2010 - GrassRoots 2.0 - Strategic Communications & New Media

The single largest line item of most budgets, public and private, is labor expense. Much has been said this year about hiring practices in a recession, but one thing is certain, at the risk of keeping business doors open, the largest line item needs to be assessed. In the private sector many jobs have been cut and salaries have been decreased. In the public sector the biggest favor we could request was deferring their cost of living increases. Keep reading…

My favorite question from a candidate is, “Why is my website so important?” This question has been prompted for various reasons, but the answer remains the same, 1 in 4 voters regularly learn something about campaigns from the internet. The fact that a quarter of the votes in a race could be decided online cannot be ignored, but some candidates are still having trouble admitting that they have a problem online. Keep reading…

***This is an email sent to Sherm Frederick of the Las Vegas Review-Journal about his blog post “I have more Facebook “friends” than you” posted Friday, Jun. 25, 2010***

Dear Sherm,

I wanted to take a moment to share a response to your blog entry about Sharron Angle’s Facebook fans. Funny enough, I wrote about this topic just last week, before Sharron Angle claimed “fan” victory over Harry Reid. The truth is that this is an award that we cannot predict the true winner of until Election Day, and even then, that award will go to the campaign that spends the most money on Facebook advertising. There are only a few reasons why fans are helpful to a campaign, but in the US Senate Race, fans are being used to compensate for other campaign problems. Keep reading…

In the wake of primary elections nationwide, candidates are asking themselves why their social media presence didn’t provide the silver bullet for them that it did for Barack Obama in 2008 and Scott Brown in early 2010. The winner of the US Senate Primary in Nevada and the opportunity to face Harry Reid in the fall left a field of candidates with bigger and shinier social networks wondering why more fans, more ads and more messages didn’t catapult them to victory. Keep reading…

Welcome to the new GrassRoots 2.0 Blog! We look forward to posting our thoughts on campaigns in the 21st century on topics ranging from Facebook and Twitter to general campaign tips. We look forward to the conversation.
Bryan & Megan