make a U-turn) Wesley was thinking about all this while listening to Jump, Little Children to get his South Carolina fix. He heard the line “under the power lines.” That’s when it all clicked and our little web company was born. Okay, maybe not born. More like conceived.

Under The Power Lines Netroots | New Media was actually born when Wesley got back to South Carolina and now it’s a growing firm of strategists, operatives, and artists. We don’t like to wear suits, we go bare foot throughout most of the day, and our office walls don’t go all the way to the ceiling. That last part sucks.

We have fun, build great websites, and work with candidates who want to win.

Emails are the best tool for driving people to a political website, but they must be utilized the right way or they can actually drive people away. Here are my 6 rules for using emails effectively:

1. Build an organic email list.

Most big political campaigns are purchasing/renting voter matched email lists, but those lists should be used for the sole purpose of building an organic list – a list people sign up for. On my personal blog I jokingly said “I’m a lot more likely to eat a corn dog if I bought it.” Well, the same is true for emails. People will open emails a lot more if they signed up for them.

2. Don’t over do it.

People are getting sick of SPAM. You will lose readers if you bombard them with emails. Email them important issue pieces and forgo the nonsense. Don’t send them an email every time you receive a positive news story.

3. Don’t make it all about you.

Politicians fall in the “me, me, me” trap and quite frankly, voters just don’t care about that. They want to know about the issues important to them and that doesn’t mean some blanket political promise. Send emails about issues that are imminent, important, and meaningful.

4. Grab their interests and then make The Ask.

The worst thing you can do is to keep asking voters for something in every email. Whether it’s volunteering or donating, politicians just need to lay off. Talk about important issues and grab their interest first. Then make The Ask. Send four or five issues pieces before sending a request email.

Don’t get me wrong; you should always include donation and volunteer links on an email. Just don’t make donating and volunteering the purpose of every email.

5. Keep it short.

With the growth of the Internet, people are being bombarded with information overload. They don’t have time to read a three-page treatise on your tax plan. Give them a very brief summary with links to “read more.” I try to keep my emails under three paragraphs.

6. KISS.

Keep It Simple Stupid. Too many political campaigns try to prove how smart they are with complex emails and blog posts. Connect with voters by keeping your emails as simple as possible. I do it by using lists. Seth Godin recently wrote “the web loves lists almost as much as it loves video.” He’s right and voters love lists too. It’s a great way to KISS.

Rumors and lies become truth when only one side speaks.

Two weeks ago I needed a new grill for USC tailgating. I Googled “tailgating grill.”

Last week I needed a new lawn guy. I looked for one on Google.

Yesterday I ordered a pizza on the Internet. I simply Googled “Pizza Hut, Columbia, SC.”

You see, that’s what people do now. The yellow pages, to-go menus, folded maps, encyclopedias, and many more paper tools of the past are becoming obsolete. Newspapers aren’t far behind. Today folks are going straight to Google for nearly all their needs.

So what happens when someone Googles your name? What do they find?

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In today’s new global economy and 24-hour news cycle, people are being inundated with constant news updates around the clock.  Here in South Carolina we have seen a rapid growth in personal blogs and the use of new media by mainstream media outlets, all relevant and all constantly updated.  Unfortunately most people don’t know these news sources exist and even if they did, they don’t have time to check them all everyday.  It’s for these next five reasons that the Under The Power Lines team is launching a brand new, fresh out of the box news aggregator this week:

1. We need an unbiased news aggregator. No one in South Carolina is bringing people all the news, all in one place.  Current aggregators are cherry picking the news to match their views. Our new aggregator will link news stories and not be a gossip or opinion blog. We will also give readers our entire client roster so that they know exactly who is really paying us.

2. We need all the relevant news stories and not just six or seven every morning. We will post big stories from around South Carolina, all the latest presidential news, and other national stories that affect our political landscape. We will even post my “geek links” so that you can stay up-to-date with all the latest tech news and my other interests.

3. We need the news bright and early in the morning. Our morning starts early and so does yours. Most folks can’t wait until 10 am to get their news. They need to know what’s happening first thing in the morning. It will be our goal to update the news every weekday morning by 8 am.

4. We need the news updated throughout the day. News doesn’t stop at 8 am. It continues throughout the day and night. We will post new stories as soon as we can as they are happening. This isn’t our full time job, so we aren’t promising to have them up immediately, but we will get it done fast.

5. We need more ways to follow the news. Technology is changing and we plan to always stay up-to-date. Readers will be able to follow us on our website or by following our RSS, Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook feeds.

Stay tuned…

In the last few weeks we’ve had numerous folks contact us to ask if we produce Senator Jim DeMint’s web videos.

The answer is YES!

And YES, our team can produce high grade television quality web videos for your campaign too. Here are just a few we’ve created over the past few months:

NEARLY 250,000 VIEWS:

(cross-posted at wesleydonehue.com)

I hate to disagree with Patrick Ruffini. After all, he has been playing on the web a whole lot longer than I have and to compare my online experiences with his would be pretty absurd.  But while Patrick has been playing on the web, I’ve been playing on the streets, running the nuts and bolts of state legislative and US Senate campaigns.

Here’s what I learned:

People get sick of seeing political television ads during CSI commercial breaks.

People get sick of us filling their mailboxes with political junk mail.

People get sick of us calling them during dinner.

Does that mean we should stop?  I’m hoping right now that my opponents are saying yes.

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