Brain-Jockey

Brain Food

Written by Audrie Zettick on June 1, 2009

Those of you who follow me on Twitter may already have read these articles.  Consider them brain food on current issues.

• In Pravda, the state news of Russia, an article called “American Capitalism Gone With A Whimper.”  While some things are overstated, it gives an interesting perspective of current events in the U.S. from outside eyes. A bit of a wake-up call.

• In Smart Girl Nation, an article by Dr. Richard G. Fessler debunking the World Health Organization’s ranking of the U.S.’s health care system, showing how their calculations are biased against the U.S.  Numbers aren’t always what they seem at first glance.

Feed your brain.  Think for yourself.  Pass it on.

Survive Obama Inauguration Day and Beyond: Let Your Heart Be A Twitter

Written by Audrie Zettick on January 20, 2009

Many heads are in the clouds and hearts all a twitter with this historic inauguration.  To heck with the size of our carbon footprints, let’s make a carbon caldera as we party like it’s 1999.  

Actually, I’m staying home but I don’t behoove Obama supporters (except perhaps those in the media) their fun and adoration of “the One.”  I avoid fawning over pop culture icons, but admit to being speechless the first time I met Reagan.  I wore “Reagan red” in the 1980s—but only because I looked “hot” in the color. 

And you’d have to have a heart of granite not to be moved by the inauguration of our first black President, in a town where the Capitol was build by slaves.  

Yes, I’m for Hope and Change.  Hope that Obama’s inauguration leads to an historic presidency where the first family becomes less a pop culture figure but more an example of a healthy, intact family to emulate.  Hope that President Obama’s speech on accountability and responsibility isn’t about government’s responsibility as a nanny state, but our’s as citizens. And I hope that I still have change in my pocket after Nancy Pelosi’s majority gets through with my purse.

But as I watch the inauguration today, I’m still filled with dread.  Our local paper drove home why I feel that way with an opening line that reads “Today, America changes course.”  With high level officials like Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder at the helm of major policy-making departments, I’m anxious. Lesser known figures such as Cass Sunstein and several at the Justice Department frighten me even more. As regulatory “czar,” Sunstein is in a position to advance his principles, which include designing regulations around how people behave.  He definitely doesn’t behave the way the folks in my family do, where we eat meat, have relatives that hunt, and haven’t included our pet fish in our wills.

Last week, I came across many lists about how to survive the inauguration, such as this one that gives the advice not to wear sequins lest you become stuck to another sequin-attired attendee at an inaugural ball. Not what I had in mind.  Alas, how do conservatives make it through today, tomorrow and next week without our heads exploding?

Fear not, my friends.  I have found the solution.  Attend the Twitter Ball (see Washington Times) hosted by Smart Girl Politics at 9 p.m. tonight (Jan. 20).  Why?

• It beats wrapping your head in duct tape.
• You can wear sequins without worrying about getting stuck to folks like Nancy Pelosi.
• You can wear pajamas…or less.
• Some of us from #TCOT (Top Conservatives on Twitter) will be there.
• You can rub “virtual elbows” with people like Saul Anuzis, Chip Saltzman, Amanda Carpenter, and others.
• It’s less calories than chocolate (my personal choice for relieving anxiety)
• You can engage in several tracks of discussion, such as 2012, Taking Back the Congress and more.
• You can turn these discussions into action.
• It’s a hangover-free event and even cheaper than Wild Turkey.
• No worry about how many porta-potties are present. 

See you online.

Obama’s Friend-Raising Trumps Fundraising

Written by Audrie Zettick on December 1, 2008

Apparently, Barack Obama’s fundraising from small donors wasn’t up to the hype.  But still, what can we learn? 

While Obama did indeed set new records for funds raised, a recent study  revealed that small donors (defined as those who donated under $200) comprised 26% of Obama’s total donations–only 1% higher than Bush’s small donor percentage (25%) in 2004.  This study by the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute confirmed a suspicion we’ve had–that the Obama campaign’s small donor base was inflated by counting donors multiple times–each time they gave an amount under $200–even if the total was much more than that.

Many pundits might stop there, glorying in the proof of Obamamania hype.  

But the lesson here lies in the communication strategy used by Obama—not just the media but how the tools were used. I’ll call it his “Friend-Raising” strategy. 

As Soren Dayton wrote, there are ways in which the Republican campaign organization exceeded Obama’s campaign.  But the bottom line was that the GOP applied technology to the old way of doing things; the Obama campaign used its “technology tool box” to really move things forward–especially with their advanced use of social networking.

A great insight into social networking is found in a quote by Travis Kalanick on MSNBC.  Travis, the Founder and former CEO of Red Swoosh said:

“Social networks are like grease — in some cases, gasoline — for our personal business networking machines. If you aren’t plugged in, you will be out-done by better-connected, hyper-networked colleagues and competitors.”

Obama’s social networking efforts clearly threw gasoline on the fire of Obamamania, empowering onlookers to become invested in the outcome of the election.  As Rachel Motte wrote today on EvangelicalOutpost.Com,  Republicans have got to “stop treating the internet like just another communications medium and to start using it to spark real-world action.”   She goes on to summarize some great conservative activity online this week (kudos to Michael P. Leahy for starting the Top Conservatives on Twitter list). 

What we are talking about is Web 2.0–(see my favorite web 2.0 definition)—using the tools of the internet to transform the way we do business.  

Deployed well, web 2.0 in the “business” of political advocacy can :

• Creat momentum to recruit volunteers and their natural online activity to make them virtual organizers.  This article discusses how the Obama campaign didn’t just USE social networking by encouraging piecemeal social media usage but rather by finding new applications to integrate usage.  The Obama campaign implemented an application (turned down by the McCain camp) that integrated the My.Barack.Obama website with Facebook, allowing a feed from the one to the other.  So, for example, if someone registered with the Obama site signed up to host an event, it got posted to Facebook.  The result was a community that was cultivated, one where lurkers turned into activists.  By allowing individuals’ Facebook pages to become a shout out of activity, it essentially turned these Facebook pages into “community organizers” where new constituencies were reached.  Cool.

• Turn small donors into repeat donors and leaders-by-example.  You might not be able to give $100 to a cause or candidate, but giving $25 several times is doable.  And it can be done quickly.  And –what if the Facebook feed showed a small giver just donated.  Would his or her Facebook friends feel pressure to donate?  I have a nonprofit consultant acquaintance I watched raise thousands of dollars quickly by simply asking her Twitter network to go to a website and donate $10 each.

• Keep the blogosphere buzzing.  Whether it’s reality checking facts or getting everyone to show for an event, the turn around time is short and breadth of coverage is wide in social media.  People can become engaged, not simply talked to (as you might with email). 

Lesson here:  go beyond just employing the tools; make them work together to nourish (not just create) a community–and use that community to transform the way we “do” politics.