The Facebook of Victory
by Patrick Ruffini :: January 6th, 2007 10:35 pmI’d recommend to all of you CR-types this MyDD post on organizing your campus.
I write this not in awe of the Left’s organizing tactics, but as a reminder that this stuff is easier than we think. How do I know? Because I’ve seen it. Back in college, we built a campus organization for a local candidate that with the help of 60 volunteers registered 1,000 people and got a 3-to-1 margin for our guy in the target precincts. And yes, this was for a Republican. Not your grandfather’s type of Republican, but a Republican nonetheless.
They say young people are apathetic and hard to mobilize. That’s true, but a college campus is also a very social environment where people are easily influenced by their peers. Get the right guy in the frat house, and you’ve got the whole house. It’s the tipping point at work.
Conservatives can’t take the dominant political orthodoxy on campus lying down. A solid dose of on-the-ground organizing can go a long way. I’m also interested to see how social networks, especially Facebook, can have an impact. If you’re a conservative at a liberal arts institution, you’re not just a minority. You’re part of the Long Tail. Read Chris Anderson’s book to see how communities are suddenly forming around the most obscure tastes because the Internet has suddenly created a discovery mechanism for those long-forgotten LPs and used books. Facebook is a discovery mechanism for other conservatives on campus, a rallying point for an emerging community (indeed, political affiliation is a standard part of every user profile).
Why is this especially important? Because when I went to school, I noticed a lot of Republicans would drop off after their freshman year. What if conservatives on campus could find each other straight away, making it easier for them to form strong communities against the overwhelming liberal tide? It’s at least a possibility thanks to Facebook. New media is great at communicating to and reinforcing the niches — and on many campuses, that’s what we are. At the same time, I think online media is only a seeding mechanism for political action; most of it will take place offline. It’s also a great way of communicating across campuses and state boundaries, sharing best practices and seeding new groups.
Tagged: college republicans 
gotv organizing social media
Comments (4) 
Trackbacks (4) 
del.icio.us 
digg it 
subscribe
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Patrick,
Thanks again for recommending ‘The Long Tail’. After reading your post on what you read in 2006, it has stuck in my mind. Now I have added it to my online shopping cart, however not the one at Amazon.
What with a busy job, and growing family, time for reading seems to have gone out the window. So, much like you suggested you wanted to do, I have switched to listening to most of my books. I have a subscription at Audible.com, and download them as mp3s for my iPod. Then I listen to them during both ends of my commute. Extremely convenient!
As a student, I’m glad to see that somebody realizes the potential of using Facebook to organize political groups.
Patrick,
I am a big fan of organizing students on Facebook. I am heading up Students for Brownback, and the natural place to start was Facebook. If you combine our main group with our state and chapter groups, we now have more then 2,000 members. It surely is an amazing tool.
Patrick,
The Missouri College Republicans used Facebook in a major way last year. We identified more than 10,000 conservative students in our state, and more than 3,000 joined our state Facebook group. For our 72-hour volunteer drive, we created a Facebook event that more than 400 people ended up joining. Our efforts were recognized by The Hotline last month (http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/12/on_the_download_22.html).
Facebook is a powerful political tool with great potential.
[…] Patrick Ruffini offers some good advice to College Republicans on how to better organize their campus through Facebook. […]
[…] In recent election cycles, social networking technologies such as the Facebook have received considerable attention. The Facebook works extremely well to reach out to college students and even younger age groups but, many young professionals and adults shy away from it due to the amount of personal information it discloses. Many people consider it dangerous to their career and public life. So how do businesses and campaigns reach out to adults and young professionals, a higher participation voting bracket with with more donation potential? […]
[…] In recent election cycles, social networking technologies such as the Facebook have received considerable attention. The Facebook works extremely well to reach out to college students and even younger age groups but, many young professionals and adults shy away from it due to the amount of personal information it discloses. Many people consider it dangerous to their career and public life. So how do businesses and campaigns reach out to adults and young professionals, a higher participation voting bracket with with more donation potential? […]
young suburban teens and alcohol…
news…