Internet as a campaign tool DA Spain Annual Leadership Meeting October 6, 2006 Marc López Political&PA Consultant

Why the Internet Matters? The Internet is the greatest tool of personal empowerment. Allows us to take more control of our lives: we can pay bills online, shopping online, booking vacations online, donating money online, reading and creating journals online, playing games online, and creating communities online. More and more people spend more time online than in any other media (inlcuding television)

Internet: Benefits to political campaigns (1) “The Internet (…) is the most powerful tool for political engagement we’ve ever seen. It made it easier for the average citizen to participate in politics. Every moment they interact with the campaign can be a direct - response moment. (…)” - Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democratic Network. Fundraising money: recruit out-of-state donatins for candidates without much effort.

Internet: Benefits to political campaigns (2) Online Communities/Offline Action: Ability to unite people with similar interests across vast distances. When you’re online, it doesn’t matter whether the person you’re working or talking with is across the street or across the globe. Meetup.com became one of the most visited sites of the 2004 campaign season as it allowed people to gather locally to support a campaign. Howard Dean had 189,040 Meetup suporters from more than 1,100 locations

Internet: Benefits to political campaigns (3) Blog: It brings together the three biggest internet trends: communicating, sharing and socializing.

Internet: History and Cases Pasqual Maragall Catalan Campaign in 1999: I know well this experience because I was a member of the campaign team (responsible for the supporters platforms). One of the supporters platforms was 18x18 (the objective was to find 18 people who were 18 years old). By that time we tried to reach them through letters (paper letters). Now, anybody cannot imagine to do it this way: now internet is the tool.

Internet: History and Cases (2) Segolene Royal Socialist Campaign: One of the most important issues of the Royal Campaign was the democratic participation and the peer to peer communication. This allowed citizen empowerment. The citizen participated in designing the political program through the Internet. The results: increasing the number of the members of the party.

Use Internet to …… Meet & Connect Fill Out Your Profile Appropriate To The Audience (and medium) Increase Your Friend List Engage Your Community To Do Something Grow The Group By Recruiting Volunteers Have An Effective And Sincere Digital Interaction

Internet: “the Influentials” (1) A new community of citizens online is defining the 2004 Presidential Campaign. OPC (Online Political Citizens): These citizens are Internet-oriented and politically energized and they support their candidates by visiting their Web sites, joining Internet discussions groups, reading political blogs and making political contributions. Who are these people?

Internet: “the Influentials” (2) In 2004 the Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet of the Graduate School of Political Management (GWU) conducted and innovative study about these people. IPDI ( conducted two parallel surveys (online survey/national telephone survey) As a lot of people could think, the OPCs are not isolated.

Internet: “the Influentials” (3) OPCs are nearly seven times more likely than average citizens to serve as opinions leaders among theirs friends ans colleagues. 69% of OPCs are INLUENTIALS: the Americans who “tell their neighbors what to buy, which politicians to support and where to vacation”. Now the parties know that in the Internet can find the off - line inluentials citizens.

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