Reading Log: What Would the Millennials Do?

Millennial Makeover

In the 2007 book "Millennial Makeover," Morley Winograd & Michael Hais hypothesized that the 2008 election would be unprecedented (in terms of online fundraising, youth participation, etc). Most publishers thought the authors were overestimating the role of young voters in 2008, but Winograd & Hais ultimately scored a publishing deal on the heels of Super Tuesday and their hypothesis - as we now know - was right.

Winograd & Hais explained the long-time political realignment model: politics is cyclical, not linear. At any given time, one political party dominates the political process - sets the tone and public policy agenda - and sees a "makeover" every 40 or so years. History has shown that in the periods of political stability, there is little variability in party identification or other voting coalitions. Winograd & Hais posit that two things need to be present to trigger political realignment:

1. The advent of a large and dynamic generation of young Americans (large enough to electorally overwhelm other existing generations).
2. A new communication technology paradigm (in the 1930's, this was the radio; in the 1960's, television; now in the 21st century, it's internet-based technology).

These two conditions are present in modern day politics and have helped define the Millennial Generation. Winograd & Hais explain that Millennials are civic-minded, group-oriented and problem solvers. In 2004, Howard Dean helped demonstrate the power of the internet, but in 2008 the Millennials put the internet (and social networking) at the center of the campaign.

Andrew Rasiej Video

Rasiej claims that the multi-dimensional social networking tools have developed a new kind of governance. Internet users are essentially competing with government and taking the lead in solving problems that need to be solved (e.g. online resource for reporting pot-holes, looking up times for public transportation). Like-minded individuals are finding solutions where government has lagged. These tools transcend geographical boundaries. Rasiej predicts that social networking tools encourage international diplomacy and have the potential to translate into civilian action, absent of political leaders.

Thom Yorke: Campaign Manager

John Ensign could have used the words from Radiohead’s “Creep” during his press conference yesterday announcing his resignation, “I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo, what the hell am I doing here?” Even so, Capitol Momentum Blog gives a more appropriate and thought-provoking use for Radiohead in political campaigns. In a recent post, Capitol Momentum outlined four ways that advocacy organizations could learn from Radiohead.

1. Reach supporters in the way that they want to be reached. Radiohead released their most recent album, The King of Limbs, by making it available for download (or just a one-time listen) on Slate.com, RollingStone.com, and YouTube. If someone bought it in-stores, they also received a newspaper about the band. Everything from Radiohead’s website, Facebook and Twitter account to their email and in-store promotions was up-to-date and fresh. Radiohead integrated (remember that word?) their offline and online promotions in a way that many advocacy organizations could model a campaign off of.

2. Don’t empower, enable! We learned about the importance of translating online support into offline action by making your audience your messenger. Radiohead encouraged their fans to film concerts and then used the footage, edited it and redistributed it. Radiohead fans were the ones that encouraged other fans to listen and participate.

3. Content is key. For Radiohead, disseminating quality content means making quality music. Not everyone loves Radiohead’s music just like not everyone will support your advocacy campaign. Providing supporters with updated and engaging content will keep people coming back for more if they can rely on your organization to provide them with reliable information in a timely and innovative manner.

4. Earn media. When Radiohead made their 2007 album, In Rainbows, available for download at any “you-name-it” price, 1.2 million people downloaded it in the first day. That summer, all proceeds from their one-time concert went to the Haiti earthquake relief effort. Capitol Momentum notes that their recent multi-media push is unlike any in history. Radiohead’s promotional efforts have garnered a significant amount of mainstream media coverage. The best thing about earned-media is that it’s free. For advocacy organizations, following steps 1-3 (integrate, enable, quality content) gets them to step 4 (earned-media).

Capitol Momentum’s full article can be seen here.

BackType It Up

For this week’s assignment, I played around with BackType – a monitoring site that provides companies, organizations and campaigns with a variety of analytics to better understand their social impact. Without an account (and hefty payment), the analysis is limited, but I was able to squeeze out a couple cool graphs with the freebee trial offer. Here is a comparison graph of Planned Parenthood and National Right to Life. I wanted to see if NRL was as active in the Twitterverse because of the latest budget battle. It doesn’t seem like NRL has done much…

Also: just for fun, I compared the influence index for fake Rahm and real Rahm – unsurprisingly, fake Rahm beat out real Rahm by a score of 59% to 47%.

MY Index Is Higher Than YOUR Index

The 6th Floor Blog commissioned Twitalyzer to find the most influential people on Twitter. According to Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, the simple practice of counting followers says very little about a person’s influence. Williams explains, “someone with millions of followers may no longer post messages frequently, while someone followed my mere tens of thousands may be a prolific poster whose messages are amplified by others.”

Twitalyzer uses an Influence Index, which is determined by the number of times a person is mentioned by someone else + how often that person’s messages are retweeted. The results are pretty interesting. As you can see from the Twitalyzer’s results, there is a big difference between those that have a lot of followers versus those that are the most influential. Snoop Dog is slightly more influential than President Obama even though Obama has 4.5 million more followers.

You can see more results, like “who’s more influential” matchups (Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich; LeBron James or Shaquille O’Neal) at The 6th Floor Blog here.

DIY D.C. Redistricting

Last week, the U.S. Census released the latest population numbers for D.C. According to D.C. law, each Ward needs to have a population that is within 5% of the average Ward population. Currently, Ward 2 is too big and Wards 7 and 8 are too small. Greater Greater Washington created a fun, interactive game (anyone can play!) to draw new Wards. Here is my attempt at redistricting D.C.

YOU can redraw D.C.'s Wards too. Greater Greater Washington's game is here.