POLITICS AND SOCIAL MEDIA: Who will the Internet elect in 2012?

June 22, 2012

14 Comments

Television elected Kennedy over Nixon in 1962. Who will the Internet elect in 2012?

How is  Social Media technology transforming American and world politics?

God-Like Technology

If you are wondering why technology feels a bit disorienting, I think this quote by EO Wilson really sums it up beautifully. EO Wilson is an American biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, author and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. He was in Seattle last week talking about technology. He said, “We have prehistoric brains, medieval institutions and God-like technology.” Our prehistoric brains and our current institutions were not designed to handle this entire “God-like technology” that is coming at us so fast.

The “Good Ol Days”

Many of us still remember what we might call the “good ol days” with rotary telephones, TV’s with antennae’s and old fashioned answering machines. The technology of today is Computers, Lap tops Cell and smart phones.

Social Media Intersects with Technology

So how does Social Media intersect with all this new technology? Well we have Facebook, Twitter and You Tube to name a few. The current statistics suggest that the three main reasons we currently use social media are to stay in touch with friends, family and reconnect with old friends.

We Want to Know Who and Where You Are

As far as politics (and your business) is concerned, you, your current friends and your old friends are precisely whom I as a political consultant hope I would be able to influence. When I run a campaign anywhere in the world, I don’t care who loves you or hates you. I only care about the 1-4 percent swing vote.  As far as the American Political Machine is concerned, manipulating the swing vote is what wins elections. And, scary as it sounds, I know where you go, what you like and what you eat for breakfast.

Social Media Basics

Before we move on to politics, let’s go through a few social media basics so you can get a sense of the territory we are talking about.

Quality Content

First it must be Quality Content. This means it not all “Me! Me” Me!” Find out what your audience likes and finds meaningful and then give them more of that.

Marketing to Your Audience

Second, you must become saavy at Marketing To Your Audience.  For example, this means figuring out are they a Redbook or a Wall Street Journal reader and then give them content they can relate to in the terms they understand, enjoy and prefer.

Create Strong Advocates

Next you need to create Advocates. These people will speak well of you and your business or candidate.

Leverage Word of Mouth

And finally you need to learn how to become proficient at  Leveraging Word of Mouth. If you can build strong advocates, they will create a positive (or negative!) buzz about you and your company or candidate.

Fastest Growing Facebook Demographic is People Over 50

Different age groups are interacting online differently. But Social Media is not just a tool for young people to interact. In fact, currently the fastest growing demographic of Facebook use, for example is in the age group of 50 and above.

Some Other Current Social Media demographics on Facebook

Here are some other current Social Media demographics on Facebook:

Average friend count: 130

Average daily visits: 200 million. (Amazing isn’t it? That’s a lot of people! 200 million per DAY.)

Average visits per month: 40

Average amount of time per visit: 23.20 minutes.

And How About Those Millenials?

The age group named Millenials, currently age 16-32 were the first generation to be “Raised” on the internet and they represent a very large portion of the internet users today. And on just a side note, the millennia, born 1981-2000 are to be as large if not larger than the “Baby Boomer” generation, born between 1946-1964.

Where Millenials Get Their News

You may find it interesting that 59 percent of the Millennial’s get their news online and spend an average of 23 minutes each day online. So as an American Political Consultant, or you as a business owner, we want to get to those Millenials while they are online for those 23 minutes. To do that I need to know who you are, what you value and where you are!

Google

There are 90 million unique users to Google every year and the most common user is looking for friends and the most common user occupation is….what is your guess? It’s Engineers. Who knew?

Twitter

If you are a political consultant like me, you are always looking for where people are communicating in the world of Social Media.  So for example, in the world of Twitter, you will need to build the structure of your political….or business….websites to accommodate the fact that 54% of tweeters are on their Mobile phone and 36% of them tweet at least once a day.

Build your Social Media for Mobile Phones

If you don’t build your website so people can read it on their phone, you are missing out on a large portion of the people who are using social media and who could know about your candidate or buy from your business. If you capture these people’s attention, you can have them telling the world about your candidate or your business. And especially telling all their friends in their world about your candidate or your business.

Mitt Romney and Current Social Media Stats

Here is the most current date on Mitt Romney, a Presidential hopeful and Social media. Headline: “Romney gains speed on Facebook.” According to date from both Facebook and SocialBakers.com. Romney has had a swell of popularity. Last week, June 11-17 he had one of his strongest weeks yet, gaining more than 71,000 new fans with June 10 being his most popular day ever.

Obama and Current Social Media Stats

Meanwhile Obama gained about 77,000 new fans during the same period. While this is a greater number of fans, it is down from his previous week where he had only a 1.7% increase in fans… while Romney had a 10.8% increase.

Obama and Fathers Day Facebook Post

Another political example of Facebook is on Fathers day 2012 just this last week. Obama posted about being a dad: “My hardest but always my most rewarding job.” It was a simple message with a huge payoff.

More than 27,000 people liked if, more than 70,000 people commented on it and 10,000 people shared it. The significance of a “Share” is that every time someone shares on Facebook, it exposes the candidates to more computer users and possibly more Likes. This is again true of your business as well. We want them to “Like” our candidates and you want them to “Like” you and your business.

Current Politics and Social Media in Egypt

And what is happening in the politics of the rest of the world as far as Social Media is concerned? Let’s talk about Egypt.  Right this moment, people are jammed in the square in Egypt waiting for the Government to announce the new President. So far the government has told the people only that the announcement is “delayed” as of this afternoon.

Ahmed Shafik and Mohamed Morsi are two presidential candidates who have both claimed victory in Egypt’s election, the results of were expected yesterday. The process has been muddled by allegations of fraud and Constitutional Court rulings, which consolidated power in the hands of the military, which has been ruling the country since the ouster of ex-President Hosnai Mubarak.

While officials are sorting out last week’s voting, both candidates have been making their case on Facebook and Twitter, as social media and the Internet have long been a hotbed of political activity in Egypt.

Shafik’s Facebook page is used to post pictures of the candidate as well as voting results that his campaign argues show a clear victory for their candidate.

Morsi, the choice of the Islamist opposition group Muslim Brotherhood, has more than 52,000 “likes” on Facebook and about the same number of Twitter followers. Morsi’s been posting photos and videos to his Facebook page, while claiming to be the “the first elected president after the glorious revolution of January 25.” Over on his Twitter account, Morsi’s campaign has sent links to voting results that seem to indicate that he, not Shafik, is the true winner of the disputed elections. Most of his tweets are links to content posted on his Facebook page.

Politics and Social Media are “Joined At The Hip”

Isn’t this all so amazing to see how politics and Social Media all over the world are now joined at the hip all over the world? It truly is God-like technology we’re dealing with.

Where Will It All Lead?

Where will it all lead? Well….Television elected Kennedy over Nixon in 1962. Who will the Internet elect in 2012? At this point in time, Nobody knows. But it will surely be exciting to watch.

VIOLENCE: How can we embrace it with COMPASSION?

June 12, 2012

4 Comments

Photo by Cap Sparling

The day after I was raped, The Dalai Lama came to town.
When I got up the next morning after experiencing such profound and personal random violence, all I could think of was, “I must get to the lecture of the Dalai Lama. He will have some wisdom for me. If I listen to him, I know I can shift.  I know it.” Following that instinct, I attended the first early morning lecture of The Dalai Lama when he came to Seattle hosted by The Seeds Of Compassion organization.
As I sat down in the lecture hall, I felt rattled, overwhelmed and could not stop my tears from flowing. The more I listened to the Dalai Lama speak and especially when I heard his laugh for the first time in person, I found that my mind, heart and spirit began to calm. I wasn’t exactly sure why this was, but I knew I had to hear him speak more. And I proceeded to attend four more lectures over the course of the next four days.
I shall never forget his commentary on violence in our world. When someone asked His Holiness about his monks who had been murdered in the monestaries in Tibet, a very somber expression crossed his face. The person asking the question wanted to know how The Dalai Lama managed to tolerate such violence, especially toward people he loved and cared about. His Holiness The Dalai Lama spoke calmly and with tears in his eyes:
“Well, such violence is hard. Very hard. Such violence is not to be tolerated. There is no question about that. But you asked me how I managed to tolerate it. I didn’t. What I did instead was to imagine each of the people who murdered my monks as little tiny babies. I imagined each one of them as little tiny babies that I was actually holding in my arms. As I gazed into their eyes, I tried to imagine each of them as whole and perfect beings, before the difficulty of their family situation or the world got to them, after which there came to be such violence in their minds and hearts.
I imagined that their experience must have been a Violence that would eventually become so great as to allow them to commit murder and other atrocities such as the murders of my monks. In imagining how hard it must have been for these beings, I felt suddenly an overwhemling sense of compassion for thm. These tortured beings, who at one time very early in their lives were born whole and complete and full of innocence without a trace of violence within them. And I found in doing this, that I could not hate them. I could only feel compassion and love for them and the pain in their hearts that would allow them to commit such crimes against a fellow human being, such as my beloved monks.”
I sat in my chair feeling as if the Dalai Lama was speaking directly into my own heart. It felt like he was showing me with his own example how I could turn my attention away from the person and the disturbance of violence that I had unexpectedly experienced the night before. He was suggesting that I could instead focus my mind and heart with deep compassion toward this man who had at one time been an innocent baby too, full of hope and love and promise.
I challenged myself to reflect back on the actual moments of horror and violence during the rape itself. I found myself remembering what I was actually thinking. Believe it or not, here is what was going through my mind: “Who taught you this? Who taught you that it was OK to harm a woman like this? What a small, scared, angry man you must be to act in this way. I know you think that you are taking my soul as you hurt me here and now. But my soul and my spirit is mine to give and I do not give it to you here in this moment, no matter what you do to my body.” I realized that even in the midst of the violence itself there was a seed of compassion within me. I discovered that it is also true that despite the violence, we can see ourselves as having an opportunity to grow and evolve, no matter what the other person does or says.
My friends, of course, wanted vengeance and sought all different kinds of ways to express their own outrage at what had happened to me. I could see that their powerlessness to protect me, their friend, and their fierce love for me was so overwhelming it provoked violence within them so profound they wanted to kill this “Very Bad Man.” But I begged them all not to meet violence with more violence. I told them what I had learned from the Dalai Lama and they still found it difficult to take in, let alone do. And while I appreciated my friends rising to my defense, I had to focus all my energy on how I was going to forgive and send love and compassion instead of vengeance.
I have tried very hard to practice what the Dalai Lama was suggesting to me that day, what he is asking of all of us, as we face violence in our world. Both the rape experience and the words of His Holiness, The Dalai Lama became great catalysts for my growth and my own personal evolution. I learned that I had the capacity to turn this violence into a moment to moment spiritual practice: to focus my mind and heart towards true Compassion at all times, rather than getting caught up in my own rage and feelings of violation and helplessness when violence anywhere in our world is committed. To hold true to this practice of Compassion even if I or others are hurt or even killed as a result of violent acts committe isn’t easy. But I continue to pratice it as truly challenging as it may be.
As I look back now on the rape, it was a gift of both great Violence and humbling Grace. But in the end it was up to me to decide how that teaching and Grace would be put into action in my own life.
So now, every time this man comes to my mind, I speak a silent prayer, “May he find peace. May I find peace. May All Beings find peace.” The thought of him and that violent experience in my life comes and goes. No attachment. No more violence being sent out into the world from my mind or thoughts or heart. Thanks to the wise words of His Holiness The Dalai Lama and my willingness to truly try to Hear what he was saying about how to embrace violence with compassion, my violent experience all became transformed into a prayer on the wind.
Do you have a moment or a person or a difficult experience in your life that still needs some peace and compassion from you? How have words someone said to you helped your heart and soul to mend?

 

Site Navigation: