This is what I am doing in LA

I do not think many of you know exactly what I am working on at my internship. I believe that this proposal that I wrote for the research project will make everything clear.

I edited some stuff out to make it anonymous.

- muffinman
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Research Project Proposal

The problem:
Politicians and non-profit organizations have realized the power of social media as a way to spread their message and advance their cause. However, despite the fact that many politicians and non-profit organizations have incorporated social media into their outreach operations, most have done so ineffectively. This can be seen in the lack of quality in the social media accounts and a lack of integration between the different social media platforms.

When asked about social media, Mr.K, director of non-profit A, stated that his organization was still learning how to use social media to reach out to the younger generation. He also admitted that they have not put as much effort into it as they should have and will soon be hiring someone to manage their social media accounts. Congressman S. was in a similar situation, where he and his staff have just begun to learn how to use social media tools to reach out to constituents and that he was “definitely still planning to use it in later years.” It can be seen that many politicians and non-profit organizations are still in the learning stages of using social media and have not reached the level of sophistication of the audience that they are targeting.

Studies by Nielsen and Gallup indicate that social media’s popularity and use are continuing to grow rapidly. Continued use of low quality social media accounts and slow adoption will be increasingly detrimental to the prospects of politicians and causes of non-profit organizations.

Our solution:
As most of the interns are part of the generation that grew up with social media fully incorporated into their lives, we find ourselves to be very comfortable and knowledgeable with the subject. This puts us in a unique position to help introduce politicians and non-profit organizations to social media.

Over the course of the next four weeks, interns will comb over Facebook, twitter, Youtube, blogs and websites. They will scrutinize and breakdown each of these social media platforms that they have used extensively for years and determine their respective strengths and weaknesses as they understand them. Interns will also look for ways to apply these strengths and weaknesses towards advancing a civic cause. These findings will then be applied towards our own social media accounts so as to demonstrate their effectiveness.

In addition, interns will study social media’s role on recent civic actions. These case studies that involve expert statements will lend legitimacy to our research and make our project more relevant, as well as provide real world examples of using social media in a civic context.

One group of interns will examine the March 4th protests that took place at college campuses across the country. An assessment of the state of events that led up to the protests will be conducted. Interns shall study social media’s role before, during and after the protests. Research will also be done on the aftermath of March 4th. Interviews and statements with some of the individuals involved with the March 4th protests including UC regents, professors and organizers. Emphasis will be placed on finding how social media was used successfully throughout the March 4th protests.

Another group of interns will be analyzing how non-profit organizations and politicians on federal, state and local levels have been utilizing social media to conduct campaigns. Comparisons of the different approaches towards social media taken by various campaigns will be assessed for their effectiveness. The experiences of various political staffers and non-profit organizations with social media are to be included in the handbook. Once again, an emphasis will be placed on what was successful.

At the end of the project, we will compile our research into an accessible handbook which can be distributed cheaply and easily to interested parties. A supporting section on the our website that hosts supplemental multimedia content, such as video, and a copy of the handbook will also be created. This combination of traditional and new media in spreading our research project allows for the highest visibility and accessibility, due to the fact that we are targeting an audience that is still more comfortable with traditional media. We aim to distribute the first batch of handbooks to politicians and their staff during our visit of the state capitol.

Our hope is that the handbook can be of aid to non-profit organizations and politicians in their inevitable adoption of emerging social media tools.