Use An Infographic to tell your Advocacy Story

Here's a great example of an infographic being used by the Internet Innovation Alliance to promote their message of greater access to wireless broadband.

How can you tell your story through pictures?

Have you Checked Your Google Dashboard?

Props to Ari Adler for this post on TalentZoo.com regarding the usefulness of the Google Dashboard.

Here's the opening paragraph:

Google+ is quickly becoming a topic of discussion among the early adopters of social networks, but when was the last time you checked your Google Dashboard? Did you even know you have one? At the Google Dashboard, you can get a quick overview of how much Google has infiltrated your life and, more importantly, how much of that life is being shared publicly on the Web. You also can use the links and tools on the page to take care of your account settings, including your overall Google account as well as the many Google offerings you have signed up for. It's especially helpful to remind you of stuff you signed up to try out and then forgot as it joined the flotsam of Internet productivity.

Remember to check out these tools as you're monitoring the results of your social media advocacy.

Follow the author on Twitter @AriBAdler

Social Media for Lobbying Firms

The blog Social Media for Lawyers asks an interesting, if not basic, question.  Is your law firm on Wikipedia?  This is a great question for lobbyists as well.  Are you listed on Wikipedia?  It's a great resource for the media and client leads. 

Find some great benefits, tips and best practices here

From Wikipedia:

What is Wikipedia?
Editing tutorial for Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia, written synergistically by the people who use it. It is a special type of website designed to make collaboration easy, called a wiki. Many people are constantly improving Wikipedia, making thousands of changes per hour. All of these changes are recorded in article histories and recent changes. For a more detailed account of the project, see About Wikipedia.

How you can contribute?
Don't be afraid to edit – anyone can edit almost every page, and we are encouraged to be bold! Find something that can be improved and make it better—for example, spelling, grammar, rewriting for readability, or removing non-constructive edits. If you wish to add new facts, please try to provide references so they may be verified, or suggest them on the article's discussion page. Changes to controversial topics and Wikipedia's main pages should usually be discussed first.

Remember – you can't break Wikipedia; all edits can be reversed, fixed or improved later. Wikipedia is allowed to be imperfect. So go ahead, edit an article and help make Wikipedia the best information source on the Internet!

Donate – Wikipedia is free to use, but relies on donations and grants to do so. Please consider donating using the Donate to Wikipedia link on the left to help with the projects running costs and expansion.

Better Real Time Election Coverage from Twitter

I recently wrote this article for Dome Magazine about my experience on primary election night, August 2, 2010.  I received quicker information about primary election results through a combination of old and new media.  When television and radio news didn't have the most up-to-date results, I turned to Twitter.

Here's the beginning of the article:

Better Real-Time Election Coverage on Twitter

Guest Column
by Sarah Hubbard
August 13, 2010
Supporters of social media have been putting traditional print reporting to shame for a few years now. The first picture of the plane that landed on the Hudson came from a bystander who posted it to Twitter. Twitter’s founders realized its potential to break news early on during a major earthquake in 2007 in Mexico. Last year, the messaging service beat mainstream news organizations to report earthquakes in the UK and China.

Beyond accidents and natural disasters, people are also using Twitter to get quicker information. The first results of many primary elections last week were posted on Twitter.

They’re also more interesting, because many of the political posts on Twitter are opinion driven. Advocacy groups such as the Detroit Regional Chamber use social media to drive public opinion of issues and to rally interested individuals to contact legislators in support of preferred policies. If you’re like me, you live a significant portion of your life, both work and play, online. Using the Internet is a daily occurrence.

Many of my friends traveled the state to attend last week’s election night celebrations, but I covered the event from my couch with the TV on, live Detroit radio streaming on my computer, making frequent checks of the Secretary of State and other websites covering returns. And, of course, my Twitter account was fully engaged.

Read the entire piece here .

Four-Square for Advocacy?

The latest social media craze is known as a little program called Four-Square.

From their website:

Check-in to places

People use foursquare to "check-in", which is a way of telling us your whereabouts. When you check-in someplace, we'll tell your friends where they can find you and recommend places to go & things to do nearby. People check-in at all kind of places - cafes, bars, restaurants, parks, homes, offices.


You'll find that as your friends use foursquare to check-in, you'll start learning more about the places they frequent. Not only is it a great way to meet up with nearby friends, but you'll also start to learn about their favorite spots and the new places they discover.

So, how could Four-Square be used effectively for political advocacy?  Take a look at the K Street Cafe Blog   for a few ideas from their contributors.

First, Amanda Phraner suggests calls to action around "check-ins."  Read her piece here.  Next, Alan Rosenblatt suggests the concept of a virtual flash mob via the a similar tactic.  Find his take here.

Either way, the creatives out there will find a way to use this fun new platform for advocacy.  I'm looking forward to the possibilities!

Find Foreign Public Policy Influencers

Do you need to know what foreign countries are doing in Washington, D.C.? What impact are they having on your member of Congress?

Check out the Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker and get some answers.

An explanation from the site below:

Filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) provide far more
detail on how lobbyists interact with government officials than those required
by the Lobbying Disclosure Act; they contain information on efforts by foreign
governments and organizations to influence U.S. policy on trade, taxation,
foreign aid, appropriations, human rights and national security.

Since May 2007 the Justice Department has maintained a Web site that posts image
files [pdf] of FARA disclosures online, but none of that information is
available in a digitized format. Thus, it is impossible, for example, to see how
many times the office of an individual member of Congress has been contacted.

With the Foreign Lobbyist Influence Tracker, you can now find out with ease
by selecting any member’s name from the pull-down list.

You can search their database by member of Congress contacted, country, client or lobbying firm. You can also search by "contact issues" as reported by lobbyists.

You never know when this information might be needed - this is a great source to research how foreign governments influence the United States

Social Media for Public Policy Advocacy - Case Study

I spoke to the annual conference of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives about my experience with social media and advocacy. Get a copy of my case study free.

The paper outlines strategies and tactics employed by the Detroit Regional Chamber as it lobbied behind funding for the ailing Detroit automotive industry. As a result of the Chamber's efforts, over 25,000 emails from all over the U.S. were sent to Washington D.C. to amplify the message.

Bypass the Mainstream Media

Good advocacy depends on quality earned media - free coverage by news outlets - that gives your message credibility.

What if they don't want to cover your message or you can't get it to them? Post your press release on your blog or website and link back from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and any other online medium you can dream up. Reporters often carouse these outlets for sources of news overlooked by news editors.

Additionally, social media sites allow you to beat the traditional media at their own game. Publish after they write their story but before the printed edition hits the street and get a jump on the news.

Websites continue to pop up that offer distribution services. Remember, you get what you pay for, but if you have nothing to pay they're probably worth a shot. Here's one that says "PRLog is a free online press release service. You can submit your press releases at no charge. All of our services are free."

How To Save the U.S. Automotive Industry

Positive public opinion must overcome negative public skepticism in order to score a major bridge loan from Congress for the Detroit 3. Here's and example of a positive force in favor of the loans:

www.vote4biz.com
http://vote4biz.detroitchamber.com/

The Detroit Regional Chamber advocates on behalf of over 20,000 businesses in southeast Michigan. (I'm their VP of Government Relations).