sust-mar: Lessons learned from online antiwar activism

Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 19:53:13 -0300 (ADT)
From: Paul A Falvo <pfalvo@chebucto.ns.ca>
To: Sustainable Maritimes <sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca>
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Lessons learned from online antiwar activism
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Over the past weeks and months, the antiwar movement blazed some new ground
on online organizing.  While they were not successful in achieving their
ultimate goal of stopping the war, they did an impressive job of making
visible sentiments that the powers that be would have rather suppressed.
And we've not heard the last of them.

Particularly visible were the online efforts spearheaded by the organization
MoveOn.org.  MoveOn was able to run a number of online antiwar petition
drives that resulted in hundreds of thousands of virtual petitioners.
MoveOn helped use the power of the Internet to mount a "virtual march" event
consisting of a barrage of carefully timed phone calls and faxes to
Congress.  And, perhaps most impressively, MoveOn was able to raise a few
hundred thousand dollars from small individual donations to help fund the
creation and broadcast of antiwar television commercials in key media
markets.

A number of folks have asked us, "How can we do a 'MoveOn' for the
environment?"  We're not sure, but here are some of our observations on why
MoveOn was successful:


1) MoveOn worked on an issue that millions of people care *passionately*
about.

It's impossible to over-emphasize this.  MoveOn worked on the #1 public
issue, which has been getting months of nonstop media coverage.  Does this
make a difference?  You bet!  MoveOn wasn't nearly as successful when it
worked on lower-profile issues such as energy policy or judicial
nominations.  Environmental issues are relatively low priority for most
folks -- despite the fact that the public tends to support our stands.
Environmental activists need to be very careful about assuming that the
public is as highly motivated on environmental issues as it was for the
antiwar movement.


2) MoveOn fused online appeals and offline actions.

Sure, sometimes MoveOn did "online petitions."  But MoveOn printed those
petitions out and delivered 'em in the flesh to the real-life decision
makers they targeted.  And MoveOn coordinated hundreds of meetings between
antiwar activists and elected officials.  MoveOn also used email to drive
folks to their phones -- and to the Web to report on the offline actions
they took.


3) MoveOn aggressively earned media coverage

MoveOn worked with Fenton Communications, one of the country's top
progressive PR firms, to help sharpen its message and build relationships
with reporters looking to cover the antiwar movement.  The resulting
favorable media coverage helped MoveOn reach out to even more people.  While
earning media is easier when you're working on a hot button issue, MoveOn
made sure to make the most of their limited media window.


4) MoveOn wrote compelling, personal emails that made people feel empowered
to make a difference

Over and over again, as we read MoveOn's emails, we commented to ourselves
on how incredibly well-written they were.  They were always *from* somebody
specific at MoveOn, and every email told a clear, compelling story about
what MoveOn was doing, why they expected it to succeed, and why our
participation would help.  Even when the news was bad, the message was
positive, and users responded.  MoveOn's emails put into words a lot of
their readers' thoughts and feelings, and readers passed those emails on to
their friends and family members -- the best form of outreach there is!  The
best way to get a feel for this kind of writing is to read some of it -- and
to this end, we've put up a short gallery of MoveOn campaign letters at:

http://www.onenw.org/bin/page.cfm/pageid/486


5) MoveOn took advantage of coalition partners

MoveOn positioned itself as the online destination for a large coalition of
antiwar groups.  When the coalition ran a joint campaign, MoveOn provided
the online activism engine -- and gathered the names.  Thus, MoveOn was able
to leverage the outreach work of its coalition partners to build its list of
names -- and its organizational muscle.


6) MoveOn used its lists to raise money for specific campaign activities

MoveOn was able to raise money to purchase a number of ads, including an ad
during the Super Bowl.  They did this by sending timely, urgent appeals to
their list that were focused on achieving a specific, short-term goal.
While only a small percentage of participants opened their wallets, MoveOn's
list was so large that it added up fast.


The bottom line: there is much we can learn from MoveOn, but also much that
is hard to replicate "at will."  The biggest factor MoveOn had working in
its favor was its choice of an urgent issue that was very important to
millions of Americans.  On top of that foundation, they were able to  build
a series of creative online and offline actions by writing eloquently,
aggressively earning media coverage, and working effectively with a large
array of campaign partners.




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