One of the most important things that libraries give to a modern democracy is the provision of information access to all people. Books in a library are categorized and cross-referenced so that anyone can find them. After all, a library without a database or a card catalog is just a pile of books.

Then the World Wide Web came along, and it was a revelation to information seekers. But as the Web grew to gargantuan proportions, effective search engines became more important than ever.

Maybe you see a theme forming here. The existence of information is important, yes. That’s the reason C-Span was founded in the first place 30 years ago. The documentation of the political process lends transparency and, theoretically, accountability to the government.

But combine this with the Internet and a great search engine, and you witness what gives information its true power. Anyone with Internet access can go there, see the videos, and most importantly, search by topic, speaker, tag, title, date, etc. And with a few exceptions, the content is considered public domain and can be used by everyone. This is what we mean when we talk about democratization.

Still wondering what this has to do with us? Watch Jon Stewart arrange video footage to document John McCain’s shifting positions:

Email Elena Berger to find out how Amplify can help you with your next video project.

I’ve been in the business of advocacy communications a long time. And like all methods of communications, there are some best practices that have been established by experts in the field that you may want to consider adopting.

Spam is not just for breakfast anymore. And spam laws are strict, and the company that provides your CRM is equally as strict about their whitelist status. Most importantly you should be too, since you don’t want your emails to land into a junk folder. “Free”, “Opportunity”, “Act now”, and other ambiguous words can sink your email before you even reach your subscriber. Many CRM providers may have a list of words they recommend you avoid, check with them as a good place to start.

K.I.S.S. (keep it short, silly). The standard for subject lines these days is 50 character max. Remember, this should be something that will make your member want to open your email, not be turned off, overwhelmed or completely bored and delete it before they even read what you have to say. Not to mention in today’s world, people are accessing your emails on their smart phone. And a long subject line will definitely get cut off.

Test, test, test! Part of a successful email marketing program is analyzing your data is a practice you should incorporate into your continual evaluation. If you’re unsure how a subject line will perform, test it. Do an A/B split test (we’ll be blogging on that subject too, stay tuned) on your subject lines, let it run for 24 hours and whatever the winner is, use that subject line for the remainder of your group. It’s always a good idea to see how previous subject lines performed as well. You can test short v. long, straightforward v. ambiguous, etc.

Localize it. If you’re inviting people to an event or you want people to take action on an issue that is close to them, add it to the subject line. Check out Organizing for America, the Humane Society & travel sites like Travelocity to see some good examples of using this information in subject lines.

There are a lot of things to remember when creating a successful email marketing campaign. But do not underestimate the power of a smart and savvy subject line- it can make all the difference. To find out how Amplify Public Affairs can help you create email marketing campaigns that deliver results, visit us online at www.amplifypublicaffairs.net.

My last job is to make sure all those projects continue as smoothly as possible.

I believe in documentation because me-six-months-from-now doesn’t know what I know. And now, all the documentation I’ve written over the last three years can be useful to my colleagues. The team can back each other up, because I’ve made spaces for others to create documentation as well. That increase in our collective capability is the thing I’m most proud of at Amplify.

Last week, Debbie Weil’s Sweets and Tweets (one of the many great after-work DC politics/technology/social media events – the only one with cupcakes) featured several of us talking about the idea of linchpins, people who can make an enormous difference in their organizations: I talked about not waiting for assignments, about documentation, and about growing into new roles. I’m deeply grateful Amplify gave me the chance to grow and learn as I have.

I hope you’ll keep in touch, and I’ll be trying to blog regularly from business school at my personal blog, Information Squid. Schools are starting to think about social media and brand evangelism and all the areas Amplify works in (NYTimes, BusinessWeek), and I’m looking forward to connecting more traditional areas with that mindset.

Colin Delany of e.politics has a campaign outsider’s look at the “impressively comprehensive” Internet campaign, including website, Google ads, Ning private social network, text messaging, and social network outreach.

Mindy Finn has the inside view from the campaign’s online strategy consulting firm Engage, and talks about early investment, an internal audit, what they improved, and the (winning) results and lessons learned. Her first two lessons are particularly important: have multiple people working on online execution (no one person will be able to focus on everything), and budget for continued web development throughout the campaign.

The McDonnell campaign had enough money and grassroots enthusiasm to take the example of the Obama campaign and adapt online tactics to their own race. While their advantage of being one of the few big races this year will be impossible to replicate for Congressional and down-ballot races next year, 2010 candidates would be wise to imitate the attention they paid to using the Internet well.

• A list of case studies of elected officials online to check out for ideas and comparisons, and
• a list of tools to check out and consider using for any government office or elected official just getting online.

Take a look at Tools & Case Studies from “Picking Tools & Strategies” Session. I used my usual POST process slides to discuss deciding how to reach constituents. Thanks to all who contributed ideas in the session.

ForumOne’s blog has a nice set of takeaway lessons – #2 (“Congressional use of social media and related Web 2.0 technologies frequently is not guided by an underlying digital communications strategy.”) and #3 (“Congress is in the initial stages of social media maturity – typically leveraging Web 2.0 technologies to broadcast their message and respond to negative PR.”) were definitely part of our session.

Sprout Builder is a new WYSIWYG drag and drop Flash builder that easily integrates with most major content and distribution services.  In about 20 minutes, I was able to make the widget above promoting a new, short video created by Disney Channel’s Playhouse Disney for the Smart Television Alliance. 

Once you have created your widget with Sprout Builder, the tools allows you to easily add it to 18 different social media sites including Facebook, MySpace, Blogger and of course, Typepad (our blog runs on Typepad).

Give it a try. It’s free. 

- Kevin    

In the spirit of the season, help us raise $3,000 to help 1,000 families in Darfur.

Please complete our short quiz testing your "Web 2.0" expertise. For every completed quiz, IDI will make a donation to Direct Change, a charity that leverages Web 2.0 technology to raise funds for development projects in Africa. Then click through and make your own donation to Direct Change and IDI will match every contribution of $1.50 or more. We are committed to raising $3,000.

Every $3 we raise will buy a fuel-efficient stove for a needy family in Darfur. These stoves help protect the environment while decreasing the risks that women in Darfur face when searching for wood.

Learn more about Direct Change and the amazing work they are doing in Africa.

- Kevin