Republican Party - Total Engagement is Needed in the Era of the Social Web PDF Print E-mail
Sunday, 08 February 2009 18:22
By Thomas Lee

As our party leaders dissect the results of the last election, they have started to identify potential causes for and very real differences between the parties that may have been factors in the Democrat’s victory.

Republican leaders have become aware of the vast difference in the level of communications technology utilized by campaigns on both sides. While Obama employed technological geniuses—some of whom built portions of the social web—to run his online campaign, Republicans across the country stayed busy campaigning with increasingly less relevant forms of communication.    
As we begin the process of rebuilding our party, we ought to take a look at some of these new technologies—perhaps most importantly the social web.

The first thing we Republicans need to understand about the social web is that a Command and Control Mentality doesn’t apply. There is no center of power through which everything is organized. The social web is not a hub and spoke system where all information is controlled through some centralized point. It does not function like Talk Radio, where one talk show host can sit at the center of a giant network of millions of listeners and share his or her beliefs. In the talk radio model, the radio show decides which guests are allowed to come onto the show. The show controls the phone lines and who gets to participate in the process. On the social web, there is no control. A person’s level of influence is determined completely by their persuasive abilities rather than their position or some structural junction point. Regardless of the beliefs of the talk show host, the system is, by its nature, strictly controlled by a central point.

The social web in many ways reflects the fundamental belief at the heart of our party. We stand in opposition to authoritarian governments because when too much power is at the center of society, freedom and individual creativity is stifled. The social web renders many of the authoritarian and structural limitations of society irrelevant. Today, there is more opportunity for individuals to freely come together to engage problems.  More creative minds and different approaches can tackle a problem in real time. Progress can occur and a much faster rate. Innovative ideas are spread and build upon at an exponentially greater rate than under command and control communication structures.

Moving forward, the Republican Party needs to embrace the reality that Command and Control doesn’t work on the internet. There is little use in trying to impose a hierarchy on the social web or by trying to consolidate our people into one structure. Engagement and persuasion lead to success not structure and organization. In a connected world, we need to be everywhere. We must engage on every social media site, on every platform, on every web application. We must engage in conversations and share information with people of different backgrounds and political persuasions. Only through total engagement can we maximize our network influence in society. Total engagement will also give us access to more knowledge and information that will hopefully lead to us to greater wisdom so that the Republican Party and its members can be a great source of answers to tomorrow’s problems. 

Thomas Lee is President and CEO of Magnetic Website Solutions.
 

Comments  

 
0 #2 Chris 2010-01-30 18:04
If the republicans really wanted to have a presnce on the web they would ditch the Speaker Gingrich ideas and
emprace completely the Ron Paul ideas, till they do that they will continue to lose and shrink they won't listen to
this anymore than they listen to the Ron Paul people telling them before teh last election they 'will be going down
next year unless they change their ways' :-) Truth in all its forms is powerful thing. For liberty!
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0 #1 Emily Biggs 2010-01-30 18:03
Couldn't agree more and needs to be vital part of rebuilding the Republican brand.Below is my recent letter to
Speaker Gingrich.
Dear Speaker Gingrich
The Republican brand needs to be revitalized. If I may offer my opinion
I feel strongly you know this as well as any conservative. Your track history , publications and consistent message
proves this. Running powerful ads in USA Today and selling books drives great credibility to your outstanding
ideas. It’s one of many ways that you and your team educate the American people but we need many more hands on
deck. I want to contribute to working with you to achieve this vital need to grow the Republican Party.
I
believe a solid solution is to start with the image of the party and projecting that image on the Internet. This
is where a difference can really be made and I want to offer my help.
The image of the Republican Party is
terribly out dated and out of touch. Conservatives are on the best side of America and its future but we simply
fail to grow this party with the conservative agenda. If you haven’t done this lately just go to any state
Republican website and see for yourself. “Boring!” and without the exclamation point may be its most
effective message. In North Carolina I know that’s the case. I went there to hopefully send a congratulations
email to my state representatives for standing against the currently drafted PORK bill. I never found a way to do
it; this is just one example of the lack of interactivity in this party.
But even before that, getting to the
website was difficult and disappointing. Here are the problems:
• Name Identity: GOP? I questioned about 10
people between the ages of 18 and 45 and none knew what GOP stands for.
• www.ncgop.org . Who knows this is
how to connect to the Republican party in North Carolina? It may be time to lose “GOP” to simplify and improve
name recognition.
• Image: Look at any state website –boring, too much type, content out of touch with what
is going on today. Where are the top issues? The first thing you see on the NC site is an ad for their couples
trip to N.Y for crying out loud.
• Nothing about this site engages the viewer.

Speaker Gingrich, you
probably saw the article in the Wall Street Journal on January 30, 2009 about social networking. This article
speaks to only part of the problem but makes a great point about how out of touch the Republican Party is with
information technology and how to use it. Conservatives feel like they are lost in a snow storm with no direction
toward home. They need a place they can go and get the facts, be entertained, give feedback and feel like they’re
making a difference-not to mention to put their dollars behind their cause-The Republican Party.
I can help the
party do this and I know they are trying but it starts at my level, the ground root. In fact, my many, many years
of advertising business ownership could well be put to use to accomplish our collective mission.
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