It's now been a couple weeks since the release of the new Obama facebook application. The application looks amazing. For those who haven't seen it, it adds a box to your personal profile on Facebook. It provides the basic functions of spreading Obama-related video and news, as well as spreading the word about events and fundraising drives like the Dinner for 5. And most intriguingly, it searches your friends list for those living in the early primary states to encourage you to contact them. (Aimee Fauseer has a great blog post describing the application in further detail.)
Is there more that it can do? Can it play a role in getting out the vote and in fundraising? Here are some ideas... Feel free to post your thoughts and suggestions.
The opening of the Facebook platform was greeted with much jubilation in the blogosphere. Techpresident has great articles here about its potential for organizing young people. I was trying to think of simple ways that the Obama application could further the ends of getting out the vote and helping encourage young people to donate.
The idea is to get Obama supporters to contact their friends and acquaintances to encourage them to register to vote, to donate, to volunteer; they can remind each other to mail off an absentee ballot, etc. These are friend-to-friend contacts and thus that much more effective than contacts from campaign volunteers. And the campaign has the advantage of having all of these contacts happening spontaneously on a mass-scale instead of having to direct them itself.
1. Yes/No Questions about Voting, Contributing, Volunteering
The Obama application on Facebook can start by asking an additional series of yes/no questions like:
(Closer to election time: Have you already mailed your ballot?)
This information would appear in the box on your profile, in part so that a member can show proudly that they've registered/voted/volunteered/donated, but also so that a member can see which of their friends are Obama supporters and have registered to vote, for example, just as you can see today which have signed up for the Obama application --- who has donated (who you can still convince to chip in ten bucks before the next fundraising deadline, etc.); who has volunteered. Just as the Obama application now tells you that "13 of your friends have signed up for this application," it could say "13 of your friends have donated/volunteered." --- This also allows peer pressure to build.
This would be a remarkable tool for enabling supporters to take the campaign in their own hands, network with their friends, and produce results.
2. Pledges
Another idea would be to allow supporters to post pledges in their Obama box on their personal profile: A pledge to caucus for Obama in Iowa, for example, or to volunteer, or to vote in their state's primary. A pledge to raise a certain amount, with a link to their personal fundraising page.
3. So does this really work? Can Social Networking really help transform the country?
Yes.
Young people really do look at Facebook profiles, and they notice in their newsfeeds when their friends are active in supporting a candidate. I have personally been contacted by a number of friends who have had questions about Obama, who haven't yet picked a candidate and want to know why I'm so passionate about him, who are wondering how to get involved, etc. These are great contacts that might never have otherwise taken place, and there is no limit to their potential.
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