Jordan Raynor

The 5 Habits of Highly Accessible Online Politicians

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:17:00 +0000

Last week, I had the honor of addressing the Florida Association of Counties' Annual Convention in Tampa, FL. I was asked to give a "Social Media 101" presentation, but took my speaker's prerogative to deliver a message I felt was much more critical for my audience of County Commissioners to hear. I charged the room to think less about the question "How can I use the internet to get myself elected?" and ask the more important question of "How can we use technology to make government more accessible, efficient and transparent?"

Here is my full presentation, broken into three parts:

How FourSquare Could GOTV With The "I Voted" Badge

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:01:00 +0000

Yesterday, a petition I started on Twitter urging FourSquare to create an "I Voted" badge for voters who check-in at polling places on Election Day, caught fire and has yet to show signs of letting up. At the time this post was published, 191 Twitter users have signed the petition, making FourSquare the most petitioned Twitter account through act.ly this week (surpassing Lady Gaga, BP and President Obama) and the second most this month (only behind Bieber).

Obviously the rightroots and the netroots are both pretty fired up about this idea which has the potential to be a massive GOTV effort, but if FourSquare agrees to commit to creating the badge, how exactly would it work? After an email exchange with a FourSquare contact, I am confident this is the question we need to answer in order for FourSquare to pull the trigger. That's why I am soliciting your input. Our ideas combined will be much more powerful than mine alone.

Here's the dilemma: How can FourSquare verify polling places in order to give out "I Voted" badges? First, Supervisor of Elections offices would need to add their polling places to FourSquare (work an intern can easily do). Then, FourSquare would need to authenticate the Supervisors' offices as the rightful "owner" of the polling places on FourSquare. This could be a massive amount of work. How could we simplify the process? Maybe the solution is getting one state to commit to the project for a primary election, map out all the precincts, and present it to FourSquare as a pilot program.

As you can tell, I am thinking out loud here. Let's put our heads together to find a way to make this work to increase turnout in November. Imagine thousands of Americans checking into their polling places while posting links to their Facebook friends with a map of their polling place, reminding them and encouraging them to vote. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me. Let's find a way to make it work. Please leave your ideas in the comment section below. Go!

Reviewing #PdF10

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:37:00 +0000

Last week, I had the great honor of attending my third Personal Democracy Forum in New York City. This year was even more special than years past, as I was selected as a Google Fellow for the conference. The work the 19 other Google Fellows are doing at the intersection of politics and technology all around the world is truly amazing, and I was honored to have the opportunity to learn from them at the conference. Check out these amazing individuals and the work they are doing by clicking here.

This year's #PdF10 focused on answering this question: Can the internet fix politics? The overwhelming consensus of the conference can be summed up by this: No. But we can change politics using the internet as a tool. As promised, I hyper-tweeted the entire conference, attempting to provide you all who couldn't make it to New York with the best tips and tricks I learned at the conference. An archive of my tweets can be found here courtesy of one of my favorite Twitter apps, SnapBird.org. The total count of my tweeting frenzy from #pdf10 was 283 tweets, but more importantly (keeping quality v. quantity in mind), I was mentioned on Twitter 452 times at the conference - more than anyone else using the #pdf10 hashtag (though @cshirky and @craignewmark came close). Thank you as always to everyone who followed along with my barrage of tweets and constantly retweeted my content!

As always, #PdF10 was an amazing two days of learning and sharing with the smartest and most talented people at the intersection of politics and technology. I can't wait for #PdF11! Until then, I will leave you with three of my favorite presentations from this year's Personal Democracy Forum:

Closing Plenary with Saul Anuzis, Nick Bilton, Cory Booker, Arianna Huffington, Tim O’Reilly, Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry

"Rethinking Leadership" by Clay Shirky

"Rethinking Media" by Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos

A Preview of the 2010 Personal Democracy Forum

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 13:19:00 +0000

Every summer, the world's smartest and most talented professionals in the field of online politics descend upon New York City for a two-day gathering known as the Personal Democracy Forum. In the words of PDF's 2009 incredible keynote speaker, Michael Wesch, "The gathering may have been the highest concentration of amazingly creative and concerned global citizens I have ever been around."

This year, I have the honor and privilege of attending the conference as one of twenty Google Fellows. My fellow Fellows are doing some amazing work at the intersection of politics and technology and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from them at PDF. Thank you Google!

This will be my third time attending the Personal Democracy Forum, and according to the speaker line-up, this year's PDF could be the best yet. For those of you attending PDF, I would love to know which presentations you are most excited to see. Feel free to leave your favorites in the comment section below. Here are the five presentations I am most excited to hear:

How Republicans are Innovating in Online Campaigning: Mindy Finn, Rob Willington, Ryan Gravatt, David All (moderator)
Debate: Should Government 'Save' Journalism? Andrew Keen, Marc Cooper, Josh Silver, Jan Schaffer, Jeff Jarvis (moderator)
Can the internet Fix Politics?: Newt Gingrich
Refining Your Social Media Smarts: Campaign Successes From YouTube to Facebook to Twitter: Jonah Sieger, Barnet Zitron, JD Lasica, Michael Bassik (moderator)
Campaign Grid: Best Practices in Online Fundraising and List-Building Steve Moore, Julie Germany, Michael Palmer, Richard Masterson (moderator)

If you can not make it to New York for this year's Personal Democracy Forum, there are still ways for you to follow the conference from home.

Follow the #pdf10 or #pdf2010 hashtags on Twitter
Like last year, I will be "hyper-tweeting" the event, providing you with the latest tips and best-practices discussed at the conference. You can follow me @JordanRaynor for the latest from #pdf10.
Check the PDF Video Archives throughout the weekend for video of conference presentations.

Twitter Mentions Accurately Predict Winners in UK Elections

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:59:00 +0000

Can the amount of times your candidate is mentioned on Twitter actually predict their fate on Election Day? A new report released by Tweetminister on Twitter and the UK elections says yes!

For the UK's recent elections, Tweetminister set out to discover if there was any sort of correlation between the number of times a particular candidate or party was mentioned on Twitter and how that candidate or party performed on Election Day. The results are astounding.

Tweetminister found that their individual seat predictions based on Twitter mention volume were 69% accurate while regional party performance predictions were 87.5% accurate and national predictions were 90.5% accurate.

The full report is available below for your downloading and highly recommended sharing pleasure:
Tweetminster Predicts: Findings

Endorsements Don't Matter, Unless They Come From You

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:37:00 +0000

"My coffee cup endorses Rubio. The lint I just brushed off my suit has endorsed Rubio. 97.9% of the objects in the known universe mass endorse Rubio.”

Those statements, tweeted today by leading GOP strategist Patrick Ruffini, are just as insightful as they are humorous. The political collapse of Charlie Crist's Republican candidacy for the U.S. Senate has brought on an avalanche of endorsements over the past week for Crist's GOP rival, Marco Rubio. As each endorsement has been rolled out by Rubio's supporters, I have found myself re-declaring this statement – Endorsements don’t matter to voters anymore!

Now more than ever, the power of the press and the political establishment over public opinion is waning and the power vacuum is being filled by our social-graphs – our Facebook friends, the people we follow on Twitter and the numerous un-traditional information outlets we now turn to for news and opinion. As I have said before, our friends are killing the newspaper editors, and for that matter, the power of political endorsements. It is more important than ever for candidates to develop meaningful relationships with influential individuals who will become their campaign's ambassadors online. If these relationships are genuine and extend beyond asking for money, individuals will buy into campaigns and will recruit their online "friends" for your cause.

Six months ago, I was asked to advise a candidate on how they could mount a formidable challenge to an established political titan. The opponent of the candidate I was advising had locked up all of the early establishment endorsements and money and was undoubtedly running a Traditional 3M campaign (Money ---> Momentum ---> Message). My advice was simple, but difficult to achieve – do everything in your power to appear to be publicly shunning the political establishment. Instead of going after high-profile endorsements, ask regular Joe and Jane Shmos to look into a camera and tell the world why they “endorse” you. Make the campaign about why establishment endorsements are the problem and not the solution and communicate directly with voters via the web to earn their “endorsements” instead. Crazy? Maybe. But I still think it could have worked.

All of the endorsements in the world didn’t help Charlie Crist defeat his primary challenger. In fact, Crist’s endorsements ended up hurting him more than they helped as grassroots conservatives rose up against what they perceived as a candidate being forced down their throats by the Party establishment.

Voters are no longer making decisions primarily based on what political endorsements, press releases or advertisements tell them – they are making decisions based on the opinions of the most important people in their online and offline lives – their friends.

Cross-posted to TechRepublican.com

TIEA Passes House Unanimously

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:17:00 +0000

Great news for those of us who have been following Florida's Technology in Elections Act - the bill passed the Florida House of Representatives today by a unanimous vote of 114-0. Here is the full release from State Representative Eric Eisnaugle (R-FL), the bill's sponsor:

Today, Representative Eric Eisnaugle’s (R-Orlando) Technology in Elections Act (HB 869) passed the House unanimously 114-0. The legislation modernizes rules governing the use of technology in political campaigns. Current law does not contemplate the use of many new technologies or websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Google by voters and campaigns. Large portions of campaign budgets are currently spent on expensive traditional media like radio and television advertisements. However, voters increasingly report a preference to learn about candidates and issues on the internet.

“It’s vital to ensure that voters and candidates can hold a dialogue on the internet on the sites voters use,” said Eisnaugle. “If we want to lower the cost of elections, we must ensure that free, public websites are available for official candidate use.”

The Technology in Elections Act provides safe harbors on disclaimer requirements for candidates using text messaging, social networking sites, downloadable applications, blogs, message board postings and text link advertisements. A fall legal challenge in a St. Petersburg mayoral race raised questions regarding the use of Google ad links and therefore other media and technologies by candidates. Representative Darryl Rouson (D–St. Petersburg) co-prime sponsored the bill.

The legislation also included language to bring transparency to opaque Electioneering Communications Organizations (ECOs). The ECO language requires timely reporting on where and how these organizations raise and expend their funds.

Create Your Own Google 'Search Story'

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:47:00 +0000

Following Google's phenomenally successful Super Bowl ad (which has garnered 4.75 million YouTube views at the time of this blog post), Google has launched a super-cool "Create Your Own" Search Story feature on YouTube. The easy-to-use interface allows users to create their own Google-centric "Search Story" and then upload the video to YouTube. Here's my experiment with the feature which I used to create my own Search Story video business card:

Create your own Search Story at http://www.youtube.com/SearchStories

Help Write Florida's 'Technology In Elections Act'

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:52:00 +0000

In response to the pay-per-click advertising debacle that arose in Florida last Fall, State Representatives Eric Eisnaugle (R-Orlando) and Darryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg) have introduced Florida HB 869 to modernize Florida's election laws to account for new forms of technology and social media. The bi-partisan bill, deemed the 'Technology In Elections Act' (TIEA), is likely the most effective and rapid way to modernize Florida election law to account for online advertising and politicians' presence on social networks.

Both Reps. Eisnaugle and Rouson have reached out to online politicos (including myself) for input on this piece of legislation. As I got to thinking about this bill and what it could do for political campaigns in Florida, I began to imagine what debate and discussion over this bill online could do for government. By leveraging the power of the internet that TIEA is fighting to protect, we can make the crafting of this bill the most open and transparent in Florida history. That is why I am asking you - my online readers, followers and friends - to take this bill into your own hands and help modernize Florida election law.

I have embedded the latest version of the bill below. I invite all of you to read the bill thoroughly and make any recommendations you see fit in the comment section below. All recommendations will be passed on directly to Reps. Eisnaugle and Rouson. I have also invited Reps. Eisnaugle and Rouson to participate in a live online video conference - open to the public - to discuss the recommendations set forth by you on this blog. Stay tuned!

TIEA will usher Florida's election laws into the 21st century, but perhaps more importantly, with your hard work and effort, we can make the exercise of crafting this bill a model for government openness and transparency through the web.

CLICK HERE to tweet the following: Join me in helping the Florida Legislature modernize FL election law - http://bit.ly/cfWpZP

Tweeting Through @KarlRove's 'Courage and Consequence'

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:15:00 +0000

This weekend, I "live-tweeted" my way through Karl Rove's recently released book, Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. In case you missed my live-tweeting of the book, here are my Twitter notes in their entirety:

Rove’s mother killed herself on September 11, 1981. #meetkarl
Rove had breakfast with a lingerie-clad Elizabeth Taylor while she was married to Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) #meetkarl
Rove: “If you didn’t measure an activity, it tended to remain undone.” #meetkarl
Rove: “I was counting on technology to carve out my niche in the direct mail business.” #meetkarl
Lance Armstrong lived next door to Rove’s direct mail firm in the early 80s. #meetkarl
Rove: “The Bush campaign was not worthy of the 41st President.” #meetkarl
This surprises me - Rove only recalls GWB dropping the f-bomb once. #meetkarl
Rove in 2000: “The establishment is not what it used to be.” Even truer in 2010. #meetkarl
Rove cites Tallahassee veteran Randy Enwright as the Florida “quarterback” for Bush/Cheney 2000. #meetkarl
After realizing how close FL would be Jeb told GWB that Broward and Dade would be “good for us.” Randy Enwright disagreed. #meetkarl
Rove’s Secret Service code name was ‘Pilgrim’. #meetkarl
Rove says that he was first to tell GWB of plane crashing into WTC. I always thought it was Card - http://bit.ly/cMU201
Rove was the only one in the White House with a Blackberry on 9/11. #meetkarl
Rove thought Bush 2004 would be much like Lincoln 1864 when Lincoln was re-elected in the midst of the Civil War #meetkarl
Rove: Bush/Cheney ’04 acquired 8.5 million e-mail addresses (nice work @PatrickRuffini) #meetkarl
Rove: “Senator Bob Graham of Florida was just plain weird…We just couldn’t be that lucky to get him as our opponent.”
Rove knew ’04 exit polls were crap when he saw (R) POTUS candidate losing white men in FL which hadn’t happened since 1964
Rove: Fmr. POTUS Clinton told him that his 72 hour strategy in ’06 was “genius” as GOP should have lost way more seats.
Rove: Obama '08 focus on the internet was a page stolen from Bush ’04. #meetkarl

Don’t Buy, Sell or Steal Email Lists

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:12:00 +0000

13 million e-mail addresses acquired by a single political campaign is astonishing. But what if Obama for America had purchased that e-mail list instead of growing it organically? Would it have been nearly as effective in GOTV or raising 2/3 of Obama's half-a-billion dollars raised online? No way.

Blue State Digital (Obama's digital strategy team) spells out why in a recent blog post. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, I figured I would share their thoughts with you on why your campaign should avoid buying, selling or stealing e-mail lists:

These people didn’t ask to hear from you. Nobody – not even you -- likes to receive emails from organizations that they didn’t ask to hear from. Sure, your list might suddenly double in size, but do those names care about your cause? Are they going to take action on your behalf? Probably not.
You’re killing your statistics. Everybody who runs an email campaign is obsessed with metrics. What’s a good open rate? What’s a good click-through rate? What’s a good action rate? What’s a low unsubscribe rate? If you dilute your email list with purchased names, you’re immediately dropping those statistics.
It’s disingenuous. One of the key components of a really successful online campaign is authenticity. People organize online because they want to be a part of a grassroots movement bigger than themselves; they don’t want to feel like they’re a pawn of a purchased PR stunt.
Your own email service provider won’t let you upload the list. Nearly every company in the political/nonprofit technology industry has a policy against purchased email lists.

Click here to read the entire post from BSD

Sayfie Review iPhone App

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:54:00 +0000

My last few months serving as Executive Editor of Sayfie Media were largely spent focused on designing and managing the development of the Sayfie Review iPhone app, which was finally released last month. I could not be prouder of the final product and the team who built this incredible app. Justin Sayfie has always thought three steps ahead of political news outlets in Florida and this iPhone app is proof that he's not done yet.

The app brings an elegant design to every Florida politico's favorite political news service - making SayfieReview.com content easy to digest and, more importantly, easy to share from any iPhone or iPod Touch.

SayfieReview.com's 5 most essential services are elegantly displayed in the app's 5 menu options - Today's News, Blog Ticker, Videos, Most Read Stories and Links. What makes the app so valuable to me though is it's seamless integration of sharing functionality via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail. By connecting your Facebook or Twitter account with the app, you can easily share your favorite links from the Sayfie Review app with your various networks. As these networks continue to serve as primary sources of news aggregation for consumers, this feature will only grow in it's significance and value.

The release of the Sayfie Review iPhone app adds yet another mobile option for SayfieReview.com readers. In July of 2008, the Sayfie Review became one of the first news organizations in Florida to launch a Blackberry app.

Although the Sayfie Review iPhone app has only been heavily promoted since this past Tuesday, the app already boasts a 4 star rating on iTunes. If you haven't already downloaded the app on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you can do so by clicking here.

My Friends Killed the Newspaper Editor

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:58:00 +0000

The latest report from Pew Internet confirms what many of us have known for a while now – our friends and socialgraphs are slowly diminishing the influence of the once all-powerful newspaper editors. In the study, Pew found that 75% of Americans who consume news online discover their news through social networking sites or through forwarded e-mail, and 52% of them share news with others through these channels.

This study confirms suspicions we have had for some time – our Facebook news streams and Twitter feeds are becoming our “homepage” for news consumption. NYTimes.com or CNN.com are no longer our browser’s homepage; and if they are, they are not likely the central hub for where we consume our news. The same Pew study found that only 7% of those surveyed are receiving information and news from a single media platform. Our news sources are more diversified than ever, but what’s more important is how we are being driven to this news content.

Before mass online news consumption, we were forced to consume whatever newspaper editors and TV producers decided we should read and watch. In the early years of online news consumption, news aggregation was not a necessity, as our sources for quality online news were slim. In these days, we could set our browser’s homepage to NYTimes.com and be satisfied with the flow of information we were receiving from the newspaper’s site editors. Today, we have the ability to create our own personalized news aggregation services from the news sources we trust most – our ‘friends’ and socialgraphs.

Gone are the days when a single newspaper’s website was the hub for all of one person’s news consumption, linking to various stories within that single hub of news. Today’s news consumption follows a hub-n-spoke model in which social networks are the hub that direct us out to the spokes of various news sources linked to by our friends and trusted news aggregation ‘editors’.

As more Americans rely on social networks as their primary source of news consumption, it will be increasingly important for news organizations, political campaigns and brands to find creative ways to convince individuals to spread news on their behalf. Newspaper editors will continue to have nearly exclusive influence over what is printed by their publications, but their power over driving eyeballs to this content is now in the hands of the masses. Every one of our friends is now a news aggregation ‘editor’ with the power to drive us from our social news hub to the various spokes of trusted news content.

Why @JebBush Joining Twitter Matters

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0000

If you have ever e-mailed former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, you know exactly why his joining Twitter yesterday is significant. During his time as Governor, Bush was notorious for personally responding to all e-mails sent to him within 24 hours. Bush understood and embraced a concept that few politicians of his time understood – direct media (a term coined by TechRepublican founder, David All). Before Twitter and Facebook became widely adopted platforms for politicians to directly communicate with voters and vice-versa, Bush understood the essential concept of direct access and transparency.

Even with the boom of politicians setting up Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, few are using these social platforms to personally engage directly with voters and constituents. If Jeb Bush’s previous history with e-mail is any indication of how he may use Twitter, he could serve as a standard-bearer amongst politicians using the platform effectively.

Bush has had a Twitter account (@cgables43) set up since March 11, 2009, but had never tweeted until yesterday when he announced that he would be moving to a new Twitter handle - @JebBush. As word leaked out of Bush’s new account and the legitimacy of the account was confirmed by Bush’s staff, @JebBush’s following exploded to 1,000 followers in one hour. As of 7:30 a.m. this morning, 15 hours after launching the new account, Bush has surpassed the 2,000 follower mark.

As with any move Jeb Bush makes, politicos inside and outside of Florida can add this latest Twitter maneuver to the growing list of more public appearances the former Governor has made in the past few months - moves sure to create buzz for a Bush 2012 candidacy.

Bush has yet to tweet from the new @JebBush account, but hopefully the move to the new Twitter handle is a sign that Bush is ready to embrace Twitter. Jeb Bush has seemingly always been a tech-geek of sorts, whether it is sporting off his new Kindle to Tucker Carlson in an Esquire interview, or featuring his beloved Blackberry in his official portrait which hangs in the state Capitol. If Bush applies the same discipline he applies to other forms of electronic communication, I am confident that @JebBush will quickly become one of the most effective and popular tweeting politicians.

Cross-posted from TechRepublican.com

@JebBush Joins Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:57:00 +0000

On March 11, 2009, the Twitter account @cgables43 was created with the name "Jeb Bush". For nearly a year, I have waited to see if the former Florida Governor would indeed tweet. Today, @cgables43 issued their first tweet saying:

As @JebBush's following skyrocketed, so did speculation as to whether or not this actually was Jeb Bush. Minutes after the tweet from @cgables43, I was able to independently confirm with Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education that the account is indeed former Florida Governor Bush.

Bush's move onto Twitter is a significant one. Jeb Bush has seemingly always been a tech-geek of sorts, whether it is sporting off his new Kindle to Tucker Carlson in an Esquire interview or featuring his beloved Blackberry in his official Governor's portrait which hangs in the state Capitol.

Bush's Twitter maneuver brings many questions with it - How active of a Twitter user will Bush be? Will the tech-savvy former Governor personally tweet? Does the Governor's Twitter-move accompanied by a more public schedule in recent months signal that he is gearing up for another run at public office, possibly the White House in 2012?

Facebook on Capitol Hill

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:13:00 +0000

Politico has a great profile piece out this morning on the three-man team at the helm of Facebook's D.C. bureau whose job it is to expand Facebook's presence in Washington D.C. This includes working with candidates and elected officials on setting up Facebook pages and profiles while ensuring that they are complying with election laws. Click here to read the full article and also be sure to check out Politico's video below:

Rubio Articulates New 3M

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:53:00 +0000

This video explains precisely how Marco Rubio has been able to successfully implement a New 3M campaign (MESSAGE → MOMENTUM → MONEY). Absolutely one of the best articulations of the concepts behind New 3M that I have heard from any politician:

FlaDems Take Over Putnam's Wikipedia Page

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:04:00 +0000

I rarely point out what Democrats are doing well online, especially in Florida. But when lessons can be learned from the opposition, I find it necessary to share. The Florida Democratic Party ran a very creative attack on Republican Congressman Adam Putnam today on Wikipedia. Putnam, running for Commissioner of Agriculture, had his Wikipedia page as well as a page title "Hypocrisy" hijacked by the Party calling him a hypocrite (see screenshots below). The Party then distributed these screenshots to traditional reporters, bloggers and other Democratic "talkers" in the State.

Wikipedia is a web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based on an openly-editable model, meaning that anyone can edit anything about anybody on the site. Over the years, Wikipedia's credibility has increased as more people have begun to use the open-platform and post accurate information. What could be damaging for Putnam and other candidates (who all could fall victim of this sort of attack), is the effect Wikipedia pages have on search engines. Wikipedia pages frequently rank towards the top of Google search result pages and if a candidate is not watching closely, their Wikipedia pages can be hijacked with very unfavorable information from their opposition (see screenshot of Putnam's Google search results below):

To avoid this from happening to your campaign, you can "watch" Wikipedia pages of your choosing and receive updates any time they are edited.

Facebook Outlines Mobile Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:50:00 +0000

As Facebook continues to grow at an alarming rate of 1 million new users every other day, it's future will likely rest largely on it's success and adoption on mobile devices. Currently, there are more than 100 million active users accessing Facebook through their mobile device and according to Facebook, these mobile users are twice more active on Facebook than non-mobile users. So what does the future of Facebook on mobile devices look like? Facebook's Vice President of User Growth, Mobile and International Expansion, Chamath Palihapitiya, gave some insight during this recent session on Mobile Communications 2.0 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona:

An Alternative Facebook Friend Diet

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:28:00 +0000

The Heritage Foundation's Director of Online Strategy, Robert Bluey, published a piece a few weeks ago calling for a Facebook Diet of sorts. Bluey cites a recent tweet from David All in which All claimed he was "going on a Facebook Friend diet for 2010" with a goal of being "under 1,500 by July 4th."

I share Bluey and All's concern and desire to make their Facebook networks more personal and to rid their Facebook news feeds of Blingee Book and Mafia Wars. After all, the social network was built be a place where you could connect with your "friends". But with all due respect to these two online strategists far more brilliant than me, I would argue that eliminating your current Facebook friends or refusing to accept friend requests that come in the future is not the best solution to this problem.

In his blog post, Bluey says that his wife will ask "why a total stranger is remarking about a personal item" such as a picture of their son. A good question indeed. I ran into similar annoyances when friends of my parents started joining Facebook 3-4 years after I had been on the network. My parents and their friends suddenly had access to everything I was doing with my life online, and people who I had not seen in a decade were suddenly giving me life advice via my Facebook status. Talk about obnoxious. But un-friending these people or not accepting their friend requests was not the answer. There were times when I had information that I wanted to share with these people, whether it was news of my engagement, wedding plans, or career moves I was making. If I had made the decision to deny their friend requests or un-friend them, I would have lost the ability to communicate with them via Facebook.

Over the past week, I have received an average of 6 friend requests per day. Almost all of these people I have never heard of before, but upon inspecting our "mutual friends" it is clear that these people want to connect with me professionally (or, perhaps more likely, simply increase their Facebook friend count for reasons beyond my understanding). While I do not want to give these people access to everything I post on Facebook (especially personal status updates), why would I turn down someone who has initiated a relationship that could be beneficial to me professionally? More than 15% of the traffic to my blog comes directly from Facebook, and increasing my footprint on Facebook will allow me to drive more traffic to that content and make connections that could be mutually beneficial to me and my "friends" in the future.

So how can I keep these two worlds of Facebook "friends" separate? The rarely-talked-about, yet incredibly effective Facebook Lists tool.

Every time I receive a friend request on Facebook from someone I do not recognize, I check to see what friends I have in common with the requester ("mutual friends"). 99 times out of 100, the "mutual friends" will be politicians, journalists and other "professional" connections I have made on Facebook. By simply clicking the "Add to List" drop down menu underneath the name of the friend requester, I can choose what previously created list I want to add this new friend to. If they are someone I think will be interested in the political content I post to Facebook, I add them to my "Professional" list. If the person is someone I know in the offline world that has no interest in politics, I place them in the "Personal" list.

Once these lists are set up, I can determine which lists see which status updates and links I post to Facebook. For example, this blog post would not interest my personal friends on Facebook, but if I wanted to drive my professional network on Facebook to this post, I could because I have a created a list of my professional friends. By clicking the drop-down menu to the left of the "Share" button, I can manually select exactly who I want to see my Facebook status update or link.

In this example, I want my entire professional list to see my link, so I select "Professional" and save my setting. Once I click "Share" only my professional contacts will be able to see my link, sparing my personal friends from my political ramblings.

Facebook Lists can also be incredibly effective for political campaigns at the local and congressional level. If a candidate is using a Facebook profile instead of a Facebook page, they have the ability to segment their friends into many different messaging niches. Let's say Candidate X for State House posts a Facebook status update regarding their position on property taxes. If 35 people "like" that Facebook status, Candidate X can be relatively certain that those 35 people agree with their stance on that issue. If property taxes are an important issue to Candidate X's campaign, why not segment those 35 people into a separate Facebook List and target future messages regarding property taxes (especially fundraising pleas) to those people?

This principle of segmenting your message is a timeless one that has been made simple in other online mediums such as e-mail. But it admittedly requires much more effort on Facebook.

Facebook has evolved a great deal since its launch six years ago, and those of us that have been a member of the network for a number of years have seen our network of friends evolve with it. For those of us who continue to use Facebook and other forms of social media to promote our candidates and causes, we will always be confronted with the challenge of keeping our personal and professional lives separate online. This alternative Facebook Friend Diet, though tedious, has immensely helped me segment my Facebook network instead of purge it. I hope it will do the same for you.

Cross-posted from TechRepublican.com

Facebook Now Drives More Traffic to Web Sites Than Google

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:48:00 +0000

Momentous news this morning for the future of social media and search. From Steve Rubel from Edelman PR's blog:

We're at the beginning of a major shift in how we find, consume and interact with information. If the 2000s was the Google decade, then the 2010s will be the Facebook decade. Already, you can see the writing on the wall - pun intended. Case in point: a search for "google decade danny sullivan" pulls up his Facebook note higher than a blog post (an item I wanted to include here for context). But that's nothing. Look at the data.

According to new stats from compete.com Facebook is becoming the web's top source of traffic (link via Jeremiah Owyang on where else, Facebook).

"According to Web measurement firm Compete Inc., Facebook has passed search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN, and is among the leaders for other types of sites.

This trend is shifting the way Web site operators approach online marketing, even as Google takes steps to move into the social-media world.

Some experts say social media could become the Internet's next search engine."

Click here to read the entire post.

Is Charlie Crist Checking Out Your Twitter Avatar?

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:15:00 +0000

I found it beyond bizarre when Florida Times-Union reporter Abel Harding tweeted earlier this week that Governor Charlie Crist complemented another Times-Union reporter (David Hunt) on his Twitter avatar (pictured here). Bizarre because for all of the criticism Governor Crist has received online, how could he possibly be familiar with Hunt's Twitter avatar? Has Crist ever seen a tweet?

Crist's familiarity with the picture likely stems from seeing it somewhere else, but as the video below shows, few politicians are smoother and more personable than Charlie Crist. Check it out:

The Case for a Sayfie News Bureau

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:04:00 +0000

Speculation and rumors have been flying around Tallahassee for months now that online media mogul Justin Sayfie (my former boss) is launching a new news bureau in Tallahassee. Sayfie has emphatically denied any current affiliation with Sunshine State News saying he has, "absolutely nothing to do with," the organization after removing himself from incorporation documents earlier this year.

But all of the speculation and buzz about an alleged Sayfie News Bureau must have got Justin Sayfie thinking. Yesterday, he posed the following question to his Twitter followers and Facebook friends:

I'm so amazed at the interest in whether I'm involved in a new news service in Tallahassee. I have NO current involvement whatsoever.

So, I guess the question is, should @SayfieReview start a news bureau in Tallahassee and elsewhere in Florida? What do you think?

The responses to Sayfie’s post came as no surprise to me as his Facebook friends and Twitter followers expressed their overwhelming support for a hypothetical Sayfie News Bureau.

With obvious bias, allow me to make my case for a Sayfie News Bureau.

The print newspaper is dying - yeah, we get it. But the music industry did not die after the death of records, 8 tracks, cassette tapes and CDs. The print newspaper is dying, not journalism. But in order for professional journalism to survive, current news organizations must adapt their business models and, more importantly, change the way they view the internet. If news organizations stop blaming the internet for their demise and start accepting the internet as their disguised savior, journalism may be saved. However, if news organizations continue to focus on saving their print product instead of focusing on how to make money online, professional journalism is in danger of extinction.

While some news organizations have been able to adapt online successfully, most have not. So what happens when more and more established news organizations fail to adapt and face the same fate other fallen newspapers have faced over the past decade? What happens to the talented and valuable journalists who are out of work? Someone who understands how to make money off of online news will step up and fill the void. I’m not talking about “Twitter journalists” or unpaid bloggers; I am talking about paid, professionally trained journalists, creating and disseminating news online (see Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller as a model).

Florida’s newspapers have not been immune to the global free-fall in newspaper circulation. In October of 2009, the St. Petersburg Times reported a 10% decrease in circulation from the previous year while the Orlando Sentinel, Tampa Tribune and Miami Herald lost 12%, 18% and an astounding 23% respectively.

Florida is at a critical point financially and politically. The need for fantastic reporting has never been greater. But with news rooms across the Sunshine State shrinking at a rapid rate, who will cover the news with timeless professional journalistic standards? Why not Justin Sayfie? Since 2002, Sayfie has built one of the most successful models for online journalism in the State of Florida, if not the country. SayfieReview.com has been called the "online bible for Florida political junkies" by the St. Petersburg Times and the “axis around which Florida's online political world revolves” by the Tallahassee Democrat. The site has maintained such a high level of journalistic credibility that it is read regularly by 5 current and former Florida Governors, every member of the Florida Cabinet, the President of the Florida Senate, the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, numerous State Legislators, nearly every member of the Florida Congressional delegation and many member of the Capitol Press Corps.

And perhaps most importantly to the continued success of journalism in Tallahassee – Sayfie's online journalism venture is profitable!

So as Tallahassee continues to buzz about who is behind Sunshine State News, I encourage Justin Sayfie to seriously consider launching his own Sayfie News Bureau. Demand may continue to fall for the print edition of Florida’s most beloved newspapers, but the demand for the content will always be there. Professional journalism is essential to democracy, but if the established news organizations can’t make money in this new information economy, they will fail and democracy will ultimately suffer. Let us encourage those who have proven they understand the democratization of information and can make money in a new age of professional journalism.

Carole Crist, "The TWITTER," and The Real Housewives of NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:16:00 +0000

On Friday, I noticed that Florida's First Lady, Carole Crist, had registered a Twitter handle and had actually sent out two tweets in late 2009. Out of curiosity, I checked to see who Crist was following on Twitter, only to find out that she had followed Jill Zarin, star of of Bravo's The Real Housewives of New York City, before following her husband - Florida Governor Charlie Crist. My political/pop-culture curiosity spawned this tweet...

...which to my total shock elicited a response from Zarin herself:

The exchange, while politically irrelevant, was for me, highly entertaining. A few weeks ago, I had trouble coming up with an answer to The Shorty Awards' question "What's the most interesting connection you've made through Twitter?" Now, I definitely have my answer.

On a slightly more serious note, I think it would be interesting to see Florida's First Lady actively engage on Twitter. Crist is the first First Lady I have seen with a seemingly authentic Twitter account, and if she decides to truly invest and engage on the platform, it could go a long way to enhancing the image of her husband, Charlie Crist, online.

How Technology Is Altering The 2010 Landscape

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Raynor) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:54:00 +0000

This past Tuesday night, I had the privilege of giving the keynote address to the Hillsborough County Republican Executive Committee - the largest Executive Committee in the State of Florida. My speech focused on how technology is being harnessed by insurgent candidates across the country to upset the political establishment. The timing of the speech could not have been more appropriate. As I was speaking, polls were closing and votes were being counted in Massachusetts where soon after, they would announce that Republican Scott Brown had been elected to succeed Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. Needless to say, the crowd of 300 was fired up and ready to learn how to leverage technology to win elections in 2010. Here's the full speech: