Spreading the Message on the Web, Part One

Over the last few months, an amazing new form of internet-based activism emerged.  The activists are known simply as "Anonymous" and their battle with the powerful and uber-creepy Church of Scientology continues to make headlines.  I'll take a closer look  at the Anonymous movement in a later diary, but what I want to do is spend a few diary entries introducing regular Kos readers to the very simple ways we can all spread important messages on the internet, sometimes to dramatic effect.  

Another movement that progressive activists should review with care is that of Presidential candidate Ron Paul.  I'm no fan of Paul, I don't think you get what's advertised with him.  And, of course, his actual impact on the election has been minimal.  But Paul is important because many of his most ardent followers are also immersed in internet culture. These "hacktivists" who supported Paul did an amazing job of getting the word out about the man.  His internet presence was hugely disproportionate to his influence within Republican party politics. And like the "Anonymous" movement, it spilled over onto the streets to a degree.  I saw many more "Google Ron Paul" signs in the early days of the primaries than I did signs for any other candidate.

What follows is a brief overview of some of the "tricks of the trade" of internet activism...tricks anyone can use and which, when used collectively by even a smallish group of activists...can be quite powerful.  Later diaries will get into more detail.

1.  You Ain't Too Good to Myspace. Yeah, Myspace is owned by Rupert Murdoch...but guess what?  All the media is owned by massive corporations.  Only with Fox News, you aren't allowed to post your own thoughts and opinions.  Maybe Myspace has lost some of its edge, but it is still a powerful way to spread a message if you know how to work it. It's not just about making a page for yourself, but about networking among likeminded people to spread a message rapidly.

2. Get facial with Facebook. Far less customizable, Facebook is all about making contacts.  This in itself is helpful, but Facebook is continuing to evolve in ways activists can take advantage of.  As with Myspace, there are groups you can join, and simple ways to send messages to a large number of people at once.  Facebook is often seen as a bit more "grown up" than Myspace, even though it began as a social networking tool for college students.  

3. Digg It!  Digg is one of a dozen or so "social bookmarking" sites which allow members to bring stories to the attention of other members and to vote on stories they find important.  The more "Diggs" a story has, the higher up it is on the top stories page, increasing the exposure.  Anonymous uses Digg to great effect.   Technorati has a bit of a tech focus, but specifically tracks blogs.  I also like a site called Current and another called Newsvine which are less well known.

4.  Discussion boards.  Don't underestimate the power of spreading the word on popular discussion boards or in blog comments.  National stories have actually emerged from such discussion boards in the past, though not always to positive effect.  (We'll look at a very odd story which emerged from another Democratic discussion board into the national media.  The story was bogus, the players suspect and the impact was minimal, but it's a great example of how such stories can emerge.  Daily Kos has a fairly strong, positive influence in a similar way.  For example, when I set up "iGoogle" as a home page and chose "politics" as one of the available tabs, Daily Kos was automatically included as a content source.

5.  Get your own blog! Why not?  It's easy and free.  You can still post here, of course, but the more blogs out there linking to stories and sites of importance, the more Google and other search engines "notice" those stories and sites.  Technorati, which I mentioned earlier, ranks a blog entirely based on how many other blogs link to it.

6.  Go viral.  Big companies are now dropping lots of cash trying to figure out how to create the next big viral media sensation.  Roughly defined, a viral approach to advertising is about placing a video or some other content "in the wild" without a lot of fanfare, and allowing the viewers themselves to propagate the content in the forums they frequent.  Or, in the case of cynical PR types, to place the media so as to APPEAR that it is spreading virally.  I don't advocate sitting around wasting energy trying to create the next great viral media Youtube video or whatever, but Youtube and Google video and the like are useful if there is content you want to put out there for free, and if it's interesting enough, it just might catch fire. Again, the "Anonymous" movement used this approach in mind-blowingly effective ways.

We'll get into details for all of these.  We'll look at the strategies and tactics behind internet awareness raising, and also look at a few of the details you need to participate yourself.    

One final note.  I would like to be very concrete with this series.  In the spirit of  the Daily Kos system of "rescuing" orphan diaries to salvage interesting and useful content, let me know if you think there are blogs or websites out there not getting the attention they deserve and maybe can help promote them as an exercise to accompany these articles.  I have personally adopted the website for Radio Inside Scoop with Mark Levine.  He has a diary here, though does not maintain it with much regularity.  Using a bunch of tricks I'll share with you all, I have determined that despite interviews with nationally known guests on important issues, Inside Scoop simply does not have much of a web presence.  With a thousand or so archived interviews, I think this is a wasted resource.  

I'll also be supporting Kos, of course, though I'm happy to note that Daily Kos has much greater internet visibility.  I'm open to nominations for other websites that could use some traffic thrown their way.  For our purposes, they should be substantive, original and timely with content of interest to liberal Democrats.  

I don't know if this diary will get much traffic, but if it does, I hope commenters experienced in this sort of thing will share their own tips and tricks. There's a lot more to building a political movement than getting high rankings in Google, but for reaching large numbers of people quickly and inexpensively, there's nothing that comes close.

Oh, by the way, here's my own Myspace page. It's new because I'm not doing any of this under my real name and because you can actually watch as I try to build a little network.  So if you already HAVE a Myspace page, by all means send me a friend request!