Today I wrote a few words of advice to a political committee looking to expand their online presence & message (read: new media). This is roughly what I wrote.
DON'T put all your eggs in one basket. Facebook will not be around as it is now forever. Neither Twitter, Google, or anything else. You need to understand the direction, not get mired down by a certain service.
DON'T use Twitter to syndicate your blog feed or site updates. Twitter is about Proactively LISTENING and responding to what people are saying. Why Congressmen don't take a few minutes to follow everyone in their district (it's easy) I do not understand.
Another Twitter thing no one's really doing - taking questions, answering them on your site or in a video. Google is scared of twitter search, so they're indexing every tweet. Link back to the original tweet in your post - BOOM, synergy that gives you some SEO Google Juice.
DON'T expect anyone to pay attention to anything for more than 30 seconds. Tons of Reps are uploading everything they say on the House floor to Youtube. If people wanted to watch you ask for unanimous consent to revise and extend your remarks, C-SPAN would be a lot more popular!
The SECRET to online video is AUDIO. There are very cheap, easy software tools to remove the echo and noise from your videos. Also, adding background music is HUGE. There are plenty of Creative Commons licensed songs you can use for free.
DON'T make the mistake Tim Ryan (D-OH) did and use a rap song you don't own the rights to, does not reflect your message, has sexual innuendo, and contains the word "niggaz":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLUDt2zoI9U
Facebook has a huge bandwagon effect. You have to be funny, clever, or articulate a very specific cause to get attention. Remember that different age groups use FB in dramatically different ways. Tap into the Merchandising.
Yahoo Answers is a great place to get the message out to people looking for ANSWERS, build relationships and drive traffic to your site. Nobody seems to be doing this.
Be POSITIVE always. You can't make people scared on the internet. It just doesn't work.
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