Context is King

Although Person-to-Person-to-Person was completed in 2006, many of the digital political strategies are the same today as they were then.  The main things that are changing are the tools—email, social networking, meta networking, microblogging.  Although each of these tools requires different skills, the strategies seem to be similar to what they were before all these tools were available.

The one key item that these articles don’t really seem to focus on is the item that seems to be the most important: have a cause and a context that people care about.

Eric Alterman’s essay provides the most useful takeaway from the readings when considering digital political strategy over the longer term.  Namely, context is king. 

As people’s tolerance wanes for campaign after campaign asking them to “share” or “sign up” or “join the conversation” the context of the campaign/message will be the driving force for success.  For example, I might love badminton but not be willing to join a campaign by the badminton society to get more high schools to offer badminton as an official sport.   However, if the context were right, my motivations could change.  The campaign could be connected to the Olympics or to a HHS drive to improve the health of kids. 

Take the Obama campaign.  This is widely sited as a primo example of successful online organizing and activism.  Indeed, it was, but that success was in direct proportion to the peoples’ desire for change and the context to channel that desire.  The campaign’s great accomplishment was that it made easy giving money, staying connected, and organizing.  But the fuel was an implicit energy and motivation not only to join the Obama movement, but also to change the status quo.

Things get difficult when you try to gain traction around a campaign that less exciting than Obama.  The methods described by these essays deliver the desired results only if three key prerequisites have been met: 

1. You know how to use the tools

2. People already care about the topic

3. The context is right

This might seems somewhat obvious, but the second and third prerequisites cannot be stressed enough.  My experience has shown, for example, that the association community has not been able to effectively use social media.  What’s odd about that is the association community is a natural pre-formed group who care about specific topics.  Certainly, this could change as society acclimates to these new tools. 

On the other hand, as people grow more accustomed to social media, social networking, etc. they will prove much harder to reach—as they will be more discerning about who they open themselves up to online.  In fact, I would propose that in time it will be as challenging to reach people online as it has been offline.

I’m not even sure if “thinking like a rock band” will suffice.  The fact is that people have a very limited amount of time, and few campaigns will be as interesting as Obama’s.

At the end of the day, context drives the campaign.  In the Obama campaign the context was clear: the chance to be part of something historic—and to catapult the old out and bring the new, the very new.

These tools and strategies can be very, very powerful indeed.  But if the context is not right, it’s like sending out a mailer to a purchased list—not a lot of return.