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I came across an OSCE update on facebook asking: "Can social media help us prepare for peace?" In the new Report " Preparing for peace Communications in conflict resolution " the OSCE explains the role of Social Media in conflict resolution, detailing challenges and opportunities. OSCE/Curtis Budden Definitely recommending reading this OSCE publication. It is great that an Organization such as the OSCE is keeping active in Social Media, and at the same time "Mapping the blogosphere, reporting on negotiations, using social media to overcome divides" . Credit to the OSCE PPIS, Ireland’s 2012 OSCE Chairmanship, the US Mission to the OSCE and the Permanent Mission of Lithuania to the OSCE.  Having worked for the OSCE in 2009 , I launched the official OSCE presence on facebook and twitter , along with Issuu . It was an excellent start, and I am happy to see that the team in PPIS are keeping up with the OSCE presence in Social Media and are launc...

The 2012 campaigns for President have been very interesting in terms of Internent communications and voter outreach. In this article I have collected all of my comments during the past months and years leading up to election day. These are my unbiased honest opinions as an observer, not as a voter.  I have Blogged on numerous issues, mostly focusing on Internet Political Communications, Political Marketing and Political Issues that I felt passionate about. You can browse though my articles here:   The problem with political emails asking for money: TV Ads  I do not oppose online fundraising, I understand that both campaigns are tapping into their hardcore supporters; The problem is that for the most part both campaigns are asking contributions in order to outspend the opponent on TV air time! Barack Obama Vlogs on YouTube   During the past few days I enjoyed the videos coming from the Obama campaign on YouTube. #debate politi...

During the past months both the Democrats and Republicans have send an abundance of emails, driving home their message for the future.  At the same time all emails asked for money in the form of donations or contributions. Here are some punch lines the campaigns used to urge supporters to click-through and donate: Please chip in $5 or more today. Chip in $5 or more before our final budget deadline. Your generosity and efforts can make a great difference. Chip in $5 or whatever you can today. Don't wait. Supporting this campaign once more will move us closer to victory. Please don't wait any longer. Help us out with a donation of $5 or more today. Donate $5 or more right now to keep this campaign strong straight up until the last vote is cast on November 6th. Contribute $5 now to be automatically entered for a chance to win. Chip in $5 or whatever you can and you'll be automatically entered. Close the gap -- chip in $5 or more now. Thanks to you, our camp...

During the past few days I enjoyed the videos coming from the Obama campaign on YouTube. I really liked the style of these videos, being a Vlog-like series with Barack Obama taking directly to the camera. It feels very DIY, and definitely without the production quality of other videos from the Barack Obama channel. These videos feel real; the president talks directly to the camera, they are backstage and give a behind the scenes look into the campaign. These sort of videos give the opportunity for the YouTube campaign to become more real and Barack Obama to connect with voters using informal videos. In doing so the campaign utilises YouTube like a Vlog Platform, rather than just uploading TV ads. Below you can find a collection of them:

To my surprise I got this email from Rufus Gifford and the Obama 2012 campaign:  Friend --  I am just so happy.  If you're proud of our president, this is a great time to make a donation to the campaign:   https://donate.barackobama.com/This-Is-Why Quoting from the Obama 2012 campaign site ( This is why ):  The President's support for marriage equality is a clear distinction in this election. We only get to move forward if we re-elect President Obama.  Please donate today. Is it just me, or is the Obama campaign chasing donation money by creating an election issue? If so, the wording is clearly wrong! The campaign should not ask people to donate money just because the Obama national finance director feels happy! To make it clear, I do not oppose donation emails, however this email does not sell the recipient on marriage equality, as it states in the website, but tries to sell the recipient just because Rufus feels happy and proud. Just an ...

Credit: OSCE/Igor Schimbator In a recent article on NPR  by Michele Kelemen, one can read how Social Media have affected Public Diplomacy. The Arab spring has been used as a bedrock for people arguing about the role of the Internet in regime change and public diplomacy. It is not just Social Media, but the Internet as a whole. Some people consider Social Media to be websites such as Facebook, twitter, YouTube, flickr, Blogs and more. That is not the case. These tools are just Internet applications. The Internet as a whole is a Social Medium! Today if somebody is lying about you in the media ... we now have the tools to get the real facts out there. - Alec Ross , State Department social media adviser Alec Ross is right. However with the correct use of Social Media, one should not only get the word out, or set the record strait; but actually listen to citizens and social groups, engage with the public and create a two-way communications stream between the diplomat...

First of all I want to say that I don't believe in websites that debunk Internet rumor. As I said in a previous post Debunking smears on the Internet :  "When you make it an issue, it becomes an issue"  AttackWatch.com is a new website that seeks to put the record strait (according to the Obama campaign).  The Obama campaign also keeps FightTheSmears.com a website actually created for the 2008 campaign! The website is still online, along the new  AttackWatch.com . Both of them! Comes to prove that websites that re-produce smears and rumors, do just that: re-produce smears and rumors.  FightTheSmears.com is a 2008 Obama campaign tool, that still keeps the 2008 smears online! The Republicans instead of "Getting the record strait" they just serve "the facts" not the rumors; with the  StimulusSpotlightProject.com  The difference is that they do not re-produce the smears. The website offers bullet point "facts" that target on...

The Mitt Romney campaign has the message "Believe in America" beneath the Romney logo ( my opinion on the 2012 Romney logo ) but just beneath that, it has a Donate button. In doing so the message becomes:  Romney - Believe in America - Donate So, Romney believes in America, you should too.. oh, and donate to the campaign..  I know that that this might be considered a detail, however, when you look at it, it looks like the message is with the word " donate ".  Anyway, I just wanted to bring this to your attention in order to point out that: The way you create an email newsletter can be proven to be crucial in changing or shaping your message.

Email newsletters can be considered to be the first direct to citizen tool of online political communications, before social media or other engaging technologies.  The Obama 2012 campaign is using a style of email communication that started in the 2008 campaign. People in our days are so overwhelmed by email, because everyone is getting so many newsletters that clutter their inbox with advertisements, offers, promotional messages and, in this case, emails from the 2012 campaigns. So, how can you make your political campaign email stand out? What the Obama campaign understands is that you don't need fancy graphics, banner ads, or digital signatures. The above email was "sent out" by the President with "(no subject)" in the title of the email. It has no banners, no photos, no videos embedded. Just like an email you would receive from a friend. Simple, Short, Single-Issued. (SSS) (Hey! I created an acronym...) You would except that each and every email that c...

Having watched Anthony Weiner admitting sending out an explicit, private, photo to one of his twitter followers I was really amazed that he didn't conclude with resigning from his seat. But what can we learn from the social media strategy of Anthony Weiner? Well, first of all don't send out private, or explicit, photos to your twitter followers/ facebook supporters a.k.a. your constituents/voters... But kidding aside, if Anthony Weiner didn't send out photos, or had intimate cyber relations with women online, his social media strategy would be excellent! A politician that uses Social Media on his own, without having a staffer doing all the work, and actually connecting with followers and supporters actively, is a great example of Political Social Media communications. Social Media engagement should be done by the politician, without any other people interfering. In Anthony Weiner's case, it just got too personal, and then it really went wrong. During the past day...

I really want to commend Benjamin Netanyahu on his initiative to engage with people online. It is truly remarkable that a head of state is coming out openly and accepting questions from a global audience! The office of the Israeli PM states that: This will be a unique project since Prime Minister Netanyahu will be the first head of government to be in continuous contact will (with) websurfers, and will not suffice with isolated interviews only. ( small misprint there ) I have previously blogged on Israeli politics and social media, and the overall theme is that is clear, straightforward and open. Just like social media needs to be; especially when dealing with global political communications, or international political leaders being active in New Media. It's about being clear, honest and fully transparent. I am planning to address a question Benjamin Netanyahu soon, and hopefully he will respond. On a last note, I want to suggest a bit of housekeeping. ...

So, Tim Pawlenty tweeted before the President's facebook townhall: Have a tough question for @BarackObama 's Facebook townhall today, submit questions that are unlikely to be answered here When I saw this I thought that it would link to the facebook live page so that people would actually ask the President all the " questions that are unlikely to be answered " but no... it linked to a page at the T-Paw website with a condescending photo of Obama asking people to: "Use the form below to let us know what questions need to be addressed but won't be asked at tomorrow's campaign event." This is so wrong in terms of new media communications in Politics! If T-Paw actually directed people to the facebook live page it could have been a really great tactical move to actually get his followers to ask the questions that " need to be addressed " at the actual event that they could have been addressed! It could have been a really smart move by T-P...

I thought I received an email from the GOP; but no, it was from Melody Barnes and the White House. Melody Barnes is the Director of the Domestic Policy Council, she works as an advisor in Washington DC. In the email she states: The state of the American education system today is unacceptable. (...) For the sake of the next generation, and America's economic future, this has to change. It is unbelievable that a senior White House advisor is using a 2008 talking point. This is what Obama was talking about in the race for the Presidency. It was all about "Change we can believe in", "Vote for Change" and more... How is it that change rhetorics are still in use by the White House, is it a sign that change will be the main theme in 2012? After two years in the White House, the Obama administration states that "Something Must Change". So, what happened during the past years? nothing changed? I think that the 2012 Obama campaign needs to change the creat...

Sarah Palin released a video today on Vimeo (First time she utilized this video service) in response to the shootings in Tucson AZ. According to THEBLAZE.com (a site managed by Glenn Beck ) Sarah Palin has officially broken her silence and indirectly responded to criticism that she is somehow connected to the shootings in Tucson. According to CNN , the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner has been anecdotally regarded as very troubled and perhaps mentally unbalanced because of his ramblings spotted on the internet and the way he has been described by acquaintances. There have also been widespread rumours that Loughners' actions mirrored the Tea Party or the rise of right-wing activists in America. Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin were named by some as the moral perpetrators to these despicable acts. Glenn Beck, from his TV and Radio shows, has defended himself, the Tea Party and Sarah Palin, he also wrote a letter to Sarah Palin, to whitch she replied. Although they both need to go on t...

Ok, I know this is silly, but the above photo is a print-screen of the official YouTube account of the President (as of 30/12/2010). Notice that right next to his profile picture there is the series of subscribers, most of them beautiful girls, also including a user called "NaughtyVideosForYou"! You might say that Barack Obama is not responsible for the accounts that are subscribed to his YouTube channel, and yes I will agree, however, it shows as a really weird presence of the President of the United States on YouTube. The people that run the account can either block some users that might be spammers, or deactivate the subscribers from showing in the main channel page. I just think that it is really funny, and can definitely be picked up from a mainstream media reporter as a fun story.

I really like the new calling tool by Organising for America. Straightforward tools like this can really help in organising grassroot supporters to take action in a structured and targeted way. This technology serves not only as a phone bank tool, but also as a structured polling questionnaire. So, grassroot supporters are being utilised for a phone-bank GOTV campaign. At the same time, the campaign gets valuable, individual targeted data, as to what are the intentions and beliefs of people being targeted by the campaign.  Definitely a model for future canvassing campaigns and valuable data gathering. I was also impressed by the detail of the guidelines for every call. By the way, at the end of each and every call the message is: Wonderful - Thanks again for being active in 2008. We look forward to voting with you again on November 2nd so we can continue moving America forward. Have a nice day! [Hang up] It's time to hit the phones.

Last week I took part at the 6th International Political Marketing Conference, you can read the full abstract of my presentation: Blogger Outreach strategies and New Media Engagement . It was great to talk with fellow political marketers, and academics, and learn a lot from interesting presentations on the topics of political science and marketing. I presented on how political campaigns need to engage with bloggers in creating and running blogger outreach programs to communicate with influential people online. As people in new media understand, the argument of Blogger Vs Journalist was raised. My take is that Bloggers should not be treated as main stream media journalists or reporters. Political campaigns need to target them with new media tools and technologies that have proven to be effective in creating personal links, and valuable in gaining trust from online communities. The campaign should be able to provide bloggers with relevant insightful and bundled information, in order ...

6th International Political Marketing Conference Thesalloniki, Greece  Title: Blogger Outreach strategies and New Media Engagement Credit:  OSCE/Mirvete Mustafa Abstract Building an online presence and actively engaging with Bloggers, and key online communication stakeholders, can provide valuable assets to a political campaign. A cohesive online political Marketing plan needs to include a Blogger outreach strategy in order to engage with online communities, actively have part in online discussions and shape an Internet political communication campaign. Integrating Blog communications to a public relations plan helps promote a candidate and spread the campaign message to the Internet, while utilizing two-way communication bonds with online communities.  The research shows that Bloggers should not be treated as main stream media journalists or reporters; the political campaign needs to target them with new media tools and technologies that are ha...

The above photo is one from a series of photos posted recently by the official White House twitter account on Twitpic . As you can see, it is a shaky picture, with the finger of the White House new media staffer showing on the left part of the photo.  There are some really interesting comments below the photos: is this the best picture our tax money can buy? The staff of the most powerful man in the world should really get a decent camera. its awesome some1s doin this who cares if its from a cell phone? keep doin what ur doin we love the pics!! I cant believe it! The @whithouse is tweeting photos! Great! Greetings from Germany Kidding aside, I do believe that whoever is responsible for the whitehouse twitter account needs to be more careful in uploading proper quality photos, and photos that do not show the fingers of the person taking them. Really amateur multimedia uploads from the White House media team; something that can be excused in a low budget election campaign, but not...

I really like this tool from " Organizing for America ". It is a great method to lobby the House of Representatives and the Senate while utilizing grassroots support for healthcare reform. What I really appreciate is the openness of the tool, in asking people to call their representatives, record their answers and report back. It is these tools, simple, straightforward , and clear, that have the capacity to make the difference.