• July 23

The Golden Rules of Internet Politics

On Saturday I am teaching a group of 150 South Carolina Republican activists about Internet politics. Most of my presentation is finished, but I have one final part that I’d like your help on. It’s titled “The Golden Rules of Internet Politics.”

I’d like to list the 10 most important rules in being successful on the Internet.

Now, I know that real success requires a bigger strategy, but I’m looking to just get these folks started, and most important, excited!

Will you help me out? Tell me, what do you think are the most important rules to being successful on the web?

Let’s start here – Don’t publish anything you don’t want the whole world reading.

How about – Be persistent and consistent?

What else you got?

Popularity: 1% [?]




Comments

  1. Nathan July 23rd

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    I know you’re looking for short axioms, but I can’t help myself. Here are a few Golden Rules for Online Politicking:

    1. I definitely agree with the persistence rule. Brilliance almost always takes second place to persistence. For every 5 innovative, trendsetting, successful things the Obama campaign did on the Internet, they did 5-10 things that didn’t work that we never heard about.

    2. Integrate and cross-pollinate. All of your online pieces should work together. All of your access points — the campaign website, Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube, etc. — should promote each other. Also, your online efforts should encourage offline activity (otherwise, what’s the point?). And your offline activities (speeches, events, canvassing, etc.) should promote your website and online social networking.

    3. “Push” marketing doesn’t work online. You have to use a “pull” model (i.e. you have to get people to come to you). I love how Seth Godin addresses this in Meatball Sundae: “The Web is the single worst medium ever devised for interrupting people who don’t want to be interrupted.” Interrupting people (i.e. spamming them) is a) extremely inefficient, and b) doesn’t work anyway.

    4. The Internet is an active medium. It’s not passive like TV (there are notable TV exceptions like American Idol, which is basically the Internet on TV, asking viewers to text their votes, but I digress…). Treat the Internet as an active medium. Don’t squelch participation. Encourage it and make it easy for people. Allow blog comments; engage with people; ask for their opinions and for user-generated content; give them tools to foster more discussions on- and off-line (like “share with a friend” features, embeddable video, download-ready or even build-your-own bumper stickers and yard signs, etc.).

    5. Content is king. All of the advertising, cross-promoting, and begging in the world won’t get one more person to click on your website or follow you on Twitter if the content sucks.

    Sorry for the dissertation; I hope you can pull something useful out of this!


  2. sweaterlover July 23rd

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    one rule could be…

    Be Yourself!!


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Wesley

Wesley Donehue is a Republican political consultant, tech enthusiast, and coffee addict. Called "the political high tech 'Wizard of Oz'" by WSPA's Amy Wood, Wesley blogs about the intersection of politics, technology, and business.