One of the most frequent comments I hear from activists is that they don’t understand why they need Facebook, Twitter, Ning, or any other social networking site and yet they can’t seem to get their groups off the ground. A similar lament is that while finding supporters isn’t a problem, getting them to stick around and become part of the organization is. When the success of your group depends on member engagement, fundraising, and spreading a certain message, it’s important that your internet presence give members and potential activists as many avenues for acting as possible.

If you find that your organization has plenty of support, but you’re having trouble transforming your support into action, there’s a good chance your group hasn’t fully embraced Web 2.0. Embracing Web 2.0 means not just creating dynamic websites where information is readily available, but creating campaigns where your activist base can easily interact with the provided information.

You should approach your new media strategy with two overall goals in mind:

• Goal 1: Provide good and timely information
• Goal 2: Create easy methods for engagement

To reach your broad goals of providing good information and making it easy to share that information, your web strategy has to begin with your website and branch out from there. Think of your website as your central information portal and each of your social network accounts as the avenues that get people to and from your site (and your message). This series will begin with websites and go on to discuss keys for social networks, reputation management, and specific ways to engage your activists. The purpose of this series is not to give you the mechanics for installing Wordpress themes or creating custom Facebook tabs, but to explain why you might do these things and how they will benefit your movement.

Before we can truly realize a conservative revolution in this country, conservatives will have to learn to make the internet work for them. We’ve already made great strides in this area as a movement, but as with most great teams, we are only as strong as our weakest link. I hope you’ll stick around for the entire series and possibly share this information with other conservatives or your own groups. My goal with Majority Connections is to help conservatives learn to embrace new media and understand that with a good plan, a little bit of work, and very little money, a strong new media strategy will pave the way to success. At the end of this series, I will be launching a new consulting service specifically for groups looking to assess their existing sites and move forward with a new strategy. Stay tuned for more information!

Part 1:  Websites

Part 2:  Facebook

Part 3:  Twitter

Part 4:  Rethinking Social Networks

Part 5:  Reputation Management

Part 6:  Helping Them Help You