MoveOn’s recent GOTV video–a fake “fear factor” news reel customized for each individual viewer–has quickly proved to be both popular and alienating to supporters.  Moveon’s traditional white upper and middle class base, who are accustomed to the organization’s edgy style, has been energized by the video (so far it’s been forwarded more than 11 million times). At the same time, we’ve been hearing that groups serving other constituencies–such as communities of color or older folks–have received a flurry of complaints because members found the video “offensive, insulting and were surprised to have received” it from their organization.   Members didn’t enjoy being scared or castigated into voting, and others had privacy concerns, misunderstanding that the automated video remained fully private.

This great example of “different strokes for different folks”: MoveOn had the right tone and the right technology for their member base; but other groups representing other constituencies that excitedly forwarded it misread their membership.  Here’s an example of a typical response from the sector who didn’t like the video:

A person’s right to vote is another person’s right to be left the hell alone. Voting is not mandatory. It’s strictly voluntary. Moveon.org… should knock it off. It’s hard enough to get people to vote without publicly castigating them.

Lesson? Know your audience!

MoveOn has struck gold with their latest GOTV video.  It’s a fake news reel that is customized for the individual viewer and gives folks a “fun, memorable way to show your friends what might happen if any of us don’t vote.”  Leveraging the fear of a close (or stolen) election–and, with Obama ahead in the polls, concerns over voter apathy–it’s spreading like wildfire online, and proves video is quickly becoming the most powerful of online tools.  Click below to watch or make your own here.

Folks hankering to track trends, debates and tools in the communications field may want to join the Progressive Exchange listserve, an online community that was started in 2004 as a way to share information among people doing online organizing, advocacy, marketing and fundraising on behalf of the public interest.

You can sign up here, but beware, this is a very, very heavily trafficked listserve so expect dozens of posts and questions daily.  For most it’s information overload (and Crib Notes already sorts through the stream of emails and plucks and posts the most useful information bytes — “we read it so you don’t have to!”).  It is however, one of the best online forums to post a question that you’re struggling with and expect a high level of response from a very knowledgeable community.

Even in the era of cable TV and YouTube, writing still matters.  Here are 20 quick tips from a writing coach that are also available in a longer podcast form.  Folks might also might want to check out blogs like like Grammar Girl, CopyBlogger or Daily Writing Tips.

1. Begin sentences with subjects and verbs: Make meaning early, then let weaker elements branch to the right.
2. Order words for emphasis: Place strong words at the beginning and at the end.
3. Activate your verbs: Strong verbs create action, save words, and reveal the players.
4. Watch those adverbs: Use them to change the meaning of the verb.
5. Take it easy on the -ings: Prefer the simple present or past.
6. Fear not the long sentence: Take the reader on a journey of language and meaning.
7. Establish a pattern, then give it a twist: Build parallel constructions, but cut across the grain.
8. Let punctuation control pace and space: Learn the rules, but realize you have more options than you think.
9. Cut big, then small: Prune the big limbs, then shake out the dead leaves.
10. Prefer the simple over the technical: Use shorter words, sentences and paragraphs at points of complexity.
11. Play with words, even in serious stories: Choose words the average writer avoids but the average reader understands.
12. Set the pace with sentence and paragraph length: Vary sentences to influence the reader’s speed.
13. Tune your voice: Read drafts aloud.
14. Work from a plan: Index the big parts of your work.
15. Repeat, repeat, repeat: Purposeful repetition links the parts.
16. Read for both form and content: Examine the machinery beneath the text.
17. Break long projects into parts: Then assemble the pieces into something whole.
18. Recruit your own support group: Create a corps of helpers for feedback.
19. Limit self-criticism in early drafts: Turn it loose during revision.
20. Learn from your critics: Tolerate even unreasonable criticism.

• Mobile internet usage was far higher then computer based internet usage, 83% had used internet on a mobile compared to 20% on a computer for the previous day.
• Close to 100% had used a mobile phone as often as yesterday, while the next highest item used was an (Ipod/Mp3 player) and computers were 3rd with under 10%.
• SMS messaging exceeds even voice calls, with 65% having sent at least one message on the previous day.
• Instant messaging is the most popular application with 47%.
• 56% of the youth surveyed used their mobile phones on the previous day to take a picture.
• On average about 50% of their money was spent on mobile services, R30 (3-4 $) a week.
• Even though there are cheaper options for voice calls like community (public) phones, there is a social stigma attached to calling each other from public phones. They prefer using their mobiles even with higher prices.
• They do not think that using applications like IM or Facebook as being on the internet; when asked if they had used the internet, they say no even though they answer yes for having using IM.
• In South Africa at large internet penetration is around the 10% mark, while mobile penetration currently sits at 95%.

We know what’s going on with low income youth in South Africa; it’s time to figure out what’s going on in Kentucky, Alabama, and Oakland…

• Geography matters: When people join the Obama campaign, the campaign learns when and where a person joined up. So a student with a New York cellphone, who would otherwise be relegated to fundraising appeals, is reclassified for Nevada mobilization. Then, organizers directly reach them with text messages and calls.  Each time a supporter interacts with the campaign data specialists “create new layers” for targeting that person by region, engagement and volunteer preferences.
• Tap into personal networks: The campaign launched a turnout application on the popular iPhone. In a break with typical voter contact models, it empowers users to call their personalized list of voters. It sorts friends’ phone numbers by “key battleground states” to focus on the people with potentially decisive votes. Within a week of its launch, the tool broke into the Top Ten free downloads on iTunes.
• Leveraging a network to route around the press: Organizers spread their message using supporter e-mails, targeted Facebook ads–and an irreverent spoof video. An edgy clip spliced footage of Tom Brokaw imagining a McCain victory and directed terrified viewers to VoteForChange. It was an instant sensation, rocketing past celebrities as the most viewed item on YouTube. (NBC later forced the campaign to take the video down.)

Right now young people rely heavily on text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, etc, instead of email, to communicate.  But as they get older will this change?  The “father of the internet” Vint Cerf expects:

today’s young people to change their behavior as they age because they’ll be maintaining different kinds of relationships then than they do now. In high school and college, young people are usually communicating with peers who are nearby and living lives with similar patterns, but as they all move into adulthood, their lives will scatter and diverge in ways that often make delayed/deferred communications more useful than immediate communications. In other words, IM’ing is great when you’re gossipping with classmates, but email may be better when you’re catching up with that friend across the country who suddenly has three kids under the age of five.

For groups hoping to maintain relationships with young people as they age out of college, start families or enter the workforce, it may be worth tracking whether aging youth’s modes of communications change over time.

There’s much talk by web commentators about email being eclipsed by instant messaging, social networking messaging, SMS, RSS, Twitter, etc. as a primary communications tool.  The jury is still out. According to a recent story by Forrester research:

69% of the more than 2,000 people surveyed relied on e-mail to share information; more specifically, 64% of adults do and 60% of youths do. Tim Schigel, CEO of content-sharing network ShareThis, said the study confirmed what his team was seeing in focus groups: that for trusted information from accredited media, people prefer to copy and paste url’s into an e-mail rather than share via a social network.

It’s hard to keep social networks active, especially online.  Unlike traditional organizations, networks are loosely knit social relationships of individuals or organizations tied together by values, vision, friendship, etc.  Because they are informal, it’s often hard to keep people linked and to keep the conversations (the lifeblood of networks) going. And it’s even more difficult to expand your network into unlikely spaces.

There’s no silver bullet, but one communications tool that’s working in immigrant communities is Video Letters, started in the Balkans for former friends who no longer see each other. Now it’s being used as a tool for reconciliation in post-war countries, like Rwanda, and a conflict prevention tool by reconnecting former enemies.

Grassroots groups might think about setting up undocumented workers to send video letters home to reconnect with family; or reach out to fellow workers in other meatpacking plants in far flung states; or maybe there are conversations to be kindled between native born workers and the immigrant community.

Trying to figure out ways to talk, frame and respond to the current financial meltdown?  Wondering how we bring it all down to the local level? (Polls are showing 6 in 10 Americans think depression is “likely”.) Events are moving so fast, it’s hard for many of us to wrap our minds around it, but it’s our job to try. Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, has sketched out a possible progressive frame in his recent post, “Canaries, Coalmines, and Our Shared Fate”. Here are his top four takeaways and action plan. (Read the full post here.)

1. Abuse and exploitation of poor people of color eventually harms everyone.
2. Money has a way of materializing if you think something is really, really important.
3. Free market fundamentalism, R.I.P.
4. The fact that some corporations are now so large as to be “too big to fail” raises some provocative questions about the corporate form itself.

So what is to be done? This is a major, historic opportunity to educate the public about the way our economy works, what our government is for, and why a just society proceeds from deep awareness of our connection rather than the fiction of radical isolation.  In the short term, CCC and other allies have been urging opposition to the bailout proposals before Congress, and are insisting that protection for vulnerable homeowners and revisions to punitive bankruptcy laws be part of the package.  Over the longer term, we are working closely with others to develop a progressive economic plan to address the ongoing crisis.