Necessity isn't necessarily the mother of invention.
Sometimes, you simply combine two great things -- say, chocolate and peanut butter -- and they taste great together.
A startup called Votizen is leading the way in truly using two social media tools for more than posting baby photos and issuing tweets about your current state of sandwich preparation.
Votizen believes that Facebook + Twitter = votes.
There are two different branches of most campaigns: (1) using the money you raise for the air attack, with paid ads on TV, the radio and in the mailbox, and (2) and the ground game, with earned media and volunteers knocking on doors to persuade people one-on-one.
Basically, you've got a marketing/advertising campaign and a PR campaign, running side by side.
This is true for any public figure or celebrity. Authors use their in-house marketing campaign, with paid ads, hand-in-hand with publicity tours and book signings. Rock stars buy billboards telling people about their next album or tour, but they also do interviews and try to connect with fans on the road, one-on-one.
Votizen is on the cutting edge, though, of marrying social media with old-fashioned persuasion, face-to-face.
Just as authors can now go on a virtual tour of book blogs, Votizen is giving supporters of a candidate the tools to do virtual doorbelling of their friends and neighbors.
As the Politico story explains the system, the Votizen system asks volunteers for permission to look at social networks like Facebook and Twitter for the names of friends and followers.
The software runs those names past voter databases, to see if they're registered to vote and if they lean toward one party or the other -- and even if they've taken positions on certain issues.
Votizen gives that supporter a virtual doorbelling list of likely voters to chat with, along with tips on what pitches might work with each friend or follower.
This is interesting for a few reasons.
1) With advertising and marketing -- and with earned media through PR -- you're trying to reach the broadest possible audience. The approach Votizen is taking is entirely different. It's highly personal and targeted.Â
2) People are moving more and more toward talking to friends and family not in person, over the phone or even by email, but using text messages and social networks. Virtual doorbelling is a big new step toward that direction.
3) Whatever field you're in -- business, professional sports, Hollywood, publishing -- there are going to be tools like this popping up to communicate with your audiences in a more targeted way. Even if you're not in politics, it's worth looking at how Votizen does this and tracking whether this approach works.
And I bet it does work.
People can be naturally skeptical when they see advertising or hear a knock on the door and see a college kid bused in from out of town to doorbell their neighborhood.
They aren't suspicious of their friends and followers. These are the people they want to talk to every day.Â
Related links:
Sometimes, you simply combine two great things -- say, chocolate and peanut butter -- and they taste great together.
A startup called Votizen is leading the way in truly using two social media tools for more than posting baby photos and issuing tweets about your current state of sandwich preparation.
Votizen believes that Facebook + Twitter = votes.
There are two different branches of most campaigns: (1) using the money you raise for the air attack, with paid ads on TV, the radio and in the mailbox, and (2) and the ground game, with earned media and volunteers knocking on doors to persuade people one-on-one.
Basically, you've got a marketing/advertising campaign and a PR campaign, running side by side.
This is true for any public figure or celebrity. Authors use their in-house marketing campaign, with paid ads, hand-in-hand with publicity tours and book signings. Rock stars buy billboards telling people about their next album or tour, but they also do interviews and try to connect with fans on the road, one-on-one.
Votizen is on the cutting edge, though, of marrying social media with old-fashioned persuasion, face-to-face.
Just as authors can now go on a virtual tour of book blogs, Votizen is giving supporters of a candidate the tools to do virtual doorbelling of their friends and neighbors.
As the Politico story explains the system, the Votizen system asks volunteers for permission to look at social networks like Facebook and Twitter for the names of friends and followers.
The software runs those names past voter databases, to see if they're registered to vote and if they lean toward one party or the other -- and even if they've taken positions on certain issues.
Votizen gives that supporter a virtual doorbelling list of likely voters to chat with, along with tips on what pitches might work with each friend or follower.
This is interesting for a few reasons.
1) With advertising and marketing -- and with earned media through PR -- you're trying to reach the broadest possible audience. The approach Votizen is taking is entirely different. It's highly personal and targeted.Â
2) People are moving more and more toward talking to friends and family not in person, over the phone or even by email, but using text messages and social networks. Virtual doorbelling is a big new step toward that direction.
3) Whatever field you're in -- business, professional sports, Hollywood, publishing -- there are going to be tools like this popping up to communicate with your audiences in a more targeted way. Even if you're not in politics, it's worth looking at how Votizen does this and tracking whether this approach works.
And I bet it does work.
People can be naturally skeptical when they see advertising or hear a knock on the door and see a college kid bused in from out of town to doorbell their neighborhood.
They aren't suspicious of their friends and followers. These are the people they want to talk to every day.Â
Related links:
- Social Media 101: A Revolution in Public Relations
- Social Media 201: Different Tools for Different PR Jobs
- Social Media 301: Using the Tools Together in PR
- The Timing of Tweets
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