This year’s expanded report is the third annual survey based on interviews with over 500 senior staffers (legislative directors and above) from capital cities in 11 different countries around the world including Washington DC, Brussels, London, Beijing, Ottawa, Mexico City, Paris, Berlin, New Delhi, Buenos Aires and Brasilia.

Although traditional methods public affairs components are still valuable, social media channels have experienced a meteoric rise in their ability to shape and influence policy worldwide over the past year.

Specifically, policymakers have shown a dramatic increase in their use of Twitter, Facebook and mobile technology which underscores the importance of social media and the Internet in educating policymakers and galvanizing them to support a policy issue.

Highlights include:

• 60% of staffers learned about a policy issue for the first time online
• 1/3 changed their position on policy issues based on online information
• 80% of staffers still view in-person visits, phone calls and written letters as effective
• A majority (53%) of policymakers use Twitter
• Poor messaging and lack of grassroots support lead among top campaign “fail factors”

Other global data from the report may be found in the Slideshare PowerPoint and infographic posted below.

RELATED

Edelman Friday Five: 2011 Capital Staffers Index
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Originally posted on Edelman on Influence

This morning, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Holmes Report’s ThinkTank Live event here in Washington, DC where I discussed the evolving media landscape and the role of social media in shaping politics and public policy. In preparation, I got to thinking about how social media was impacting the election process this early in the race. Between the Romney-Perry video battles and the buzz around Herman Cain’s “smoking” ad featuring his chief of staff Mark Block, it was a perfect week to perform a little deeper analysis.

So, I decided to take a look at how some of the top presidential contenders were using various social media platforms. Specifically, I set out to aggregate data to include the number Facebook likes, Twitter followers, YouTube views, Foursquare fans, Flickr photos, LinkedIn friends and Google+ circles. Of course, when measuring ultimate campaign success, it’s not just about numbers but I do think that they can be an indication as to whether a candidate is building support or if specific messages are resonating (i.e. Cain’s 9-9-9 plan).

While researching, I looked for the official 2012 campaign accounts even though there might be other user accounts related to the same candidate. For example, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN-6th) has an official Twitter account (@MicheleBachmann) with over 108k followers that her Congressional office maintains which is different than the account (@TeamBachmann) that her presidential campaign uses.

Sometimes it was easy to differentiate between several accounts because most of the official campaign websites provide links and/or widgets to their social media properties so I didn’t have to rely on search to find the best account. In other cases, it was difficult to locate the proper accounts because they were lost among parody and/or “unofficial” pages likely set-up by supporters.

Below is the complete list of accounts that I was able to locate. Click on the icon that runs horizontally across from the candidate’s name to view the related campaign social media property or group.

	Facebook	Twitter	YouTube	Foursquare	Flickr	LinkedIn	Google+
Obama							X
Romney							X
Perry
Paul				X
Bachmann				X		X	X
Cain
Huntsman*				X	X	X
Gingrich					X

The final issue was to determine the order of how I should list each of the candidates. My first instinct was to do so in alphabetical order by last name in the spirit of fairness. Then I considered doing it based on early poll performances, however, I ultimately decided to list them based on what really matters at this point in the race… money in the bank. I used the “Total Money Raised” data provided by Roaring Republican, which posted the latest Third Quarter 2011 Fundraising Numbers as of October 18, 2011.

Key Takeaways

• Clearly, the power of incumbency is a huge advantage for President Obama. Picking up where he left off after Campaign 2008, the Obama camp now boasts over 23.7M Facebook likes and 10.8M Twitter followers. In fact, the president is the first politician to crack 10M followers and the only non-entertainer in the Twitter Top 10). Basically, he overpowers everyone in the GOP field in almost every category with only two exceptions: 1) President Obama himself did not have a profile on Google+ and 2) the Obama campaign didn’t have a presence on Foursquare. However, the White House does have a branded Foursquare page so I included that in the grid.

  Earlier this week, the Obama 2012 campaign broke new ground when they launched a new page on the popular micro-blogging platform Tumblr which will serve as an ideal host to various forms of digital content and social media sharing.

• On the other side of the aisle, it’s a pretty crowded Republican field but former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney seems to be emerging as the one to beat as we near primary season — but it’s still early. Romney finishes way ahead of his GOP counterparts on Facebook with 1.1M likes with Ron Paul at a distant second with 565k. Romney has the third most Twitter followers but is second to last on YouTube with only 1.8M total upload views of his 57 videos.

• Earlier today, it was reported that Godfather’s Pizza CEO and political newcomer Herman Cain is performing surprisingly well in initial primary state polling placing second behind Romney in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. He’s holding his own in social media, though some of that may be misleading since the most recent “smoking” video attained about 1M views since it was posted on October 19th due to some criticism and scrutiny as to the message behind it. Again, the numbers are impressive but one could argue that it’s not helping the campaign. In addition, he has only raised about $5M so the question remains as to whether he can sustain his poll numbers, continue to build more support, increase his financial position and pose a serious challenge for the nomination.

• Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry still enjoys broad support and has a decent amount of cash on hand but his decision to skip some of the upcoming debates, likely after perceived poor performances in the past, has many wondering whether he’s up to the task. Governor Perry and Herman Cain are the only two candidates in the top tier who have a social media presence on all seven of the social media outlets evaluated, though admittedly there’s some confusion on a couple of the accounts as to whether some of Perry’s content was generated due to his role as Governor of Texas or whether it was officially posted as part of the presidential campaign. For example, 13k photos on Flickr seem to be a mix of both — and that’s a ton of photos but nowhere close to the 56k that President Obama has posted, in addiiton to the 52 sets of photos on the official White House Flickr photostream.

• Texas Congressman Ron Paul enjoys very strong support online and much of that dates back to Campaign 2008. There are still digital remnants from the race four years ago and it appears that he’s continued to use the “/ronpaul” username consistently across all accounts for quite some time which will certainly skew the numbers a bit. In other words, it’s unclear how many joined his current cause as opposed to 2008, but in some ways it doesn’t matter. Those who supported him in the last cycle may still be loyal this time around and probably explains why he has been able to build up a relatively healthy campaign war chest.

• The Team Bachmann approach is interesting and makes it clear that there’s a distinction between Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s presidential bid and her role in the U.S. Congress. Of course, there are limitations when posting official tweets vs. campaign updates (i.e. requests for donations) so it’s good to see that they have drawn a line firmly between the two. Almost 460k people like Rep. Bachmann on Facebook and it seems that is her strongest social media outlet with Twitter and YouTube close behind.

• Perhaps what is most interesting is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) is dead last in Facebook likes at 157k but wins decisively in every other social media platform with 1.3M followers on Twitter, almost 5M total upload views of 184 videos, 2,800 Foursquare followers and has been added in over 16k circles on Google+. Oddly, no Flickr page for the Speaker but there are over 270 photos posted to Facebook. Yet, despite these impressive numbers, strong name ID and regular media appearances over the years, Newt has only managed to raise $2.6M which is at rock bottom on this list and poses a real threat to the future of his campaign.

Bottom Line

Speaker Gingrich wins hands down when it comes to his digital share of voice but finishes dead last in fundraising. Governor Romney has a strong online presence, as well, and his support seems to be growing the most rapidly both online and off. Herman Cain is making a strong run in the polls but the ability to sustain and raise money will determine how long he remains in the race through the primary season.

It will be interesting to see how these numbers and donations change over the next several months and I’ll plan to post an update as the race matures. In the meantime, would love to hear your thoughts, as well.

As stated at the outset of this post — we are about a year away from the ultimate poll, Election Day 2012. On that day, the only friends and followers that matter to candidates are those that cast their votes!

Here’s a short video that the Holmes Report asked me to post to help promote today’s event. In it, I briefly discuss the importance of social media in the political process.

UPDATE 10/28/11*
Former Utah Governor and GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman gained some steam via YouTube when his daughters posted their parody “smoking” video in response to the Cain ad. However, the popular video was posted on a separate account instead of the official Jon2012HQ YouTube channel with 69 videos and over 269k total views. Incidentally, the campaign also has a Jon2012 Vimeo account linked directly from their website. I didn’t include the Huntsman campaign in the original tally, but after the video was released I decided to go back and take another look. Links to the Jon 2012 social media accounts have been added to the chart above. On Twitter, the @Jon2012girls have almost 8k followers which is impressive, especially considering that their father’s campaign account nears 46k. About half as many people support Huntsman on Facebook with almost 22k likes.

UPDATE 11/4/11
For those wondering if the current sexual harrasment allegations leveled at Herman Cain from his time at the National Restaurant Association are hurting his campaign, the answer is that it may be too early to tell. His poll numbers seem to be holding strong and both his Facebook and Twitter support increased with 329,515 likes and 153,506 followers respectively since 10/27/11. However, the real measurement will be whether funds will continue to pour in. If his presidential bid is to survive, there’s no question that this Wednesday’s CNBC GOP debate will be an important night for Cain to demostrate resilience and strength in the face of controversy.

We discussed the new Kindle, Apple price fixing allegations, President Obama’s “We the People” petition via WhiteHouse.gov, government and social media, crowdsourcing, ID spoofing and much more.

Here are the show notes for TWiL #131: All You Need is Seven Inches.

In January 2010, I compiled a list of the Top 2009 news stories that either began on the Internet or gained additional steam online due to the impact of social media. After receiving a lot of terrific feedback, I decided to do it again. However, this time I tracked the stories in real time as the year progressed as opposed to trying to remember the sequence of events at the end of the year.

Since I live and work in Washington, DC, I tried to keep a special eye out for stories related to politics and/or government. Now that most of the stats are in and stories have unfolded — one month into 2011 — let’s take a journey back. Without further ado, here are my Top 20 Social Media News Stories of 2010 (in chronological order).

1. NBC’s Late Night War: Conan vs. Leno
1/1/10 – At the beginning of the year, NBC found itself in the middle of a late night battle when executives decided to return Jay Leno as host of the Tonight Show. His new show at the 10 PM time slot was tanking. However, there was one major problem, Conan O’Brien currently had the job. In case this is a bit confusing for you, this animated Chinese reenactment complete with superhero motif should clear everything up. Instead of accepting an offer from NBC for a show at a later time, which he had done for years, Conan courageously decided to walk — and the fans went with him. They took to Twitter and Facebook to voice their support and soon thereafter, Team Coco was born. After a couple months of seclusion while deciding his next steps, Conan resurfaced in March by joining Twitter (@ConanOBrien) and made headlines when he randomly chose one person to follow. Also in March, Conan announced his two-month “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television” comedy tour via Twitter. Eventually, the cable network TBS offered Conan a deal and now fans can watch their favorite late night talk show host weeknights at 11 PM. His new website is, of course, TeamCoco.com.

2. Earthquake in Haiti
1/12/10 – After a devastating 7.0 earthquaike hit Haiti, no one could have possibly imagined the magnitude of destruction it would leave in its wake. According to the Haitian government, the death toll reached 230,000 with over 300,000 injured and approximately 1 million left homeless. Many buildings in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, suffered significant damage including the Presidential Palace, National Assembly and an estimated 250,000 residences. Many nations from around the world rallied to provide support and recovery assistance. Specifically, the American Red Cross partnered with the U.S. State Department in the most successful mobile fundraising campaign to date. Those looking to help were encouraged to donate $10 by texting the word “HAITI” to 90999 via their mobile devices. The initial response was overwhelming. Dollars were pouring in at roughly $200,000 per hour and after just a few days the tally had reached a record $5.1 million. Of course, it will take more than just money for Haitans to heal the pain of having lost loved ones, fight disease, overcome poverty and complete the rebuilding process. Here we are a year later it is clear that there is still much to be done.

3. The People’s Seat
1/19/10 – In one of the most surprsing political stories of 2010, Republican candidate Scott Brown defeated the Democrat Martha Coakley in the U.S. Senate race to fill the Massachucetts seat left vacant due to the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy. To call this a long shot for Brown would’ve be an understatement. Since the seat had been held so long by the late Democratic senator, it was often referred to as “Kennedy’s Seat” yet Brown always reminded folks on the campaign trail that it wasn’t Kennedy’s, Coakley’s or even his — it was the “People’s Seat.” As the election neared, national attention intensified and money began to flow in from all over the country. Former President Bill Clinton and President Obama both made trips to Massachucetts in the final days. However, Coakley made a series of “missteps” including some challenging media interviews, hurling insults at former Boston Red Sox pitcher (and Brown supporter) Curt Schilling, and the shoving of a Weekly Standard reporter by a campaign aide. No question that social media also played an important role. The Brown campaign effectively utilized their website, E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Ning, Google AdWords, search strategies and mobile platforms to engage voters, raise funds, rally volunteers, augment messages and for GOTV efforts on Election Day. Shortly after the win, Brown’s online strategist Rob Willington (@willington) sat down with the Heritage Foundation to discuss some of the digital tactics used on the campaign.

4. SNOmageddon
2/5/10 – Although it seems like all the major snow storms hit us last year, let’s not forget that we had quite a bit of snowfall earlier this year… February 2010 to be exact. Since most of us were stranded inside (except for the occasional trip to the driveway with shovel in hand), the only way to assess how others were braving the snow was via television or the Internet — at least for those lucky enough to still have power. Several memes popped up including #SNOmageddon, #SNOpocalypse and #snOMG. FamousDC provided a great round-up of images from around the Washington, DC area. Perhaps no one summed it better, however, than AccuWeather meteorologist Jim Kosek, “Oh boy! 14 to 22 inches of SNOOOOW!!!”

5. Google Who?
3/16/10 – 2010 was a great year for Facebook. In March, Facebook passed Google as the number one U.S. site, a 185% increase in share of visits over the same period of time the year before. A few months later in July, Facebook officially reached the 500 million user mark. In October, a movie loosely based on the story of the founding of Facebook called “The Social Network” opened in theatres and Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg was named TIME’s 2010 Person of the Year. Traffic to Facebook consistently remained high, beating Google all the way through the rest of 2010. In fact, a recent Hitwise study indicated that the word “Facebook” itself was also #1 among 1,000 top search terms in 2010. “This is the second year that the social networking Web site has been the top search term overall, accounting for 2.11% of all searches,” Hitwise reported. Computerworld reported that four variations appeared in the top 10 including facebook; facebook login; facebook.com, and www.facebook.com.

6. Presidential Reunion
3/3/10 – Funny or Die assembled an all-star cast of SNL alumni and comedy greats to create an advocacy video on behalf of the Main Street Brigade. The premise is that President Barack Obama (Fred Armisen) and Michelle (Maya Rudolph) get a surprise visit in the night at the White House from ex-Presidents George H.W. Bush (Dana Carvey), George W. Bush (Will Ferrell), Bill Clinton (Darrell Hammond), Gerald Ford (Chevy Chase), Ronald Reagan (Jim Carrey) and Jimmy Carter (Dan Akroyd) to get a few pointers about the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. This certainly wasn’t the only issue in 2010, but anytime Hollywood gathers all this talent into one room with Ron Howard in the director’s chair, it’ll definitely create some buzz.

7. BP Oil Spill
4/20/10 – British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill began with an explosion 5,000 feet below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 men on the platform and injured 17 others. Three months later, an estimated 206 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf that devastated marine life as well as the region’s fishing and tourism industries. News travelled fast over social media and the Obama Administration began pushing back against criticism that they were slow to act by stating that they were engaged since “Day One.” Soon, the parody Twitter account @BPGlobalPR popped up and began offering witty, humorous and often inappropriate nuggets limited to 140 characters or less. However, given the reponse from several BP officials in the wake of the tragedy, it was difficult to tell much difference between those that were real vs. fake such as, “Louisiana isn’t the only place that has shrimp” and “At night the gulf really doesn’t look that bad.” Yes, the shrimp comment was real. Adding to the company’s credibility gap, BP posted photos on their official Website that had clearly been altered and sites like Gawker, Gizmodo and Americablog began to take notice. The LIVE underwater “SpillCam” feature provided an opportunity for web users to watch the oil flow in real time until it was eventually capped.

8. Laughing All the Way to the Unemployment Line
4/22/10 – In the midst of heated political debates, such as the one ignited over the past couple years by the Tea Party movement, it’s probably best to take a breath and pause before acting. After all, cooler heads usually prevail. Lance Baxter could’ve used this advice before he called the conservative group FreedomWorks to leave a sarcastic, presumably prank voicemail to inquire about the percentage of members and/or staff that are “mentally retarded” or the plans to “spin it” when one of their “members actually does kill somebody.” Of course, no one at FreedomWorks was laughing. Baxter did leave his actual phone number in the voicemail, so a FreedomWorks staff member returned the call and the conversation was awkwardly brief. Evidently, Baxter also goes by the moniker of D.C. Douglas and had been employed by Geico as a voiceover actor, however that relationship ended when this story came to light. Megyn Kelly and Monica Crowley discussed the incident on FOX News. Later, Geraldo got into the act when he interviewed Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks for his take. Well, if there’s one thing we’ve learned about the interwebs, it’s that “Hell hath no fury like a scorned voiceover actor with a YouTube channel!”

9. Times Square Bomber
5/13/10 – Faisal Shahzad, a 31 year-old Pakistani immigrant packed an SUV full of explosives and parked it in the middle of Times Square with the intent of killing a large number of innocent bystanders. He lit the fuse and ran away, but the explosion never happened. Fortunately, a local vendor noticed the smoke coming from the vehicle and alerted the authories who later secured the area. News began to spread quickly online via Twitter and Facebook. Soon, a video was posted from a CNN iReport contributor of an NYPD officer evacuating a nearby McDonald’s. Thankfully, no one was hurt. In October, Shahzad was tried and sentenced to life in prison. At his trial, he stated, “If I’m given 1,000 lives I will sacrifice them all for the life of Allah.” Fortunately, at least one of them will be spent behind bars.

10. LIVE from Facebook, it’s Saturday Night!
5/8/10 – A fun campaign popped up on Facebook urging Saturday Night Live to book Betty White as host. Certainly most would agree that Betty is a talented actress and comedy legend in her own right and it was only fitting that her Facebook fans would launch such a movement to further cement her place in entertainment history. NBC executives and SNL producers loved the idea. A series of promos were released and then the day finally arrived. Of course, the Golden Girl didn’t disappoint — and her appearance resulted in the best ratings for SNL in 18 months. From her opening monlogue: “I really have to thank Facebook … I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time. I would never say the people on it are losers, but that’s only because I’m polite. People say ‘But Betty, Facebook is a great way to connect with old friends.’ Well at my age, if I wanna connect with old friends, I need a Ouija Board. Needless to say, we didn’t have Facebook when I was growing up. We had phonebook, but you wouldn’t waste an afternoon with it.” Next up: Carol Burnett? Yes, please.

11. Ellen Takes A Chance
5/12/10 – The Internet has proven once again that there is a bevy of talent out there just waiting to be discovered. One such young phenom, Greyson Michael Chance, gained national attention when he posted a YouTube video of his Edmond’s Sixth Grade Festival performance of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi.” While sitting at a piano, Greyson plays in front of a live student audience but the real fun happens as he begins to belt out notes. The looks on the faces of those in the crowd are simply priceless — particularly those along the top row. To date, the video of his Lady Gaga cover has over 36 million views which is incredible, especially considering that Lady Gaga’s official version has just under 50 million. Ellen DeGeneres invited Greyson to perform on her television talk show and his star has continued to rise ever since. You can view other performances, including his latest original tune “Waiting Outside the Lines” via his greyson97 YouTube channel and Geffen Records — but be sure to bring your umbrella!

12. Draw Muhammad Day
5/20/10 – Some cartoonists take a stand over the First Amendment while others claim that political commentary has gone too far. You decide.

13. Helen Thomas
6/7/10 – Longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas stirred up controversy after comments she made following a White House event celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month on May 27, 2010. In the video interview, Rabbi David Nesenhoff of RabbiLive.com asks Ms. Thomas if she has any comments on Israel and indicates that he has asked several others the same question to mark the occasion. She quickly replies, “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine” and suggests they should “go home” to Poland, Germany “and America and everywhere else.” Ms. Thomas then shared that she was of “Arab background” but grew up in Detriot. Once the video hit YouTube, many were outraged by her distasteful and seemingly anit-Semitic remarks. She issued an apology about a week later but it did little to quiet the growing calls for her firing. She announced her retirement on June 7, 2010.

14. Etheridge Gets Physical
6/14/10 – A couple of young men, claiming to be students, took to the streets of Washington, DC with a video camera and happened upon Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC-2). However, the congressman was less than pleased to be questioned about whether he “fully supports the Obama agenda.” In fact, it turned outright ugly when he grabbed the questioner by his arm and then his neck while repeatedly asking, “Who are you?” Democrats pushed back on the video claiming that Etheridge was set-up by conservative activists. In either case, Rep. Etheridge recognized that his behavior was inappropriate and later issued an apology during a news conference in Raleigh, NC. “No matter how partisan and no matter how difficult things get sometimes, that’s no excuse for my response,” he said. “I know better.” However, the damage had been done. After a hotly contested race and vote recount, Etheridge eventually lost to his GOP challenger Renee Ellmers by approximately 1,500 votes.

15. World Cup: Believe
6/18/10 – After overcoming a two goal deficit, Americans were appalled when referees called back Maurice Edu’s goal that seemingly robbed the United States of a win over Slovenia. Evidently, Edu commited a foul though video evidence failed to support the call. In either case, a 2-2 tie is better than a loss. In the next game, Team USA took on Algeria. The match was scoreless all the way up to the 91st minute in the second half when, after a defelcted shot, Landon Donovan tapped in an easy follow-up goal (GOOOOOL!) to win the game 1-0. The crowd erupted with cheers in celebration, and not just in the stadium. A YouTube video appeared a couple days later featuring a compilation of the world’s reaction to Donovan’s winning goal. To date, over 3 million have viewed the video, including Landon Donovan himself. In fact, he was so moved by it, that he posted it on his Facebook page along with this touching message: “Not sure if you guys saw this but it brings tears to my eyes every time. Thank you all so much…we can’t do it without you guys. Believe” Well, because of you and the rest of Team USA… we do. Thanks, Landon!

16. Barefoot Bandit
7/16/10 – He has quite a rap sheet that includes 70 crimes in eight US states and Canada. First arrested at the age of 12, he has stolen planes, boats, a half million dollars and has committed an estimated 100 burglaries. His name is Colton Harris-Moore, but many online know him better as the “Barefoot Bandit.” He earned the nickname after the legend spread that he committed many of his crimes without wearing shoes. He was also known to leave chalk drawings behind of footprints which became his trademark. His actions gained notoriety online through blogs, news websites and social networks including a Facebook page that reached over 90,000 fans. In July, authorities finally caught up with him in the Bahamas.

17. You’re Fired!
7/20/10 – Sorry, Mr. Trump, but I need to borrow your catchphrase to describe a controversy that exploded online last summer when Andrew Breitbart posted an excerpt of a video featuring USDA official Shirley Sherrod at a convention banquet hosted by the NAACP. In it, she seemingly admitted that she withheld assistance to a white farmer — which prompted accusations of racism. News of the event quickly reached Washington and her firing (at the urging of those at the White House) was almost immediate. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack was charged with the unenviable task. According to Sherrod, “They asked me to resign. And, in fact, they harassed me as I was driving back to the state office from West Point, Georgia, yesterday. I had at least three calls telling me the White House wanted me to resign.” And that’s exactly what happened. USDA’s deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook asked her to pull over to the side of the road and send her resignation immediately via BlackBerry. However, it didn’t end there. As it turns out, there was more to the story. The video was taken out of context and everyone started to back pedal after their rush to judgement, as internal e-mails later confirmed. Evidently, the incident in question took place over 24 years ago when she was employed by a non-profit. She has used the anecdote often in speeches stressing that her views had evolved over the years as she matured and intended to make the point that race didn’t matter. Groups formed to support Sherrod and began calling for the USDA to re-hire her. Even the “white farmer’s” wife came to her defense. Breitbart defended his initial posting of the video and described that his intent was to point out the NAACP’s false claims about racism among Tea Party members. In this fast-paced, competitive media and digital landscape, we should be reminded of the importance of taking time to investigate in order to make sound judgements based on the facts.

18. Run and tell that, Homeboy!
7/29/10 – Around 3 AM, a man in Huntsville, Alabama broke into an apartment and attempted to assault Kelly Dodson in her bedroom. Her brother, Antoine, heard the commotion and screams from the room next door and raced to Kelly’s aid. After a short tussle, the intruder escaped out the second story window. Early the next morning, Elizabeth Gentle from NBC affiliate WAFF-TV was on the scene to interview Kelly and her brother about the incident, and “emotions were running high.” During the interview, Antoine was clearly upset and rightfully so. Video of his spirited remarks quickly made its way across the Internet. Then, the Gregory Brothers from “Auto Tune the News” got ahold of it and created the “Bed Intruder Song.” It was an instant hit. Versions started popping up including punk, an awesome drum cover (courtesy of Meytal Cohen) and even the NC A&T marching band got into the act when they pulled together an impressive arrangement. Their studio session is fun, but their halftime performance on the field is pure genius! This past October, Antoine made a cameo appearance at the 2010 BET Hip-Hop Awards. As for the Dodson family, they were able to purchase a new house from the proceeds earned from song downloads on iTunes.

19. Don’t Touch My Junk!
11/15/10 – As we approached the heights of the holiday season, airports were preparing for the onslaught of passengers en route to visit family and friends. Unfortunately, we live in a world where security has become an integral part of our travel process as Americans and the TSA is charged with an important responsibility to keep us all safe. However, there are limits and some feel that searches are invasive which violate individual rights and personal privacy. John Tyner was one such passenger. After refusing to go through a full body scanner, he was being searched via a “pat down” by a TSA agent and felt compelled to turn on the video camera. While warning the agent not to get too close during the search, he said, “We can do that out here but if you touch my junk, I’m going to have you arrested.” Of course, the incident drew national attention in no time — and jokes began to flow. In the video below, Mary Katharine Ham of The Daily Caller opines that we have we become the United States of “Don’t Touch My Junk!” FamousDC offered a link to these new TSA bumper stickers. Of course, our nation’s security is no laughing matter and I am convinced that there are people in the world who still aim to do us harm. Sadly, there is no doubt in my mind that the threat is real and we should take the necessary precautions to protect ourselves which is why most of us are glady willing to remove our shoes and belts and empty our pockets of change and put our laptops in a bin and zip up our toiletries in a little plastic bag and place our bags… well, you get the idea. Sometimes, however, things get uncomfortable and I think we can all learn to have a little more patience. In related news, perhaps there’s a future at the TSA for this gentleman who was involved in one of the most bizarre interactions with a reporter that I have ever seen!

20. Treason or Heroism?
11/28/10 – According to Wikipedia, Wikileaks is described as “an international non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources and news leaks.” Julian Assange, an Australian, is often referred to as the director of the site. Wikileaks gained notable attention, first in July and again in October 2010, when it illegally obtained and published hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents regarding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In November, it released scores of U.S. diplomatic cables written by administration officials at the State Department. One suspect has been named thus far. Spc. Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old U.S. Army intelligence analyst has been accused of downloading and copying the documents while serving on a U.S. military base in Iraq. Some herald the Wikileaks publication and argue for “more transparency, less secrecy” in government. Conversely, others strongly condemn Wikileaks claiming that their actions have severely damaged U.S. national security and the trust of our allies.

There you have it… the Top 20. Also, here’s Twitter’s 2010 Year in Review, YouTube’s Rewind for 2010, a list of Yahoo’s 10 Obsessions of 2010 and a nifty infographic showcasing a year’s worth of Foursquare check-ins in 2010.

I’m sure there are other stories I’ve missed (Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court appointment, Chilean Miners, 7-11′s #SlurpeeSummit, Velma Hart’s exhausted return to “hot dogs & beans” for dinner, Old Spice Guy, Rent is Too Damn High!, November elections, Juan Williams fired from NPR, “Hope This Gets to You” song, etc.) so please comment and/or provide links to your favorites below.

Happy 2011!

Citizen Engagement in the Digital Age

When Barack Obama was sworn-in as the 44th President of the United States in January 2009, much was written about his campaign’s effective use of digital and social media tools to build support, reach new audiences and engage younger voters. Many credit those efforts as being critical to his successful bid for the White House.

Once in office, it was largely expected that the Obama Administration would utilize similar digital strategies for government application. They set out to build on the foundation laid by their predecessors by seeking to leverage emerging digital outlets to better serve and connect with Americans while simultaneously adapting to a rapidly evolving media landscape. The same was true for Capitol Hill.

Growing, Growing, Gone?

The 2010 Capital Staffers Index demonstrates significant increases in digital media including four-times the usage of Facebook compared to three years ago, nearly double for text messaging, almost three-times for blogs and over five-times worth of growth for Twitter. During key policy debates on issues such as the economy, jobs, healthcare, national security, energy and immigration, constituents flocked to the Internet to make their voices heard.

Members of Congress and Hill staffers quickly learned how to navigate in these new channels through direct constituent engagement and the creation of content best suited for social media and networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. In many cases, such content was embedded on official House and Senate “dot gov” sites to augment message reach, optimize digital footprints and increase the opportunity for sharing across various social platforms.

In May 2010, the House Republican leadership even created their own unique digital channel with the launch of “America Speaking Out.” The site was built to serve as an online clearinghouse for crowd-sourced policy ideas with the best rising to the top based on community votes. However, sites like this aren’t designed with the intent of completely replacing traditional methods of contacting Congress such as in-person meetings, phone calls, letters and e-mail which are all still effective in many ways. Rather, they simply open up new avenues to connect.

Similarly, though the rise in social media and digital engagement is remarkable, let’s be careful not to write obituaries for mainstream media outlets just yet. Newsrooms may be shrinking but according to the survey results, their influence on Capitol Hill sure isn’t. For staffers, online news sites remain valuable and consistently rank far above social networks, blogs and social media with the highest usage (64%) occurring from 9 AM to 10 AM and the lowest (42%) from 5 PM to 6 PM.

The Key To Surfing Is… Timing

One of the most interesting findings in the 2010 Capital Staffers Index is how online activity trends throughout the day. Heavy traffic for online news sites early in the morning are likely due to staff who are preparing for briefings, conducting research or just getting caught up on the news of the day.

For the most part, social networks run a distant second in usage percentage when to compared online news sites with two exceptions where they experience significant spikes both during the lunch hour (31% from 12 PM to 1 PM) and at the end of a typical work day (tied with online news at 46% after 6 PM). This would seem to suggest that Hill staffers utilize social networking sites all day for both personal and professional purposes, with an emphasis on the personal during perceived down time.

The Next Wave

Two short years after President Obama’s historic victory, the political tide seems to be turning once again. Perhaps the November 2010 midterm election will most certainly be remembered for the GOP’s sweeping wins, especially in the House of Representatives where Republicans netted over 60 seats, the biggest gain since 1938 when the Democrats lost 71.

In preparation for the start of the 112th Congress, freshman members will endure orientations, elect party leadership, set legislative agendas, learn shortcuts from their new offices to committee rooms, attend briefings and of course, hire various key staff. Many likely campaigned heavily online – but now politicians and staffers alike find themselves in positions of power with great responsibility where they must learn to govern online, as well.

For those who are either unable to accept or unwilling to embrace these new communications realities, perhaps these words from American philosopher, writer and 1983 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Eric Hoffer will serve as encouragement, “In times of change, learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

Some people really thrive on the excitement of aggressively securing a new lead, while others are uncomfortable with the pursuit. In either case, there’s no excuse — especially with all the information available on the Internet these days — for not performing even the most basic research before reaching out to a prospect.

A couple weeks ago, I received an unsolicited sales email. Personally, I prefer to receive a phone call first, but if an email does arrive in my Inbox, I would hope that the sender would at least make sure that it’s relevant to the recipient.

But before I go into more detail about the email itself, I want to share a story from a few years back.

It was 8 PM on a weeknight and I had just arrived home from work a few minutes before. My 2yo daughter was wrapping up dinner. We were just about to head upstairs and get her ready for bed when we were both startled by a knock on the front door. I picked my daughter up in my arms and opened the door.

A young woman, most likely college-aged, stood on the front step with clipboard in hand and a bag full of pamphlets thrown over her shoulder. It was dark out, so I couldn’t immediately determine what was printed on the literature or the reason for her visit.

Without introducing herself, she abruptly started in on her opening pitch and blurted out, “George Bush is ignoring climate change, hates the environment and wants to destroy it. Join us in our fight to stop him!”

Before I could answer, she just kept right on talking. I stood there, staring at her as she spouted off several talking points filled with misinformation, distorted facts and partisan rhetoric. I let her continue for a minute or two, mostly because I wanted to hear what she had to say before I responded.

Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t a fair debate.

I informed her that I was a White House staffer and, just that very day, I had posted several items to WhiteHouse.gov about President Bush’s commitment to the environment including a “Setting the Record Straight” fact sheet entitled, “President Bush’s Strong Record of Addressing Climate Change.” How’s that for good timing?

Many of the statistics were still fresh in my mind and I picked apart her arguments one at a time with facts based on the president’s actual record. However, she was persistent. She kept looking to her clipboard for more talking point ammunition, even repeating a couple that I had just debunked.

All the while, I was holding my 2yo who had been observing our conversation quietly and patiently. My patience, on the other hand, was beginning to wear thin after 15 minutes or so. My 2yo was getting heavy, it was late, we all were tired and I still needed to get her ready for bed.

It was clear that we were just on different sides of the issue and that neither of us would budge so I needed to politely end the discussion. In doing so, I offered a little advice:

“Look, I appreciate and respect the fact that you are going to door-to-door about an issue that you are passionate about. You have every right to do so and I commend you for getting involved and speaking out. However, you’re speaking to a President Bush supporter who is educated on the issues. Plus, you’re in a moderate-to-conservative neighborhood where misrepresenting facts and attacking the president probably won’t go over too well. So, before you start knocking on doors, bothering people late at night in the privacy their homes and interrupting family time, I suggest you do the research.”

At that point, my 2yo (who was still learning to talk at the time) pumped her fist in the air and without missing a beat said, “Yeah, do the research!” I couldn’t have chosen a better way to end the conversation myself. We wished her a good night and closed the door.

I’ve told this story a number of times and that phrase, “Do the research!” has become a favorite among family and friends. I think about it now and again, particularly when someone isn’t diligent about obtaining general background information before tackling a project. Plus, it’s just good advice — which brings me to the reason for the post.

As I mentioned, I received an email from a potential vendor that really missed the mark. I have included an image below but have redacted specifically identifiable information to protect the sender’s privacy.

My goal in writing this post is not to publicly embarrass anyone, but rather to point out ways to improve. There’s a right way and a wrong way to write effective email messages and much of it is plain common sense.

Here’s a list of where this email went wrong — along with some friendly “unsolicited” advice:

1. Time
   Normally, messages sent at 2:23 AM ET wouldn’t be a problem except that my work email account is tied to my BlackBerry which buzzes when a new email arrives. Most of the time I sleep through it, but this one woke me up. Thanks for that.

   Advice: Be considerate when choosing a day and time to send.

2. Subject
   I know many rely heavily on catchy subject lines to increase open rates, but “Conference Call” is plain boring and misleading.

   Advice: Get creative. If not, how about just using the name of the company, products, services or even something simple like “Introduction?”

3. Name
   My name is David, not J.J. David is in my email address, as well. I have no idea who J.J. is or how I earned that nickname, but this email immediately lost credibility after I read that.

   Advice: Use a person’s actual name. A formal salutation would be nice, as well.

4. Address
   I live and work in Washington, DC — not Chicago. Perhaps Chicago is where J.J. lives.

   Advice: Again, this could have been avoided with a little research. A simple Google search would’ve cleared this up.

5. Personalization
   In the third paragraph, there’s some language about a “personalized and customized PDF presentation” which is attached to the email. The filename (VIP_J_J_Almacy.pdf) is quasi-personal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered to be considered a “VIP” even if it’s in a PDF filename and I have to go by J.J. to attain that status. However, I was disappointed to see that the PDF was four pages of standard marketing materials with “JJ Almacy” and the name of my employer stamped on every page. There was nothing in there at all that seemed to be directly relevant to my clients or even my line of business.

   Advice: Slapping someone’s name and company (even the correct one) on a template is not personalization. Even if you can’t cite minute details, providing relevant case studies based on geography or industry specific examples demonstrates a more thoughtful approach.

6. Attachment
   Since it’s not coming from a trusted source, I am always hesitant to click on attachments for fear that it may be malware or some type of computer virus. Also, larger file sizes may bounce back or could clog up Inboxes.

   Advice: Avoid attachments in initial email communications. Instead, connect with your potential client first to learn a little about their business objectives & challenges. Then, follow-up with a customized document that offers solutions and demonstrates tangible value for partnership. Another option is to provide links directing people to Web based versions of your case studies on your company Website in the body of your email. Of course, an in-person meeting is typically a more effective and preferred method to walk through presentation materials, if possible.

7. Contact
   Next, the author — this company’s CEO — indicates that his EA (executive assistant) will be giving me a call to set up a time to speak with him. Really? I understand that some people rely heavily on assistants to manage schedules, but I found the tone of that sentence a little off-putting. If you have the time to send an unsolicited email fraught with errors, you certainly have the time to pick up the phone and call me yourself. Besides, it has been a couple weeks and still no word.

   Advice: Everyone’s time is valuable. Remember, you are the one who is seeking their attention. So, be polite and respectful in your tone. Lastly, if you say you are going to follow-up, then do it.

If your target database is too large and you can’t do these things in an individualized manner for each person, then you should rethink your strategy.

Bottom line: Know your audience. Treat them with respect. Connect in authentic ways. Personalize without getting too personal. Seek to understand their challenges. Offer solutions. Be sincere.

And, oh yeah, before you begin: Do the research!

Whether in news, entertainment, sports or politics, just about everyone launched a Twitter account this year. At the time of this post, Ashton Kutcher topped the list with 4.2 million followers with Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, John Mayer, CNN, Twitter, Ryan Seacrest and Kim Kardashian rounding out the Top 10 Twitter users.

Facebook, with 350 million users, was the top search term in 2009 and hit #1 for the first time as the most visited site in the U.S. on Christmas and Christmas Eve.

Every minute, 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube and in 2009 the site served an estimated 75 billion video streams to 375 million unique visitors. According to the New York Times, “the average YouTube user watched 83 clips in October, compared with 53 a year earlier.” Also, with over 3.8 billion search queries on YouTube in 2009, it became the 2nd largest search engine behind Google, beating out Bing and Yahoo!.

On these sites, and countless others, users commented, shared, posted and even reported on their own in real time. Many news stories started online before making their way into the “mainstream media” and some merely took on lives of their own as the Web augmented coverage and reach.

In discussing some of the most memorable over the past 12 months with friends and colleagues, I decided to compile them in an end of the year list. So, here we go. Below is my Top 20 Social Media News Stories of 2009 (in chronological order).

1. Sully Lands on the Hudson
1/15/09 – A couple weeks into the new year, it seemed that there was apparently another tragic accident involving airline travel. Yet this time, it was an epic and heroic tale about Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, a skilled former USAF fighter pilot who landed US Airways #1549 on the Hudson River in New York after birds flew into the plane’s engines causing them to stall. Sully managed to successfully guide the plane in a textbook water landing (assuming there is such a thing), avoided Manhattan, saved the lives of everyone on board, then assisted the crew in evacuating more than 150 people to safety. Many first learned of the story from Twitter. The first photo after the incident emerged via TwitPic from Janis Krums who witnessed it and tweeted while aboard the ferry that was on its way to retrieve the passengers and the crew. An amazing story indeed.

2. Walking in Memphis
1/15/09 – Ironically, on the same day that Sully landed in the Hudson, former Ketchum VP James Andrews caught quite a bit of online heat when he disparagingly tweeted about Memphis after meeting with clients from FedEx — which is headquartered there. In an apology he later posted after FedEx voiced their displeasure, Andrews explained that he posted the comment after an interaction with an “intolerant” person and claimed that his sentiment was not aimed at the entire city. Either way, a good lesson that what you say, even in 140 characters or less, could certainly cause quite a stir.

3. Christian Goes Bale-istic
2/2/09 – While filming “T4: Terminator Salvation” at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, actor Christian Bale totally lost it after the director of photography accidentally walked onto the set, allegedly “ruining the shot.” Though the flare up actually occurred in July 2008, audio of the incident surfaced in February 2009 and spread quickly online. Warning: Strong language. Not appropriate for kids — or rational human beings who choose to respect each other regardless of one’s lot in life.

4. Susan Boyle’s Dream
4/11/09 – An unlikely star was born on “Britain’s Got Talent” when Susan Boyle, a Scottish woman, stepped to the microphone to perform. Given her plain appearance and shy demeanor, several snickered as she spoke with the judges about why she chose to appear on the British talent show. However, jeers turned to cheers just moments after she started. Boyle wowed the audience with her booming voice as she sang her version of “I Dreamed a Dream.” Several versions of her performance quickly made their way to YouTube and one post alone currently has more than 35 million views. According to Wikipedia, “Boyle’s first album, I Dreamed a Dream, was released on 23 November 2009, and has become Amazon’s best-selling album in pre-sales.” Billboard also reported that “The arrival of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ … marks the best opening week for a female artist’s debut album since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.”

5. Dom-Oh Nos!
4/13/09 – Anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant knows that there are strict laws that govern food preparation and safety procedures in an effort to protect the health of the patrons. Most of us understand that despite the best of intentions, health codes aren’t always followed to the letter 100% of the time. However, Kristy Hammonds and Michael Setzer, two employees from a Domino’s franchise in Conover, NC took that to a new level when they videotaped themselves deliberately performing unsanitary acts with food items and cleaning supplies in the store’s kitchen, then uploaded the clips to YouTube. Though the two claimed it was a “prank” and that they never actually delivered the food, they were still fired and faced felony charges for their actions. Once the video gained attention through Twitter and YouTube, it began to also dominate the search engines and Domino’s Pizza was immediately confronted with a public relations crisis that threatened the reputation of their 50 year-old brand. Domino’s spokesman Tim McIntyre aptly summed it up when he commented, “We got blindsided by two idiots with a video camera and an awful idea.” Patrick Doyle, President of Domino’s USA issued a video response and the company set up a Twitter account @DPZinfo to field inquiries though it looks like they have since moved over to @dominos. In December 2009, Domino’s launched a new marketing campaign in celebration of their 50th year called “The Pizza Turnaround” where they claim they’ve reinvented their pizza recipe (and possibly their tarnished image) from the crust up.

6. Dude, Where Are Your Followers?
4/17/09 – Besides being married to actress Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher is probably best known for his role as Michael on “That 70′s Show,” his prank TV show “Punk’d” and movies such as “Dude, Where’s My Car?” and this past summer’s release “Spread.” Kutcher gained early popularity on Twitter and in April, took on the Cable News Network (CNN) in a race to be the first Twitter account to reach 1 million followers. Who would’ve thought that @aplusk would be able to top the cable giant (and everyone else in the Twitterverse) but alas, he did. And, as mentioned above, he still sits atop the Twitter throne as the most followed at 4.2 million. CNN is ranked #7 with 2.8 million.

7. Iranian Election
6/12/09 – Perhaps the most compelling and meaningful global use of social media in 2009 occurred when Iranians took to the streets in protest after the 2009 presidential election results in Iran. Mainstream media was slow to provide coverage and the government run media operation in Iran was obviously not going to profile any form of dissent for the world to witness. So, the protestors turned to the Internet to tell their stories. Dave Levy and I co-authored a piece that ran in PRWeek called “Twitter Revolt Against Mainstream Media” where we wrote, “The crowd felt a sense of entitlement for news they wanted covered, and it left the media world playing defense to users who had turned the trending topics sidebar on Twitter’s home page into their own headlines; a user-generated ‘above the fold’ that reflected the group’s dissatisfaction through leads like #CNNFail. Twitter became the instant ombudsman for the media establishment, holding media accountable for what they were – or were not – broadcasting.” The impact online was massive. Twitter delayed their scheduled site maintenance because of the important communications role it was playing. Twitter users changed their profile photo green to demonstrate their support and updated their “Location” to Tehran in an effort to confuse Iranian authorities searching for dissidents. Obviously, the future of the Iranian people still hangs in the balance, yet many Americans are better informed about their plight under a controversial dictator and stand in solidarity with them in their quest for peace and freedom.

8. Saying Goodbye to the King of Pop
6/25/09 – Clearly, the death of Michael Jackson would have been a worldwide story even without the Internet. However, TMZ was the first to break the news that the pop singer had died of cardiac arrest at the age of 50. The Web traffic surrounding his death was massive as millions flocked to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs to share, comment and learn more. Facebook slowed but held its own. Twitter traffic caused the site to temporarily fall — even the Fail Whale ceased to make an appearance — but the “Michael Jackson” related tweets would top Twitter trends for weeks to come.

9. United Breaks Guitars
7/6/09 – While traveling on a United Airlines flight in 2008 with his band “Sons of Maxwell”, musician Dave Carroll overheard fellow passengers commenting that United baggage handlers were throwing guitars around the tarmac. Attempts to alert the flight attendants were met with indifference. Upon landing, he learned that his $3,500 Taylor guitar had been broken during the trip. After nine months of back and forth communication and failed attempts to obtain a satisfactory resolution, United finally refused to take responsibility or provide any form of reimbursement. So, Carroll wrote a song called “United Breaks Guitars” and produced a video and, of course, posted it to YouTube. It was an instant hit and stirred up additional ire among airline travelers.

10. Erin Andrews Stalked
7/16/09 – ESPN reporter Erin Andrews went public after video of her naked in her hotel room surfaced on the Internet. The video was secretly shot without her knowledge from a video camera set-up to record her through a peephole. In December, Illinois businessman Michael David Barrett pleaded guilty to interstate stalking. He admitted that he followed Andrews and stayed in hotel rooms next door on three occasions. He shot two videos of her while she was nude and was accused of posting them online, as well as attempting to sell them to TMZ.

11. Dancing Down the Aisle
7/19/09 – After the popularity of the December 2007 “Baby Got Back” wedding reception choreography video, it was only a matter of time before others would follow suit. This past summer, Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz treated their wedding guests to a real show when the entire wedding party — seven bridesmaids, five groomsmen and four ushers — danced down the aisle to Chris Brown’s “Forever” during their ceremony in St. Paul, Minnesota. The “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” even served as inspiration for Jim and Pam’s long awaited wedding on NBC’s “The Office.” In December, another wedding video was posted to YouTube featuring Dana Hanna, a groom who paused during his the middle of his wedding ceremony to update his Facebook marital status and tweet out from the altar.

12. Healthcare Town Hall Protests & SEIU “Thugs”
8/2/09 – In the wake of the conservative Tea Party movement, President Obama and the Democrats continued to try and sell their proposed healthcare program this summer. Several Members of Congress hosted town hall meetings back in their districts alongside Obama Administration officials to answer specific questions and solicit feedback from constituents. Perhaps unexpectedly, many turned out and the discussions were quite heated — and posted on YouTube. U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were booed in Philadelphia at one such meeting after their comments about the bill’s length and the need to move fast. In the Tampa Bay area, approximately 1,500 showed up for a “pep rally” co-hosted by the SEIU and attended by U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor. One of the attendees, Barry Osteen, was pushed and slapped by Obama supporter Karen Miracle after debating her husband, Garry. “We have the best health care system in the world and I’m completely happy with what we have,” Osteen said. The violence escalated further when Kenneth Gladney, a self-described black conservative, was physically beaten by SEIU members after U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan’s town hall meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. The video of Gladney’s attack generated almost instant online outrage that prompted some select mainstream outlets to cover the story.

13. Fired on Facebook
8/14/09 – In my opinion, one of the cardinal rules in social media is to avoid publishing anything online that you wouldn’t say in person. A British woman learned this the hard way after she posted comments about her “pervvy wanker” boss — perhaps forgetting that they were “friends” on Facebook. Of course, he saw the post and responded to her rant via the public Facebook thread. He hit back pretty hard, got a little personal and eventually fired her. And yes, he’s serious.

14. Undercover at ACORN
9/9/09 – Wikipedia describes the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) as a liberal collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocate for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues. In recent years, the organization has come under fire under allegations of voter registration fraud and embezzlement. In an attempt to expose ACORN’s possible unethical and illegal practices, filmmakers James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles teamed up in an undercover sting operation and blogged about it on Andrew Breitbart’s site BigGovernment. While secretly videotaping a meeting with ACORN staff members in Baltimore, Giles posed as a prostitute seeking counsel on how to manipulate the tax code to hide her profession. O’Keefe passed himself off as a pimp looking to funnel proceeds from a brothel full of underage, illegal immigrant sex workers into a potential political campaign. In both cases, two ACORN staff members were complicit in their efforts to assist O’Keefe and Giles in supporting their illegal activity and subverting the law. Though the story initially gained little attention in the mainstream media, the first two videos rapidly gained steam on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. As news of the scandal grew, the U.S. Census Bureau and the IRS both severed ties with ACORN and eventually both the U.S. House and Senate voted to cut 2009 taxpayer funding of the embattled organization.

15. Best Award Show Interruption of ALL TIME!
9/15/09 – No one quite knew what Kayne West was thinking when he jumped up on stage during the MTV Video Music Awards to interrupt Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video. He grabbed the microphone out of her hand and exclaimed, “Yo, Taylor! I’m really happy for you. I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.” Everyone was stunned, including Beyoncé. Swift’s confused reaction was short, but classy. Meme sites soon popped up such as this Kanyegate Tumblr feed and ImaLetYouFinish where users can upload their own Kanye-isms. There was also this Kanye-Obama-Wilson mash-up remix which was quite clever. Regardless of one’s opinions on the quality of the music videos, just about everyone was appalled at West’s behavior – including President Obama who off-handedly called the rapper a “jackass” after the incident. Since the remark was caught on tape during an off-the-record portion of a CNBC interview, ABC reporter Terry Moran prematurely tweeted but later deleted begging the question as to whether anything is really off-the-record these days.

16. Meghan McCain TwitPic
10/15/09 – Can’t the daughter of a former presidential candidate and current U.S. Senator lay around her home in a low-cut tanktop, read a little about Andy Warhol over takeout, snap a picture of it and upload it to TwitPic without being called horrible names? Evidently not if you’re last name is McCain.

17. College Sock-Her
11/5/09 – Elizabeth Lambert, a junior defender on the women’s soccer team at the University of New Mexico was captured on video being physically abusive on the playing field vs. BYU in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament. Lambert (#15) was caught tripping, elbowing and even pulling one player to the ground by her hair. Two BYU forwards/midfielders, freshman Carlee Payne (#7) and junior Kassidy Shumway (#21) seemed to be the primary targets of her attacks. Video of the unsportsmanlike behavior was posted to YouTube by the Associated Press and earned Lambert an indefinite suspension. According to Lambert’s player bio on UNM’s GoLobos athletic site, she is “is majoring in University Studies with a focus on Occupational Therapy.” Ironic, considering her opponents will probably require physical therapy! The best response, however, came from Payne: Scoreboard! BYU won the match 1-0.

18. Vetting Crashers
11/24/09 – The saga of Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the White House party crashers, seems to get more bizarre as time goes on and we may never know all the answers. Apparently, bluffing their way into the White House State Dinner without an official invitation is just the tip of the iceberg. A video of the Salahi wedding (with 1,836 guests) sets the stage quite nicely. Then there were stories of unpaid bills around town, followed by accusations of fraudulent charities via polo matches to save a family owned winery, lies about Michaele’s past (aka Missy Holt, if that is her real name) as a former Redskins cheerleader — all leading up to their quest to appear on the reality show “The Real Housewives of DC.” Sadly, it appears that the only thing real about these two is how much trouble they got themselves into after posting photos of their White House breach on Facebook which provided plenty of fodder in feeding the media frenzy surrounding the details of this still-developing story.

19. Tiger Woods
11/27/09 – Yet again, it was TMZ, the Los Angeles based celebrity gossip site that beat out all the other outlets by reporting that Tiger’s injuries were not caused by a car accident while behind the wheel of his SUV but rather “were inflicted by his wife, Elin Nordegren.” According to reports, she and Tiger were arguing after she had learned about his extramarital affair with Rachel Uchitel (as well as others, we’d learn about later) and an altercation ensued. In the absence of actual B-roll footage to visually support the story, a Taiwanese news station used animation to dramatically reenact the event during their broadcast. Though it’s in Chinese, the images seem quite realistic and probably not too far off from what actually happened that night.

20. DC Snowball Fight
12/19/09 – In late December, the Washington, DC area was hit by a major snowstorm that made its way across the east coast. Total snow accumulation varied between 12 and 22 inches in some areas when it was all said and done. Hashtags such as #snOMG, #thundersnow, #blizzard and #snopocalypse dominated social media sites across the region. Then, someone came up with the idea of organizing a good, old-fashioned neighborhood snowball fight at 14th & U Streets. Word traveled quickly online and about 150 DC residents gathered for the epic showdown. Though the battle was intense (in a lighthearted way), people did take timeouts for passing cars and to help bail vehicles out of multiple snowbound predicaments. Police officers soon arrived on the scene to monitor the activity. A red Hummer H2 pulled up and the driver was none too pleased when snowballs descended upon him and his vehicle as he stepped out. Turns out that he was an off-duty DC detective and one point, drew his sidearm which prompted chants of “You don’t bring a gun to a snowball fight!” and “Fenty killed Christmas!” directed at the Capital City’s current mayor. The situation was eventually resolved by the authorities and much of the event ultimatlely played out on YouTube before making national news the following morning.

I’m sure there are other stories, so feel free to comment and provide links below. Happy 2010!

At any rate, I have become pretty reliant on Hootsuite and use it almost exclusively when tweeting from my desk. When on Blackberry, I use ÜberTwitter which also offers built in bit.ly URL shortening functionality.

Basically, I was curious to see which of my tweets generated the most interest in 2009. The challenge, however, comes in determining how to measure that. The closest I can estimate is by looking at those with the most clicks.

As mentioned in a previous post (TweetLevel: Ratting Twitter’s Influence), I try to strike a 30/30/30/10 balance between politics, communications, personal and miscellaneous tweets. Given the link popularity, looks like that strategy has worked pretty well.

Here’s how they stacked up in 2009:

1. http://ow.ly/dWXc
   Arlington (Va): The Rap http://ow.ly/dWXc So when people tell me Remy where you calling from? I say a straight up thug town called Arlington 
   1083 Clicks

2. http://ow.ly/NYZ5
   TMZ reporting that actress Brittany Murphy, 32, died this morning after suffering full cardiac arrest http://ow.ly/NYZ5
   1023 Clicks

3. http://ow.ly/HDqs
   Congress’ Best (And Worst) Committee Web Sites http://ow.ly/HDqs (via @nationaljournal) Reviewers @sheiladcusa @cheeky_geeky @JohnWonderlich
   847 Clicks

4. http://ow.ly/HZFW
   Tiger Woods, Obama On Golf Digest Cover Together (PHOTO) http://ow.ly/HZFW
   750 Clicks

5. http://ow.ly/AjxV
   George W. Bush Secretly Visits Fort Hood Victims http://ow.ly/AjxV
   671 Clicks

6. http://ow.ly/s1pr
   @DanaPerino is all fired up! RT @rooseveltroom VIDEO: Unfit to Host? http://ow.ly/s1pr #olympics #chicago2016 
   217 Clicks

7. http://ow.ly/kutI
   Ex-Bush flacks find footing http://ow.ly/kutI w/ Ari @DanaPerino @ScottStanzel @TonyFratto @ksullie Nice pic, Dan B! (via @politico) 
   167 Clicks

8. http://ow.ly/ufHl
   VIDEO: Liz Cheney, Bill Kristol and Debra Burlingame launch new group “Keep America Safe” http://ow.ly/ufHl
   136 Clicks

9. http://ow.ly/gO4a
   Goodbye to dot com domains? Yes ICANN! http://ow.ly/gO4a But @Slate says don’t do it!
   122 Clicks

10. http://ow.ly/40Pp
    Why Google Wants You To Google Yourself (TIME) http://ow.ly/40Pp Interesting take on the future of the “vanity search”
    109 Clicks

My two most popular bit.ly links were retweets (RT) that generated 680 and 143 clicks each which would’ve placed them at #5 and #8 respectively on the list above.

http://bit.ly/10nuR7
Take Action on Climate Bill http://bit.ly/10nuR7
680 Clicks (client)

http://bit.ly/76ycSL
In the world’s largest democracy, they’re missing George W. Bush http://bit.ly/76ycSL
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For those who haven’t given in to peer pressure to join the site yet, Twitter is a “microblog” that enables users to share thoughts, activities and news via 140 character text updates.

Twitter’s founders had a pretty basic, yet novel idea. They wanted to create a platform where users could connect with each other online to answer one simple question, “What are you doing?”

I’ll admit that when I first joined (@almacy), I just didn’t get it. Besides a few close family members and friends, I remember thinking, “Who really cares what I’m doing?” In fact, my first tweet isn’t exactly going to assist in solving global strife.

Regardless, I pressed on and started to “follow” a few folks that I was interested in hearing from including those engaged in politics, public relations, press, social media and technology. Pretty soon, I started to build a bit of a community. I soon realized that I was learning a lot from them and hoped others found value in my contributions, as well.

As far as what I tweet, I try to strike a 30/30/30/10 balanced philosophy for tweets, retweets (RT) and tweet buzz (HT, via):

• 30% Politics: White House, Congress, government, E-Gov, campaigns, issues, advocacy
• 30% Communications: Internet, media, social networks, public relations, marketing, advertising, technology, tips, tricks, trends, insights
• 30% Personal: life, family, work, travel, hobbies, blog
• 10% Miscellaneous: Whatever doesn’t fall in the categories above i.e. humor, wit, thoughts, randomness, etc.

However, I often wonder whether any of it makes a bit of difference. So, I gave TweetLevel a try and scored 61. Not too bad.

TweetLevel then provided some uselful insights on how to improve my score which is based on four primary “result metrics” including influence, popularity, engagement and trust. The site also offers some sound advice regarding Twitter best practices and influence tips.

That’s why I really like this tool. Unlike previous attempts by other sites to measure a user’s level of influence based on pure number of followers or amount of tweets, Edelman developed a complex evaluation formula for TweetLevel in order to arrive at a more thoughtful conclusion:

Twitter itself is also rapidly evolving with the addition of periodic new features and functionality – and who knows where all this is going.

According to a recent Pew study in October 2009, Twitter’s future looks bright. Though the median user age is currently 31, the site’s popularity continues to grow, especially among younger audiences.

In addition to learning new things and meeting new people via Twitter, it can be fulfilling to know that the information you are “putting out there” has the potential to positively affect someone else.

Whether for an individual, company, brand, product or issue, TweetLevel results could be quite helpful in gaining a better understanding of one’s effectiveness in leveraging the Twitter platform and, thus… increasing influence.

Full disclosure: Edelman is my employer, but opinions expressed are my own.

For those not familiar with what this actually means, a CMS is basically the back-end (not visible to visitors) of a website that allows the administrators (owners) of the site — often non-programmers — to easily organize site navigation and add content designed to appear on the front-end.

For most CMS solutions, the user experience is pretty simple, usually consisting of a password protected login, options for varied user permissions for approval and forms with specific fields based on type of content such as text, photos, audio and video. Once entered and saved, the CMS stores the information in the back-end database and displays the content on the front-end when called up by a site visitor.

In the early days of the Internet, many developers created unique proprietary CMS solutions for their staff and clients to save time and streamline the process of maintaining a timely and relevant site. Today, there are hundreds of options out there to choose from. Check out this list from CMS Matrix.

Open source is basically the idea that code doesn’t have to be authored or owned by one person, group or company but rather by a public community of developers free to collaborate, write code, make updates and help advance newer software versions for all to share and benefit. For a more specific description of open source, let’s go to Wikipedia which is, ironically, a type of open source resource for defintions:

Open source is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to a software’s source code. Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical strategic element of their operations. Before open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet, which provided access to diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities.

Before commenting on the recent upgrade, I did want to set the record straight on a couple things regarding the history of WhiteHouse.gov and the previous CMS.

To get a better understanding of the complete background, I spoke with a couple of my former White House colleagues who were federal government employees in the Office of Administration (OA) of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) back during the transition from President Clinton (42) to President Bush (43).

As I have mentioned before, in my opinion, President Clinton is truly the first Internet president, meaning he was the first to launch a White House website. Here’s what WhiteHouse.gov looked like circa November 1995. Not too shabby at the time. Evidently, in the late 90′s, updates to the site were a bit of a chore. They had to be made manually via files copied to tapes, then physically carried between floors to upload them onto the server a few times a day. Typos could mean a little more exercise that day. Toward the very end of President Clinton’s second term, an automated system was put in place but it wasn’t capable of managing an entire new site for the next four to eight years.

In 2000, with the transition to President George W. Bush’s Administration approaching, a few EOP programmers got together to create an internal homegrown Perl based solution designed to manage basic content needs for the new president’s site. Why Perl? Two reasons. First, Perl was a common programming language at the time, generally used for similar projects. Second, out of the other programming options available, those who were actually developing it knew Perl the best!

(Update from a former EOP insider: “It should also be noted that Perl was picked because the Tool started out as an e-mail to web page processing script. The original tool was developed to solve the problem of posting press releases to the web site automatically. On weekends and after hours, there was no IT staff to do it … so the tool was born of that. Perl as handler script to parse e-mail text into an HTML form and post to the web site. Then it just grew and grew… initially it was all about automation. Only during the later years [sic] did it start into more of your standard (term used loosely) CMS.”)

Out of this collaboration, a completely new and unique solution was born which we affectionately (most of the time) called, “The Tool.”

Over time, as newer site versions and features were rolled out on the front-end, the Tool scaled with it and was updated accordingly to support them including many things it wasn’t originally designed to do such as creating on-the-fly printer friendly alternative text pages (508 compliance) and digital image processing.

In March of 2007, we launched a new (and final) version of WhiteHouse.gov under President Bush. However, even with the new design and improved functionality for users, the Tool remained in place on the back-end. It was tweaked and updated, but the foundation was the same. We considered options to deploy a new CMS, but personally I wanted to be a good steward of taxpayer money and didn’t think it was prudent to spend a couple million dollars on something that was only going to be used for a year and a half or so before being shipped off to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in January 2009. As a result, the site continued using the Tool all the way up until Inauguration Day.

Several months prior to Election Day, and in a very similar scenario to the Clinton-Bush transition preparation in 2000, career federal employess in EOP’s OA division gathered to begin planning for the next president’s website — whether for Sen. McCain or Sen. Obama, nobody knew. They initiated a review of the most effificient, secure CMS solutions. After the completion of the thoughtful, competitive procurement process, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) was awarded the contract and immediately began work on a new CMS for the 44th President of the United States.

Many stories have reported that President Obama’s team inherited an “old proprietary CMS which has been used by WhiteHouse.gov since the Bush Administration” built and executed by GDIT. However, that isn’t true. As I mentioned earlier, President Bush’s website, CMS Tool and all, was taken offline at 12:00 PM ET on January 20, 2009, President Obama’s Inauguration Day, and ultimately sent to NARA.

President George W. Bush is the first digital president, meaning that he is the first to have his entire presidency captured online via WhiteHouse.gov in the form of transcripts, photos, video and audio. However, Web 2.0 and social media was just gearing up around the time I left the White House in May 2007.

Clearly, the campaign had a huge impact on the growth of the Internet through social media and rapid programming advancements (WordPress 2.8.5 is now available already? I just upgraded to 2.8.4 two weeks ago!) but many of the tools that are being used today either weren’t available to us or hadn’t been tested or matured to the point that we could utilize them effectively within the E-Gov guidelines, privacy policies, security procedures and budgetary limitations that often presented challenges.

To put it in perspective, from 2005-2007, MySpace was the most popular social network, Facebook was locked down to only college students with .edu email addresses, YouTube had recently been purchased by Google but was still growing and Twitter had just launched in March 2007 at SXSW in Austin.

There’s no question that the increased adoption of open source backend solutions in the private sector, and now in government, represents yet another evolutionary step in the rapid growth of the Internet. As these tools become more prevalent, users will be able to better connect and collaborate on shared platforms which only improves the potential for digital public engagement in shaping our democracy.

Congrats to the entire White House new media team!

Want to give it a try? You can actually demo Drupal yourself (and many other open source solutions) courtesy of opensourceCMS.com or you could save yourself some time and just go hire the best in the business!

MEDIA

Podcast: The Right Doctor with David Almacy

(Dr. Melissa Clouthier, The Right Doctor, 11/05/09)

WhiteHouse.gov goes Drupal (techPresident, 10/24/09)

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