Most people are familiar with how the Obama campaign’s internal social network, My.BarackObama.com, helped win the election by raising money and getting out the vote. Some 2 million individual Obama supporters created personal accounts on myBO, and they used its tools to form 35,000 groups, generate 200 thousand volunteer-driven campaign events and raise at least $30 million by personally reaching out to their own networks.
But did you know that since last summer, the Pickens Plan has enlisted 1.5 million people and built a dynamic online social network using the free Ning.com platform with 200,000 active local members? Or that last month, the MomsRising membership exploded from 160,000 to nearly 1.2 millon members thanks in large part to a viral video connected to Mother’s Day?
In the last year, many other candidates and advocacy groups have launched their own social action networks that advocate for political change. This panel, which is sponsored by the Bivings Group, will review examples of other successful social action networks and discuss best practices for organizations thinking of launching their own social networks.
For background, you can also listen to these PdF Network podcasts with Gina Bianchini of Ning and Todd Ziegler of Bivings and Heather Lauer of the Pickens Plan.
June 24, 2009