(I posted the message below on the Green Party's national e-mail discussion list a few minutes ago. -- Scott McLarty, Green Party media coordinator)
Hi folks
According to Starlene Rankin, the article below ["Open the Debates"] has reached an unprecedented "virality" rate of 8.25%. The previous high for the Green Party was Jello Biafra's video from Sept. 17, which ended up at 7.41%. Virality is the percentage of people who have created a story from a page post out of the total number of unique people who have seen it.
This probably happened because we gave the article a strong push on Facebook. According to article's page on FireDogLake, it has received over 1,200 Facebook "likes" so far. Very few articles published anywhere ever reach this kind of number. (Check the FB "like" numbers at the bottom of articles in Common Dreams & The Nation -- all under 1,000, most under 100.)
There are other Green videos, published articles, interviews, graphics, etc. that deserve to go viral. But we have to promote them aggressively. This is especially true for videos featuring Jill Stein in interviews & speeches. I recommend mining the Facebook pages for the Green Party (http://www.facebook.com/GreenPartyUS) and Jill Stein (http://www.facebook.com/drjillstein) for links to post on your own FB pages, forward via e-mail, promote via Twitter, etc.
We're already reaching tens of thousands of people through social media -- let's expand these numbers. We're a political party, which means that the most important work we do is our efforts to reach the public to promote Green candidates and Green ideas. A lot of Greens now "get it" and have made such efforts part of their regular activities on behalf of the party.
We have some big events coming up, including the Climate Change National Day of Action on Sunday, Sept. 30 that's being organized by NY Greens (see http://www.facebook.com/events/282382531863681/ -- more details to be announced soon) and of course the debates, the first of which is on Oct. 3 in Denver.
Our goal should be to turn the exclusion of qualified candidates (Jill Stein and Gary Johnson) into the top news story related to the October debates. Part of that goal must include cultivating a groundswell of anger and insistance that Jill be invited to participate. The Obama-Romney confrontation is likely to be narrow & dull, so let's feed the media some red meat news. (Pardon my metaphor, vegetarians & vegans.)
We have to do it ourselves -- and I don't just mean the Media Committee & the Stein-Honkala Campaign. We are all in the business of PR for the GP.
Meanwhile, please keep promoting the "Open the Debates" article on Facebook, e-mail, etc. Here is the link: http://my.firedoglake.com/scottmclarty/2012/09/20/open-the-debates-demand-inclusion-of-jill-stein-and-gary-johnson/
Promote "Occupy the CPD" too: http://occupythecpd.org
If you want to tweet the article, here's a suggestion (with a Tiny URL link):
||| Open the pres. debates: Demand inclusion of Jill Stein & Gary Johnson! Read http://tinyurl.com/8pfngwe |||
And please write and submit your own articles, essays, op-eds, etc. for publication and produce videos for YouTube etc. You might even go viral.
Scott
Media Committee
Subject: [usgp-dx] Open the Debates: Demand inclusion of Jill Stein &
Gary Johnson (SM, FireDogLake)
(Please click on the link and share & forward this article widely! -- Scott)
Open the Debates: Demand inclusion of Jill Stein and Gary Johnson!
By Scott McLarty
FireDogLake (blog), September 20, 2012
It's time for Americans of all political persuasions to unite and demand real presidential debates, with the participation of Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.
