Online campaigns and Facebook at the PES conference, Vienna
I’ve just made presentation at the PES Activists conference in Vienna on how to campaign online. It’s all straightforward stuff if you’re a usual reader of this blog, but it might be a handy summary. The presentation can be downloaded here (4mb, ZIPped). If you want to use it for something then please at least give me some credit… 🙂 Rikke Skovgaard Andersen (former editor of Yourspace) also made a presentation about how best to use Facebook for politics – her presentation is here (1.4mb, ZIPped).
In the debate one person mentioned live blogging of events – problem here in Vienna is there’s wireless in only 1 room, so it’s not simple to report what’s happening. So much for the Lisbon Strategy and the EU being the most dynamic, knowledge based economy…
Hi Jon,
Although a bit late, here is the link to your video declaration in Vienna (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDaTCdVasjE) – an article will be put up later this week on Yourspace. Other videos are also available at http://www.youtube.com/europeansocialists
Best,
Gisela
With respect e-Newsletters are in there – but not at the bottom level. You’ve got to have some sort of basic interaction with an individual to get hold of their e-mail address to use for a newsletter. You need to either know them offline, or online get them to fill in a ‘Subscribe’ form.
Also bear in mind the presentation was structured for people who generally are not experienced in using the internet.
On your pyramid, you missed email newsletters at the very bottom. I know they are old skool but they are still the strongest campaign tool. (especially if linked to a database see http://www.lyris.com/software/ for an example of a top end solution)
While i understand the simplicity of your presentation I appreciated Rikke where she stated ‘User preferences often depend on interest and nationality’.
Hi Jon – thanks for mentioning my presentation! Nice seing you in Vienna, I think we did a good session on online campaigning. At least that’s the feedback I got from a few people in the audience 🙂
After Vienna I’m definetely excited to see how the online and offline activities of the PES and its activists will develop during the next year!
Good stuff! Putting political debate online makes it more accessible and engages people who otherwise wouldn’t be interested, encouraging them to comment and to vote.
But compare the net presence of the US presidential election with that of our forthcoming European Parliament elections. The lists are up but who are these people and what are their policies?
The candidates’ cynicism and lethargy is transferred to the electorate. They should be fundraising, pushing out their messages, taking the voters’ pulse and analyzing it, figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
Jon,
Just as a reminder to fledgling or lesser politicians that foreign minister Carl Bildt posts daily (sometimes two or three short notes) in Swedish and foreign minister Alexander Stubb daily in Finnish (often with a bit of substance).
(Of course, just now they might disprove what I am saying, July being the ‘heaviest’ traditional holiday month in the Nordic countries. By the way, August as the EU institutions’ vacation month ‘par excellence’ has required adaptation from the ones who work with European Union questions.)
Anyway, blogging is possible, if the will is there, and with mobile connections coming down in price, less productive moments can be put to good use.