While staffers still see social media more as a set of channels for getting their bosses’ message out to constituents (74%), fully 64% see social media as a means to better understand constituents’ views. This is an important finding, especially given developments in how social media is being used to influence Congress.

As I have discussed in previous writings, speeches, and trainings, the use of social media as a grassroots advocacy tool, a.k.a. social advocacy, is a game-changer. With Members setting up virtual offices on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Fklickr, they are opening doors for more citizens, from among their voting and national constituencies, to express their views and call on Members to vote for or against bills. In essence, they are creating opportunities for virtual demonstrations outside the doors of their virtual offices. And since these demonstrations are not restricted to citizens who live in the Members’ states or districts, it forces Members to consider the impact of their votes on the national debate.

Recent blog posts by others have explored the impact of social media on advocacy. Allyson Kapin rightly argues that social media should never be the sole channel for advocacy campaigns. That said, there are some clear examples where social media can be a crucial channel for winning advocacy campaigns, as Megan Yarbrough details in her recent post.

Among Megan’s examples is the Raise Hope for Congo campaign my colleagues at the ENOUGH Project ran to pass the Conflict Minerals bill last session. By targeting the Facebook pages of a limited number of members of the House Foreign Affairs committee, ENOUGH was able to recruit co-sponsors and convince the chairman to push the bill through the committee a year ahead of schedule. Within a couple months, it became law.

So, within this context, to see so many staffers looking to social media to not only talk to constituents, but to listen to them, as well, is incredibly heartening. It is also incredibly wise of those staffers because social media provides a set of channels where citizens can directly effect the reputation and performance of ALL Members of Congress.

The panel is fantastic. It features Marci Harris of PopVox, Tom Lee of Sunlight Labs, Katherine Maher of NDI, and Nancy Scola of techPresident.com and Personal Democracy Forum. All of the speakers are doing fantastic work and will fill your head with knowledge you can use.

Registration for the panel is here.

Social Media Week is a biannual weeklong global conference. It takes place February 7-11, 2011 in NYC, San Francisco, London, Sao Paulo, Rome, Paris, Hong Kong, Istanbul & Toronto. Each city will host sessions. For more information, visit SocialMediaWeek.org.

The Internet Advocacy Roundtable was launched in August 2005 as a forum for discussing cutting edge strategies for using the internet to influence policy and politics.

Next Event: February 8, 2011

Over the years, the scope has expanded to include the intersection of digitally networked media, politics, policy and non-profits. We have featured some of the brightest minds in the industry at our events, including Markos Moulitsas, Micah Sifry, Matt Stoller, Tom Steinberg, Morley Winograd, Andrew Rasiej, Paul Greenberg, and many more.

The Roundtable has found several homes over the years. In its early days, it was hosted by PICnet and then Care2. Since then it has been hosted at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. From August 2005 until September 2009, the Roundtable was a monthly event. Since then, it has become more sporadic.

In the coming months we will be co-hosting monthly events in partnership with the Capital Cabal’s 2nd Tuesdays. We hope to see you there.

———————–
For video and audio archives of past Internet Advocacy Roundtable events visit:

IAR at the Center for American Progress Action Fund

and

IAR at the Internet Advocacy Center

Look for the posts to start flowing.

Alan