Jefferson-Jackson Day, Session I: Using the Netroots effectively for network-building

Kenneth Quinnell is moderating this session. He's beginning by introducing the Florida Progressive Coalition blog and all of its accoutrements: links to Florida's progressive blogs, the wiki, links about races and candidates, and more.

(The room has filled up a bit -- I think we're up to around 35-40 folks.)

First panel is Susan Smith, Lori Poole, and Josh Koster.

Susan is from Hillsborough County and is active with the DEC there and for DFA Tampa Bay. She tries to use any resource available, including DFA Link. She's also the campaign precinct chair for Hillsborough County and was active in certifying a new club for northwest Hillsborough County. The key, she believes, is getting away from your computer and getting out to meet people.

Lori is the executive director for the Florida Young Democrats, where she's been for a month or so. Previously she was in PR for the Florida Justice Association. FYD is an interesting structure because they have tried to use networking sites like Facebook to capture more people. The local organizations -- chapters -- have been effective in peer-to-peer networking, too. Young people talking to young people directly has been great in increasing turnout.

Josh Koster, a media advisor for progressive concerns in D.C., works on helping down-ballot candidates utilize new media. Many techniques are available for these candidates.

A fourth panelist just arrived after being stuck in traffic: Wendy Sejour, president of DFA Miami-Dade.

l-r: Wendy Sejour, Josh Koster, Lori Poole, Susan Smith

First question: how do you find people? Susan says they're coming out of the woodwork -- phones are ringing and people are getting active. [Note: one woman just took a phone call in the middle of the meeting and is talking at a normal conversational volume. It'd be funny if it weren't so rude!] Josh: the important thing is to get all of your staffeers involved, get e-mail addresses, and engage people the old-fashioned way -- recruit volunteers, get them involved quickly, and then they'll be invested in the race.

Lori adds that they seek out people who are already involved. They send videos that can be played on iPods, establishing street teams, meeting people and engaging in natural conversations with people, and ultimately (they hope) getting them to sign a vote pledge. You have to remember that young people don't operate in the same way as older folks -- they ignore advertising and respond better to alternative methods of communcation. Even using Guitar Hero -- you can have a tournament but as part of it, you're introducing young people to involvement in Democratic politics!

Josh adds that you can target advertising on Facebook very effectively, and they're dirt cheap to boot. Half a million impressions may cost as little as $500. Use the advertising to tell kids that they can early-vote, draw them into a site to collect their e-mail addresses, and more.

Kenneth: I can't tell you how many times I've been to meetings where people say, "Why don't young people get it?" Once you approach things that way, you've lost them. You have to approach them by giving them respect and talk to them on their level -- don't insult them! Lori points out that youth vote in Florida in the primary tripled this year.

Question: how many e-mails is too many? For example, Jon Ausman sent me (the questioner) too many e-mails about the delegate issue! Susan says she only does one a week, just because she doesn't want anyone to ask to be removed from a list. Wendy agrees, and her organization does a weekly update on Sunday nights to prepare for the week. Josh adds that you should send e-mails only when it's important, and using the direct mail template (with a lot of action items and fluff) isn't good -- real people don't respond to that.

Question: how do we fight smears? Lori: best way is one-on-one, not so much by e-mail. One of the problems Democrats have message-wise is that we don't frame responses well -- we have to frame things appropriately: Instead of saying "Barack Obama isn't a Muslim," we should say "he is a man of faith who wants to work with people of faith and take on the social issues that faith embraces." Josh adds that if someone believes Obama is a Muslim, they're beyond help anyway -- write them off. Instead, make the opponents think the smears are a waste of time. If you see a smear ad, call them and say, "Thanks for running that ad -- I just gave your opponent $100." That will make them think. Kenneth: we just ignore right-wing blogs, rather than give them traffic. Josh: if all else fails, hit back twice as hard on something else. And use VoterVoter.com, which allows you to do very small, very focused media buys.

What about using Facebook? Josh says it's not all that great because people use it for parties and birthdays, not so much for political organization. Lori suggests using it for advertising, though (which Josh did say is helpful, earlier), as well as for reaching people who have their own social networks ... so if you want to have a successful Facebook site, you need to involve people who already have strong networks themselves, because you can reach friends of friends or maybe one degree farther. Josh adds: if you are doing Facebook, the person in charge of it must be in college or nearly so -- "must be from Facebook generation."

Kenneth suggests political social networking like that operated by Progress Florida or Democrats.com.

Comment from audience: remember that 40% of Facebook users now are over the age of 30. Also, it isn't your list -- so you need to get people to connect with you beyond just Facebook, or you'll lose them. Josh says: if you're going to connect with someone on Facebook and you're organizing, make sure you get to them by phone as quickly as possible -- keep in mind that Facebook should be only an introductory step. Lori: if you use an ad, maybe the point of your ad is "come to this event to do something fun," but once they arrive, capture their information to use later.

Josh advises everyone not to buy e-mail lists, ever. There are spam risks and other problems. So build your own list and do it the old-fashioned way -- collect addresses at events, then follow up quickly so they interact with someone soon. Maybe you get a donation, maybe you just get permission to keep them updated via e-mail. Kenneth adds: when you send that first e-mail, include something to which they have to respond, so that you know they've gotten the e-mail. Lori recommends linking up your website, even if it's not good, so that there's more ways to communicate. Josh: if you have a dynamic, exciting candidate, pay to get people to your site by using Google's AdWords.com ... you only pay for people who actually click on the ad.

Question: regarding ads, what's the average cost per hit? Josh: well, you will have to start by spending $5 a day and figure out what it's actually costing you. Lori: the way the ads work is that you buy words and they search, say, "Democrat Miami-Dade." If the words match, your ad might show up, and the more you spend, the higher your ad appears. Big search words like "mesothelioma" or "Barack Obama" are expensive, so maybe try using less expensive words. Rick Spisak adds that you can cap your spending for ads, plus you can limit the ads by location and so on ... Lori points out that when you cap your spending, essentially you're testing whether you're getting your money's worth. If you cap it at $100 and you decide it's not working well, then you're only out $100. Josh says there's a "halo effect," where even people who aren't clicking on your ad right away are seeing your ad, and they may come back to you later.

As a legal matter, says one audience member, you may have to provide a disclaimer under state law ... but if it's a non-candidate ad, says Lori, you're treated differently. Rick Spisak also recommends buying your competitor's name as a domain name or in ads or something ... it could work nicely.

Next panel will be on integrating online with off-line activities, and the Florida Netroots Awards will be announced at 2:30.