First Internet Advocacy Roundtable Wrap-up
The Internet Advocacy Center hosted its first Internet Advocacy Roundtable this past Tuesday (8/9/2005). The topic was Growing an Online Community of Progressive Activists and featured a presentation by Care2 Vice President Andy Stocking. Andy talked at length about how Care2 has cultivated an online progressive community of more than 5 million activists entirely through viral marketing and providing community resources that allow members to talk to each other and get involved in progressive advocacy campaigns.
Perhaps the best lesson learned from Andy was that when advocacy organizations share their email lists they all experience a net gain in participation from their activists. Care2 tracked a cohort of new members and found that as these members joined other activist organizations through campaigns run on Care2, their activity on Care2 campaigns increased. This is good news for organizations that share the same political vision, but worry about losing their activists to other organizations if they shared lists.
In addition to Andy’s presentation and my opening presentation on the case for turning activist email lists into advocacy communities, the roundtable featured a few “ringer” discussants interspersed among the attendees. Arianne Bennett of PixelChix talked about the importance of visual messaging in online campaigns. David Pierpont of Dulles Area Democrats brought lessons learned from creating online communities, both political and non-political to the table. And Tim Greenleaf of the Environmental Working Group added perspectives about persuasive ways to use data online.
And while ringers (panelists) were planted around the room, the audience was more than able to generate an excellent conversation; among them: Internet advocacy and grassroots practitioners from environmental advocacy groups, health advocacy groups, human rights advocacy groups, etc.
This was the first of many Internet Advocacy Roundtables and we are hopeful they will all be this good. Thanks to all who participated.