Under The Power Lines

I’m extremely excited to announce that Under The Power Lines has hired a brand new Internet rock star to lead the day-to-day operations of the firm.

So meet Adrienne Levy!

As a South Carolina native, Adrienne loves everything about being outdoors. From the mountains to ocean, rivers to beaches and roads to trails, Adrienne is ready to cross it by foot, bike or swim. Excited to continue exploring, she is ready to traverse the web as the newest member of Under The Power Lines.

Born to flex her creative muscle, Adrienne graduated from the University of South Carolina with degrees in advertising and political science. She enjoys writing, brainstorming, making people smile and a good challenge. Having prior work experience in promotions, Adrienne is ready to fuse her degrees by bringing your web needs to the political forefront in the nation, generating e-buzz and extending your reach to more voters than ever imagined.

Because like everyone else in the Under the Power Lines team, she likes to be really good at everything she does.

And, oh yeah, win.

You can contact Adrienne at adrienne@politicalnetroots.com.

Follow Adrienne on Twitter @adrienneutpl.

Politicians feel tug of online networking
By Lisa Zagaroli
lzagaroli@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Monday, Jan. 05, 2009

His favorite movie is “Braveheart,” and his favorite TV show is “24.” He also loves playing tennis, running and sailing, according to his Facebook page.

His job title? U.S. senator.

When it comes to using social networking sites and other modern forms of communication, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., is embracing new ways of reaching out to constituents. He has pages on MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and some other Internet sites.

That makes him one of the most active members of Congress, at least in the Carolinas. Others have begun using the Web tools, as well, to share news about their legislative work and campaign activity.

These days, that involves tweeting and friending and flickering and feeding.

“What we are seeing is it’s probably more crucial policy- and legislative-wise now than from a campaign standpoint,” said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who has a sparse Facebook page but a souped-up Web site that was just unveiled this week and will offer a blog and more audio and video features.

“I don’t think we can ignore the folks that are more likely to get their news off of some type of online source or (talk show host) Jon Stewart vs. ones that have subscriptions to the newspaper,” he said.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Dropbox

I lose everything. My keys. My wallet. My phone. Especially my dang thumb drive.

Dropbox has been a life saver. This free online program puts a nifty little folder right on your desktop and if you are connected on the Internets, you can just drag that document right into that folder and access it from any other computer connected to the web. It’s simply awesome.

2. Evernote

Oh boy. I love me some Evernote.

Like I just said. I lose stuff. But not just material stuff. I lose ideas too. Sometimes they just come to me and minutes later they’re gone. Who knows, they could have been the most groundbreaking political ideas of all time. They could have solved world hunger. Or, they could have just been a reminder to pick up the dog.

With Evernote, you can record voice notes, text notes, and even pictures with your computer, phone, or blackberry. It’s web based, so you can access those notes with any Internet connection. Give it a whirl. You’ll love it like monkeys love bananas.

3. Gmail

In just the past four years, my email address has been johnwdonehue@hotmail.com, wesley@jimdemint.com, wesley@campbell2006.com, wesley@bouchardforsenate.com, wesley@ttspolitical.com, wesley@firsttuesdaystrategies.com, wesley@politicalnetroots.com, wesleydonehue@scsenate.org, and wesley@scsenategop.com.

As you can imagine, its about impossible for anyone to keep up with me. That’s why I’m using Gmail (wesleydonehue@gmail.com) as my primary web client. The great thing is that I can keep it as I bounce around from campaign to campaign and it allows me to import three additional email addresses into my gmail account. I currently receive email at wesley@politicalnetroots.com and wesleydonehue@scsenate.org, but they both go directly into my gmail account so that I don’t have to worry about checking three seperate accounts. Gmail is definitely a politico must.

4. Twitter

You like sharing your ideas, but you’re a politico, so you have little time to do anything but work, sleep, and drink a few beers. Micro-blogging is your answer and Twitter is your tool. Don’t worry about visiting some pesky website everyday. You can tweet from your desktop, your blackberry, and from a browser plugin. Don’t forget to hit me up @ecgwesley.

5. Google Reader

There are WAY too many new media and MSM outlets for one politico to read. Quit searching through all of them every day. Make them come to you. When you sign up for that Gmail Google account, go ahead and start using Google Reader too. The best part is that you can set up Google searches for your clients/candidates so that you don’t have to search for them everyday.

Trust me, Google Reader will save you a ton of time every morning.

Have I told you lately that Lauren is one kick butt designer?  Check out Dan Hamilton’s new splash page at www.hamiltonforsc.com.

Check out the latest Under The Power Lines website at www.nikkihaley.com.

Senator DeMint…leading the national conservative fight.

Every once in a while a legislator comes along that lets us experiment on them. Representatives Nathan Ballentine was one of them, letting us experiment with very cool video blogs. Now comes Representative Dan Hamilton who agrees with me that micro-blogs are the future.

Check out this video:

Did he just say RSS feed? You dang right he did. And No, I didn’t tell him to say that. I don’t think it’s a big leap to say that Representative Hamilton is the only member of the entire General Assembly who actually knows what an RSS feed is. Okay, maybe Senator Kevin Bryant does to, but like me, Representative Hamilton is a full fledge geek. The guy reads Wired and knows who Chris Brogan is. He carries an iPhone and twitters all day. You can’t help but love this guy.

Micro-blogging is the future…until another “the future” comes along. Blogs are exploding and content is getting crazy. People just don’t have the time read long blog posts anymore. They want us to get straight to the point. That’s why Twitter is rocking the world right now.

Representative Dan Hamilton’s website at www.hamiltonforsc.com isn’t a site that will be updated once a month, once a week, or even once a day. Count on Representative Hamilton to keep it fresh all day, especially when he’s in session. Add this site to your daily must-reads.

As for all the sites Under The Power Lines has built, this one is my favorite.

You’re probably wondering why I haven’t been blogging much this week. I’ve been pretty slammed up right now trying to launch some sweet new sites.

Site design is changing.  Static brochure sites made way for content management system allowing lots of personal content. The problem now is that there is too much content…to much noise. Just look at PNN today. Can you possibly read all those new stories?

Just a few months ago long issue based blog posts were expected of our tech-savvy elected officials.  That’ s no longer the case as Twitter and other micro-blogging platforms are allowing our elected officials to stay in constant contact with us.  We don’t have time to read those long blog posts anymore. We need people to get straight to the point and eliminate the noise.  We need 160-character tweets.

That’s why Friend Feed is hot and why the Facebook redesigned is great. It’s all about simplicity.

Taking all that into consideration, the Under The Power Lines team is doing something a little different and launching two new political sites built on micro-blogging and a system that ties social networking sites all into one easy to read feed.  Stay tuned. They launch later this week.

In the meantime, I might now have time to blog, but I can always find time for a 160-charachter tweet.

“Why Harbison Chickfila better than Main Street? Drive thru and cheaper!”
- SC Representative Nathan Ballentine, 5:40 AM Nov 21st, via Twitter

I’ve been trading emails with a South Carolina State Representative for the past week about a new website and social networking. He’s a little hesitant because he wants to increase his presence on the Internet, but he’s worried about the time commitment.

You know, we often forget that our legislators are citizen-legislators. Most of them have full time jobs and full time families. Truthfully I don’t see how they can balance their family and professional lives with serving in Columbia, constituent services, and community projects. I believe that when going out and attacking them as “status quo politicians” as many bloggers do, we should remember the commitment they have made and the extremely small return on their personal investment.

While trading emails, this State Representative asked, “if I go forward, should I blog and twitter about my personal life or just my political endeavors?”

The answer – 100% absolutely without a doubt blog and twitter about your personal life.

I believe that elections are only 40% about issues. 60% is about the candidate…the person. It’s about trust, honesty, hard work, and all those personal traits that connect you with the voter. You can’t even get to the issues if you don’t first gain their trust.

Take a look at John McCain and Mitt Romney. Poll after poll showed that Republican primary voters were much more in line with Mitt Romney than John McCain. Many Republicans had issue with McCain’s stances on immigration, values, campaign finance reform, and taxes. But Mitt Romney was labeled as the flip-flopper. Voters didn’t trust him and John McCain was the known commodity. McCain was the straight talking candidate who told you what he believed, whether you liked it or not. In the end Republican voters went with the guy they trusted, not the guy they agreed with.

Now take a look at Representative Nathan Ballentine. Sure, he talks a lot about issues, but he also talks about his kids, his wife, and how much he just paid for gas. He talks about those things that connect us with Nathan the man and not just Nathan the legislator. Agree with him or not, you can’t help but feel some sort of a connection to the guy who talks about how much he craves Chic-Fil-A every morning but knows he shouldn’t eat it.

Besides, talking about personal stuff is a lot more fun and much easier. No, people might not care that you just ate the best hamburger of your life at Five Guys, but they eat at Five Guys too. That’s just one more connection and it took you 15 seconds to post it on Twitter. Getting back to my second paragraph rant, that’s how you balance a new web presence with everything else you are doing.

A quick warning - obviously some things aren’t meant for the web and you should discuss it with your spouse before you start posting personal stuff. It might not be a good idea to post pictures of your children or to talk about where they go to school. That’s between y’all. My wife is extremely cautious about what pictures we post on the web. For example, pictures of me funneling beers while tailgating before a Gamecocks football game are a big no-no.

Oh, and don’t worry about the dumb anonymous comments. They do sting a little more when they’re about personal posts rather than issue based ones. Just realize that idiots will be idiots. Ignore or respond and then move on.

So get personal. It saves time. It connects you to voters. It works.

(cross-posted at wesleydonehue.com)

A few weeks ago, SC House member said to me:

“You know what really gets to me Wesley? We cut taxes by $850 Million in the past four years and nobody cares. Voters demanded property tax cuts and we slashed them by half a billion. They didn’t care. We cut income taxes and eliminated the grocery tax. And still, nobody cared. In response they tossed out a bunch of our guys.”

Yup. That about sums it up.

The voters tossed out a bunch of incumbents because they lost trust in them and felt the need for change. That’s because you aren’t sharing your accomplishments.

In The Blogging Church, Brian Bailey writes:

“Information is a drug. Want proof? How else do you explain our insatiable desire to stay informed? No matter how much news and information we have, we’re constantly searching for more.”

You know the feeling too. It’s why you watch the news. It why the 24-hour news cycle became the 24-hour news cycle. It’s why you always look at those trash magazines in the grocery store line and why you listen to gossip around the Statehouse (or whatever your state capital is called). And it’s why you get up and read the blogs everyday. You want to know everything that’s happening.

Well, so do voters. They want to know what you’re doing – the good and the bad. The problem is that you’re not talking to them and telling them the good stuff you’re doing. You’re letting gossip blogs and the MSM tell the story for you! Big mistake! You just expect the voters to read through the voting records and understand what they’re reading. That’s freakin’ ridiculous!

If you don’t give voters the information you want them to know, they will go get it someone else.

And chances are that somewhere else is going to be an outlet extremely biased against you.

The Internet is cheap, simple, personal, and immediate. At a very low cost you can spread all your positive news minutes after it happens.

Information is a drug and most folks are addicted. It’s your job to feed the addiction. If you don’t, someone else will.