The full program

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A few lessons from this program

Have you noticed that most people can’t get more than a few hundred readers to their sites, let alone get their audience to pay money to buy something? Ever wonder how some politicians, like John McCain and Barack Obama, cleverly work the Internet to build movements that are millions of people strong–and get their supporters to donate money?

I wanted to learn how they do it. So I called Randy Skoglund and Curt Mercadante, Principals at Revere Strategy Group, a consulting company that helps politicians and advocacy groups properly use the internet.

Download my full interview with them and you’ll hear politicians’ most powerful secrets. Here are a few that I wrote down as I spoke to them.

Fight! – Politicians and movements that try to fight the system are more likely to build movements online. Think about how MoveOn.org fought the Republicans. We see this in online businesses, too. Gary Vaynerchuk is building an online wine business by fighting the snobbish, old wine world.

Lose the tie – Check out how Michelle Obama stands in her t-shirt and casually talks to a camera in this video. Online, you’re more likely to connect with an audience if you’re unpolished. McCain benefited from this when his campaign ran out of money and he had no choice but to shoot casual videos.

Get on TV – Television is still incredibly powerful. Ron Paul, for example, used his appearances on televised debates to build his online audience. We heard this in my interview with Timothy Sykes too. He grow his online audience by being on reality tv.

Tiny – You can’t get everyone to agree with your whole message. So The Revere Strategy Group helps politicians build micro web sites for single issues. The goal is to capture people who agree with a candidate on one issue, but may disagree with other positions.

Petition them – There are some issues that people are so fired up about that they’ll “sign” online petitions. These petitions can be magnets for supporters–and they’re a good way to collect email addresses. MoveOn.org started this way.

Download the full interview to hear many more techniques that you can learn from and use.

(Olivia Kuhn-Lloyd thanks for introducing me to Revere.)

A few lessons from this program