Doug Pinkham, Public Affairs Council President Everyone has an opinion about big corporations. Some see them as key economic players because they create jobs, reduce consumer costs and manufacture products on a global scale. Others see them as bad actors, seeking to monopolize markets, outsource workers and buy favors from politicians. The American public’s view [...]
In its latest effort to improve government transparency, Sunlight Foundation recently launched the 180° Project, a website which helps identify the people present at congressional hearings. Since currently lobbying transparency rules do not require involved parties to disclose their identities, Sunlight Foundation is using the power of crowdsourcing to help identify individuals from photographs. “For [...]
Kate Kaye, ClickZ Politics & Advocacy Several political tech and data firms on the right, left, and in between are introducing new ways to target digital ads to voters this election season. And, while there are no signs of political campaigns slowing their use of online interaction and social media profile data to inform which [...]
Each week, K Street Cafe curates a roundup of the biggest social media stories on the web. Your Old Tweets May Not Be Lost Forever Twitter only saves the last few thousand tweets that any given user publishes, a policy which has long been criticized. According to the New York Times Bits Blog, however, Twitter [...]
Check out this great new infographic from ZynQo about the role that social media plays in politics today. Advocacy organizations, take note! Some significant takeaways: 82% of all Americans will receive most of their election news online. 94% of respondents of voting age engaged by a political message on a social media site watched [...]
Democratic communications firm SKDKnickerbocker, Republican survey research firm McLaughlin & Associates, and technology company LocaModa recently released a social media tool: LocaModa Red and Blue. According to SDKnickerbocker, “The bipartisan tool was created for elected officials, candidates, and politicos to engage the constituents and political audiences they care about. LocaModa allows campaigns, interest groups, and [...]
Yesterday, we posted a piece on tech startups in the political and issue advocacy sphere. But can smaller advocacy groups take advantage of the pricey tools that firms like Blue State Digital have to offer? According to TechPresident‘s Sarah Lai Stirland, “Blue State is aggressively courting its lower-priced competitors’ clients by encouraging them to move [...]
It’s no surprise that many of the people who begin their careers working on political campaigns ultimately transition to issue advocacy work. But staying ahead of the curve in either field now requires a tech savvy that it previously did not. According to Bloomberg‘s Julie Bykowicz, “a new professional, political class [is on the rise]: [...]
How did the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy (ACCCE) get over 3,000 people to call their senators in support of one particular lobbying effort? The answer: ACCCE partnered with Google to create “click to call” ads that appear in Google search results. According to National Journal‘s Michael Catalini, the successful grassroots advocacy campaign was [...]
The ability to process an enormous amount of information has become essential in many industries, and PR is no exception. Constantly monitoring the media and staying on top of industry trends – all while doing our day-to-day jobs as communications professionals – keeps us very busy. So how can we put aside this ‘information overload’ [...]