TechRepublican.com

Important Links for the Healthcare Debate

Jeff Vreeland — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:45:31 +0000

As the Healthcare debate kicks up this weekend with a House vote coming as early as today the House Republican Conference has put together a great list of links to help you understand the bill better and more importantly respond accurately on the many false statements being stated by the left.

We are at a very critical point in this debate and we need everyone to come together to KILL THIS BILL!

For your R/T Pleasure:

R/T @TechRepublican: Important Links & Talking Points for the Healthcare Debate this weekend are online here: http://bit.ly/1PYthC #handsoff

The Second Cup: Politicos and Average Joes

Meghann Olshefski — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:27:53 +0000

For Election News, Politicos and Average Joes Turned to Twitter

Coverage of Tuesday's election night took place during prime time, giving cable news partisans the responsibility of tracking and reporting details on the elections. Many observers, fed up with the substandard coverage of the networks' opinion commentators, turned to Twitter for up-to-the-minute coverage.

Online Voter Registration Draft Unveiled

House Administration Elections Subcommittee ranking member Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., unveiled draft legislation Thursday [see PDF here] designed to increase online voter registration services while preserving safeguards to protect against fraudulent registration tactics witnessed in past elections.

3 New Social Media Studies Worth Reading

With social media marketing evolving at a rapid pace, it’s essential to stay current on the latest industry trends. Here are some interesting findings from recent social media studies -

1. Social Media Engagement Big Challenge for Many Businesses (Deloitte)

2. Social Media Used as a Discovery Tool by 18% of Online Population (Nielson)

3. Businesses Slow to Incorporate Social Media Into Practice

There's An App For That

Meghann Olshefski — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:05:23 +0000

Check out this funny and clever video from the NRCC's online team.

Short, sweet and to the point.

While it's only been viewed 304 times to date, I think this video is a prime example of the kind of outside-of-the-box thinking this party needs when it comes to online video.

I encourage all political campaigns to create videos like this. You never know just what will stick and go viral.

Reaching the Homeschool Community

Ethan Demme — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:30:18 +0000

You've probably heard of homeschoolers in 1994 melting the phone lines over H.R. 6 or run into interns from Patrick Henry college but how do you reach out to them?

As a homeschool graduate and the marketing director for a company that sells to homeschoolers I often get asked by politicians, "I've got some homeschoolers in my district, how do I reach out to them?" here is the brief version of my answer.

The homeschool community is a fast growing, diverse and well networked group of parents who have taken it upon themselves to teach their children at home.

In 2007 there were 1.5 million homeschoolers in the United States. The numbers keep increasing and the growth of homeschooling has created a niche market that many politicians see a value in communicating with.

Before I jump into the nuts and bolts you need to have a basic understanding of the history of home education.

A Brief History of Homeschooling

In the early 1960's and 1970's three streams emerged that catapulted homeschooling into the national sphere.

In the 1960's John Holt wrote "How Children Fail", 1964; "How Children Learn", 1967; "What Do I Do Monday?", 1970 these books coupled with his appearance on the Phil Donehue show pushed the ideas of homeschooling into the national dialogue. Holt also started the magazine "Growing without schooling" and in my mind represents the secular homeschooling world.
Wikipedia | Amazon | Website

In the 1970's Raymond and Dorothy Moore authored several books, "Better Late Than Early: A New Approach to Your Child's Education", 1975 and "School Can Wait" in 1980's they were interviewed on James Dobson's focus on the family radio program which helped spread the message of homeschooling into the conservative Christian community.
Moore Foundation | Amazon

Rushdoony wrote the book (The Messianic Character of American Education) in 1963 and was frequently called as an expert witness by HSLDA in court cases. Some of the leadership of HSLDA has been influenced by Rushooney's theology of Christian Reconstructionism which summarily influences their political involvement.
Wikipedia | Amazon | Chalcedon Foundation

The impact of the theology of christian reconstructionism on politics and the religious right is a fascinating topic but will have to wait till another time, or just google it.

In the early 80's these streams flowed together bound by the necessity of numbers and the need to lobby for the legalization of homeschooling. Homeschooling as a legal and accepted form of education has only enjoyed a very brief history.

Growth

As the homeschooling movement grew in the late 80's and 90's the growth of the christian homeschool community outpaced the growth among secular homeschoolers. With this shift in power homeschool organizations began to disassociate with people they didn't agree with and created "christian homeschool organizations". These state organizations ran the state homeschool conventions, published newsletters and became the defacto legal defense of home education. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). Also began to grow and unite the state organizations and has become a very powerful political
unit.
Wikipedia | Website

Changes

In the 2000's two changes impacted the homeschooling community. In the early days there was more of a individualistic pioneer spirit, these are the people I refer to as the first generation or the pioneers. They had shown that parents could successfully educate their children at home, they had fought for legislation to make it legal, they had begged, borrowed, cobbled together and even written their own curricula. In essence they made homeschooling culturally acceptable. The pioneers opened the doors to the second generation of followers. While the pioneers were more ideological the followers were more concerned with, religious instruction, cost, test scores, quality of public schools, schedule, etc.

The second big change was the growth of the internet. It was now easy to find information and purchase products online. You could also read and write personal reviews to help you decide what to buy and from whom. In the early days you had to make a phone call or attend a seminar to find out the homeschooling legislation and requirements, now it's only a mouse click away. Before you had to go to the state convention to buy your curriculum for the year. Now there is more than enough information online and it's usually cheaper.

Reaching the Homeschool Community

With this brief history in mind here are some practical ways to reach this very diverse homeschool community. Politicians and political organizations can use these tools to reach out to the homeschool community with either their message or in search of volunteers. Traditional marketing means spending money to borrow someone else's audience. The internet and non traditional marketing lets you spend time and money to build your own audience. I recommend using both methods.

Traditional Methods

Magazines

Some of these magazines have overlap and some hit different segments of the homeschool community contact them to find out who they reach. Along with selling advertising space most of these magazines also maintain email lists which you can rent.

Direct Mail

You can advertise in card packs, essentially you are buying a postcard slot in a large stack of post cards, these generally have a large reach and are mailed several times a year. You can also rent their mailing lists to send your own direct mail pieces. They usually maintain rentable email lists as well.

State Conventions

There are conventions in every state and sometimes several in a state. The old schoolhouse magazine maintains a good list. You can also google your state to find one near you. Some conventions only allow christian curriculum vendors, others only homeschool vendors while others have an open door policy.
Old Schoolhouse 2009 Conventions

Support Groups & Co-ops

I have yet to find a central database of local support groups and co-ops. Buy a google search for support groups in your state will point you in the right direction. Here is one example of support groups in Pennsylvania.
PA Homeschoolers

You can reach support groups and co-ops by calling or emailing the leaders and asking for an opportunity to speak to the group.

Online Outreach

The homeschool community has always been very connected and self organizes in a way that would make most political parties jealous. A hot button issue can quickly spread among homeschoolers and shut down switchboards in Washington D.C. (HR 6 in 1994 for example) Homeschoolers are also extremely well networked online as well. "Homeschool Mommy Bloggers" talk about child rearing, teaching, curriculum choices, politics, faith, recipes, hobbies etc. on a regular basis. They also quickly adapt to new technologies and can be found wherever social media will take you.

Blogger Outreach

Blogger outreach is a very nebulus term that basically means reaching out to bloggers. You can reach out in a variety of ways. You can email the author and pitch a story (doesn't work to well), purchase advertising on the blog (hard to manage more than a few), become a member of a group blog, link to the blog, write comments on the blog, offer free stuff in exchange for a blog post (i.e. review materials, exclusive interview, etc.). The best thing to do is appeal to the blogger's self interest. What do bloggers want?

Attention
Exclusive Information
Money

The best method I've found is to slowly build relationships with bloggers, it doesn't have to be complicated. Read their blogs, comment on them and offer them information that they would find useful.

Some examples of good homeschool blogs

To find more homeschooling blogs check through the past winners of the homeschool blog awards. Also check blogrolls to find out who bloggers like to read.

Twitter

Yes homeschoolers use twitter, if you want to reach out on twitter start an account and start following people. Use the search function to find people talking about your issues/products and join their conversation.Tip: search for the homeschool hashtag #homeschool

Facebook

While there are a lot of homeschoolers on twitter there are even more on facebook. Start a fan page and joint the conversation on facebook. Also facebook advertising is very effective at micro targeting your audience. Tip for Facebook advertising don't send them to your website with your ad, keep them in facebook, either on your page or one of your events. Build your community of fans and talk with them regularly. Have them ask questions and respond via video.

Other Ways to Reach out

Have a homeschool day at your office. Parents are always looking for a good educational field trip and coming and talking with their elected officials is a great way to start building relationships.

Have a volunteer sign up sheet and ask if they want to get involved in local politics. Homeschoolers tend to be well read, respectful and they don't have the same school hours and they can count it as a civics class.

Here are a few good examples I've seen.

Governor Bobby Jindal developed a relationship with the Louisiana state homeschool group and began speaking at their conventions prior his becoming governor. He had a large amount of support and volunteers from the homeschool community in Louisiana and he still maintains the connection by speaking at their conference every year.

Here he is with a bunch of students at the CHEF Homeschool convention. He delivered a great speech and made the time to shake hands with and talk to every person there.

When I was growing up in PA our homeschool group would visit the capitol in Harrisburg and Congressman Joe Pitts would take us on a tour and talk about how government worked. Senator Rick Santorum would do the same for field trips to Washington D.C. Both of whom have enjoyed lots of support from the homeschool
community here in Pennsylvania.

Thanks for reading and please leave a comment or a question if you have anything to add or ask.

How have you reached out to homeschoolers in your district?

More Websites

Information and statistics

The Second Cup: Let's Get Personal

Meghann Olshefski — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:30:52 +0000

HOW TO: Build Your Own Personal Brand on YouTube

There are thousands of different websites that you can leverage to build your own personal brand, but only a few that will give you both the reach and credibility to make a major impact. Here at Mashable (Mashable), we’ve provided you with a detailed look at how you can build your personal brand on Facebook (Facebook), Twitter (Twitter), and LinkedIn (LinkedIn). Today, we’ll focus in on the largest video sharing site on the planet, more commonly referred to as YouTube (YouTube).

Google's Friend Connect, Now More Personalized

Often, the web can feel like that subway. There are probably people commuting to the places you regularly visit, but you don’t know who those people are, and your paths may never cross. With Google Friend Connect, we've been helping millions of website owners make their sites more like that guitar shop — a social place where visitors can get to know each other — and less like the anonymous subway ride.

With this in mind, we're thrilled to introduce a new set of Friend Connect features that let site owners help their visitors get to know each other and personalize their site's experience and content.

Social Media is a Vehicle for Interaction, Not Control

If you keep up with the social media conversation like I do, you’re familiar with the concept of “controlling the conversation.” It’s touted as one of the big benefits of corporate social media use. I’ve even written about it before. (Twice, actually.) Well, PR and social media blogger Lauren Fernandez recently taught me that I shouldn’t use the word “control” because all anyone can really do with social media is initiate and react to conversations. This reaction can try to steer a conversation, but, as Lauren says:

People aren’t robots. They are going to say what they want, how they want about your product.

7 Tips to Create Better Blog Posts

Great blog post’s don’t magically engage readers. But by applying a few good tactics, your blog can attract and retain your ideal readers.

Here are seven powerful blog posting habits...

The Second Cup: For VA and NJ, "That's a Wrap!"

Meghann Olshefski — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:35:23 +0000

After a victorious election night for VA and NJ, here is a retrospective look at Bob McDonnell's online prowess in the hours leading up to his victory -

Bob McDonnell's Impressive Online Campaign for Virginia Governor

If Creigh Deeds manages to pull off a victory in today’s race for Virginia governor, it won’t be because Republican Bob McDonnell was slack online. In fact, McDonnell’s internet campaign has been impressively comprehensive, meaning that state and local candidates can look to it as a model for applying the lessons of 2008. Let’s look at a few of the critical things he’s done right so far..

What do our GOP victories say about Obama's ability to motivate his netroots on behalf of other Democratic candidates merely one year after his election? Eric Frenchman weighs in...

@pardonmyfrench: NJ/VA GOP victories do prove tonight that Obama for America has no power outside of electing Obama; so much for obamas email and facebook list.

House GOP Launches Social Media Crusade Against Healthcare Package

House Majority Leader John Boehner this morning introduced a new tool to help in the Republican push back against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's health care package.

House GOP Members are using Amplify.com, an interactive blog-like platform, to break down the bill section by section, explaining each piece in understandable language and getting feedback from the public. Visitors can go healthcaretruth.amplify.com, leave their own comments and share sections via Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools.

Election Day in VA and NJ: A YouTube Wrap-Up

With the nation's political radar focused on the gubernatorial races today in Virginia and New Jersey, here's a last look at the YouTube campaigns run by the candidates in each race.

Twitter Now Officially En Espanol

Last month, Twitter noted that it was seeking
volunteers to help translate its service into other languages. Today,
the first of those is ready to go, as Twitter has formally unveiled
support for the Spanish language.

November 9th: Special To You? It Should Be

Carrie Sarver — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:58:31 +0000

For many November 9th will come and go with no special recognition. How sad.

This day marks the 20th year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and should most definitely be commemorated by Americans. Have we forgotten our triumph in declaring victory in the cold war, or of liberating Eastern Europeans?

You don't have to let this day go unnoticed.

Take a trip to the Global Museum On Communism. This online Museum is dedicated to educating this generation and next on the history, philosophy, and legacy of communism and its victims.

The idea is rather clever, the site is set up to create an actual museum like experience complete with exhibits, a visitors guide, and different “halls” that you can virtually walk through.

I suggest you navigate the site like you would a real museum; watch the video intro, press “go,” begin reading through the visitors guide, then choose which exhibits you’d like to visit. This may prove difficult for those of you with self-proclaimed, 3-second attention spans, but really try. It’s a worthy cause.

(side note: I wish Anita Dunn was on twitter so I could tweet her a link to the part of the website where Mao Tse Tung kills millions of his own people)

The reality is that the average time spent on the site is 3 minutes (stat from Lee Edwards at Heritage’s bloggers briefing today). I hope that number increases as more and more people visit the virtual Museum.

Here’s an idea, take a group trip to the museum on the 9th to commemorate the anniversary. Make an event out of it. Plug your computer into the T.V., turn down the lights, and gather round for a meaningful trip. You could even have someone who’s been to the site previously be the “tour guide.”

I promise it will be worth your time.

-------
A leading firm in Canada, Liefa Communications, developed the site. Liefa’s founder Marcus Kolga and family were forced to flee Estonia when Red Army troops attacked. His grandparents where prisoners in the Soviet Union labor camps.

Text by Text: How @BobMcDonnell Dragged Me to the Polls

Meghann Olshefski — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:27:10 +0000

Don't get me wrong. I've voted in every election since I turned 18, but this 2009 election is the first cycle where I felt social media and mobile technology played a significant role in motivating me to vote at the polls.

My case in point is how the Bob McDonnell for Governor campaign in Virginia has helped me through the voting process this fall, text by text.

It all started about a month ago with this:

Don't forget today is the last day to register to vote in VA. Tell your friends, family, neighbors if they need to register go to...

And then a couple weeks later:

REMINDER! Election Day is only one week away. To find your polling place to vote for Bob next Tuesday, please visit...

And then yesterday:

Don't forget, Election Day is tomorrow! Find your polling place to vote for Bob McDonnell TOMORROW, please visit...

And now this morning:

Good Morning Bob McDonnell Supporters! Polls are now open, so don't forget to get out there and vote today! For info on where to vote go to www.Bob4VA.com

It's like a virtual cup of coffee in my hand.

In other words, a text message is akin to the little pep talk all voters need to get them out the door and to the polling place, before even showing up for work in the morning.

While it's still to be determined, GOTV is probably the #1 use for mobile technology in a state-wide campaign.

I know first-hand how hard it is to push & pull folks to the polls as a lowly field director during the 2006 cycle.

You have moms who are just trying to get through the day and aren't sure if they're going to make it to the polls 2 hours before the fact. You have diehard supporters who say they're going to come out and vote, but at the end of the day, forget to.

Your average voter and even your strongest supporters need a helping hand to lead them through the process.

But surely, mobile is not the be-all and end-all.

You still need to make phone calls, you still need boots on the ground knocking on doors. You need email and you need voter mail. You need friend-to-friend conversation.

But at the end of the day - for voters like me who don't have a land line phone - For voters who don't meticulously go through their snail mail, because we get all of our important statements online...

We appreciate the mobile push.

We are millenials and we're coming out to vote more and more each cycle.

And just think - we are going to make up the majority of the voting population in the near future.

Why not embrace the technology right now, text by text?

The Second Cup: #bob4va Edition

Meghann Olshefski — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:35:04 +0000

The Importance of Being Everywhere: VAs McDonnell and NYC's Bloomberg Go Full Google

Oh,
those time-honored traditions of democracy. Spreading leaflets
door-to-door. Holding up signs at busy intersections. And, at least in
recent elections, the Google network blast. Two candidates whose
chances for victory tomorrow range from pretty likely to
go-ahead-and-bet-the-rent-money-on-it are taking no chances, employing
the somewhat cutting-edge Google network blast technique to blanket the
Internet experience of potential voters in their regions with
advertisements touting their bona fides.

Twitter Reveals More Lists Power With a Widget

Since it was turned on for all users late last week, everyone is talking about Twitter’s new Lists feature. Most people seem to like it, but some have no idea what it’s good for. Perhaps those people will understand a bit more about Lists potential with a new widget that Twitter has launched today.

The List Widget is exactly what you’d expect: A widget that you can place on your blog that displays a list of your choosing. One nice thing is that this can be a list you made or one any user has made (that is public). If you simply type in a user’s name, it will show their lists in a drop down menu. You then give the list a title, a caption, customize its look and feel, and you’re good to go.

10 Twitter List Widgets You Can Grab & Embed Right Now

The good folks at Twitter recently rolled out list-making capabilities for all users, finally catching up to functions that many desktop and web apps have featured for a while.

In addition to allowing users to create their own curations, Twitter has also added a basic widget-maker for adding tweets from any user's list to any given website. And since re-embedding the code for Twitter's widget is still kind of a pain, we've hand-picked ten great lists and created widgets from them for your expedited enjoyment and copy-pasteable hijacking. You're welcome!

The Second Cup: Gingrich Tweets

Meghann Olshefski — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:31:16 +0000

How to Measure the True Stickiness (And Success) of a Facebook App

Yesterday, Facebook announced they are going to drastically alter the way applications can message users once again, likely throwing a wrench into every app developers’ growth rate. Hints of the coming turmoil appeared last week when Facebook changed the way feeds work. This caused enough worry that apparently Mark Pincus, Founder/CEO of Zynga, canceled his appearance at Harvard Business School so he could sit with his team and figure out what the impact would be to the viral rates of their massive hits such as Farmville and Cafe World. That’s not surprising, since getting posts in the feed is critical to continued growth, but the myopic focus on the “viral rate” by some in the industry has created an over-dependence on perhaps the wrong number.

Using Twitter Lists to Judge Influence

If you’ve used Twitter for awhile, you know that judging the influence of a Twitter user by their number of followers is a dicey proposition. Lots of Twitter users are obsessed with their number of followers, and work to inflate their stats in ways too numerous to mention here. The end result is that some Twitter users will have thousands of followers who consist mostly of other social media “experts” and spam Twitter accounts. While the follower number may look impressive, these folks aren’t really influential because no one is listening. A Twitter account with 100 engaged followers is much more influential than one followed by thousands of disengaged users.

Gingrich Tweets Hoffman Endorsement

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is now endorsing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 special election.

After learning his initial pick, Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava, had bowed out of the race this morning, Gingrich tweeted that he was now supporting Hoffman, who is virtually tied with Democratic candidate Bill Owens in preliminary polls.

TechRepublican.com

Important Links for the Healthcare Debate

The Second Cup: Politicos and Average Joes

There's An App For That

Reaching the Homeschool Community

A Brief History of Homeschooling

Growth

Changes

Reaching the Homeschool Community

Traditional Methods

Magazines

Direct Mail

State Conventions

Support Groups & Co-ops

Online Outreach

Blogger Outreach

Twitter

Facebook

Other Ways to Reach out

More Websites

Information and statistics

Recommended Reading

The Second Cup: Let's Get Personal

The Second Cup: For VA and NJ, "That's a Wrap!"

November 9th: Special To You? It Should Be

Text by Text: How @BobMcDonnell Dragged Me to the Polls

The Second Cup: #bob4va Edition

The Second Cup: Gingrich Tweets