The organized direct tweeting idea has been put to the official Doug Jones campaign for its consideration as an official campaign activity. The campaign has not indicated to me one way or the other about whether they wish to have organized direct tweeting to voters as part of the official campaign. I assume the campaign will make a decision about this at some point, and I will hear from the campaign about what it has decided.
I have also put the idea to the Congressional campaigns of Kiani Gardner and Rick Neighbors, but, to my knowledge, neither of those campaigns have taken up the idea. See https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2019/11/tweeting-for-kiani.html.
If the Doug Jones campaign decides it wants to have organized direct tweeting to voters as an offical part of the campaign, the shape and form of the activity will be determined by the campaign, and members of the Doug Jones for Senate Facebook group who are interested in participating in the activity will need to see what the official campaign wants.
If the official campaign decides against the activity being an official part of the campaign, there may be reasons for this. If so, the reasons the campaign has for not having the campaign activity would be of interest to members of the Facebook group who like the idea and would like to do organized direct tweeting to voters independently of the campaign.
If the official campaign decides not to have organized direct tweeting as an official part of the campaign, members of the Facebook group who are interested in doing organized direct tweeting independently of the campaign will presumably want to communicate and work together in doing the organized direct tweeting.
If that is done by members of the group, hopefully the administrators of the Doug Jones for Senate Facebook group will allow the group page to be used by members to communicate to one another in their developing their independent activity.
At this juncture, the next step for organized direct tweeting for Doug Jones would seem to await the official campaign's decision.
Addendum 6/29/20
Someone has indicated to me that the campaign will have a lot of direct voter contact via text and calls, but large scale direct tweeting to voters is uncertain.
I don't know the extent to which campaign telephone calling and texting will be directed only towards voters who are Democrats (and likely to vote for Doug Jones) and the extent to which telephone calling and texting will also be directed towards Republicans and independents with a view to persuading them to vote for Doug Jones.
I also know little of how lists are compiled of phone numbers to call and of cell numbers to text and what information is known about the persons who are on lists to be called or texted.
I further don't know what constraints the campaign imposes to avoid unsolicited calling or texting to voters who will object to being called or texted as will result in calls or texts that are counterproductive to getting votes for Doug.
My organized direct tweeting idea is intended to include Republicans and independents, with a view to persuading them to vote for Doug.
I don't know whether lists of Twitter addresses can be purchased.
In my idea, persons and their Twitter addresses to tweet to are identified by tweeters scrolling through the "follower" and "following" lists of Twitter accounts of third parties, which lists give profile information of those appearing on the lists that may be helpful in deciding to tweet to a person on the list.
My tweeting idea seeks to get a pyramiding of tweets going. I don't know whether "pyramiding" is an objective of the telephone calling and texting to voters that the campaign will do.
Whether my tweeting idea has aspects and potential that warrant the campaign to take it up as an official campaign activity, in addition to the telephone calling and texting the campaign is planning, is up to the campaign to decide.
Addendum 7/11/20
While the administrators of the Doug Jones for Senate Facebook group approved my two posts soliciting group members to consider doing organized direct tweeting to Alabama voters as part of the members' campaigning for Doug, the administrators have not urged that members with an interest in doing organized direct tweeting attempt to undertake the same.
Also, I have not been able to get a response from the official campaign whether the campaign will undertake a component of organized direct tweeting to voters.
A July 8th post on the Doug Jones for Senate webpage reported that the poster was "going to invite three stubborn Alabamian republicans to come and witness how Doug Jones is doing a great job."
The post has received 213 reactions and 66 comments.
The group's webpage is private and has little or no outreach to Republicans or independents.
The organized direct tweeting idea I am advocating has a main purpose of "outreach" to Republicans and independents.
Supplement 7/17/20
Organized direct tweeting to Alabama voters is proposed here as a means for members of the FB group to engage in campaign communications that go outside of the group and that reach members of the public. This Supplement makes further suggestions of organizing ways for members of the group to make communications to the public.
1. Organized call ins to talk radio shows
Please contact me via FB comment or message or via Twitter if you are interested in doing organized call ins to Alabama talk radio shows.
2. Getting AL TV news reporters to try to force Tuberville to answer questions added 8/28/2000]
Supplement 7/17/20
Organized direct tweeting to Alabama voters is proposed here as a means for members of the FB group to engage in campaign communications that go outside of the group and that reach members of the public. This Supplement makes further suggestions of organizing ways for members of the group to make communications to the public.
1. Organized call ins to talk radio shows
Please contact me via FB comment or message or via Twitter if you are interested in doing organized call ins to Alabama talk radio shows.
2. Getting AL TV news reporters to try to force Tuberville to answer questions added 8/28/2000]
3. Relational organizing [added 8/28/2000]
Campaign's response 8/1/20
I have spoken with the campaign.
The campaign's view is that my idea for organized direct tweeting to voters is not a viable mode of campaigning for Doug, and that it is not a worthwhile expenditure of time and effort for Doug Jones supporters to undertake or attempt to undertake such organized direct tweeting to voters.
In line with the campaign's view, the group administrators of the Doug Jones for Senate private Facebook group do not encourage me to solicit other members of the group, and do not encourage other members of the group, to join with me to do organized direct tweeting to voters for Doug.
"Viability" of organized, direct tweeting
I am trying to understand the campaign's view that organized direct tweeting to Alabama voters is not a viable mode of campaigning.
I think the reason for the campaign's view relates to the degree of control and monitoring that the campaign can have and do.
Compare the organized direct tweeting to Alabama voters with telephone calling, texting and post carding.
In telephone calling, texting and post carding, the campaign provides to volunteers the names, telephone numbers and addresses of persons to be called or to whom texts or postcards are to be sent. The campaign provides these from voter and other lists that the campaign has and that the campaign sorts and organizes for contacting. In doing this, the campaign can have varying objectives and messaging in the contacting of voters (such as get out the vote, talking points, etc.), and the campaign, depending on the objective, can be selective of those on its lists to be provided to volunteers for calling, texting or post carding. Further, the campaign is in a position to get, or try to get, a "read" on the effectiveness of the telephone calls, texts and post cards, such as volunteers reporting what reactions they receive to telephone calls.
The foregoing is to be contrasted with the organized direct tweeting to voters, in which the campaign does not provide to volunteers Twitter addresses to send tweets to. Rather, volunteers scroll through "follower" or "following" lists and volunteers select whom they will tweet to. This makes for lesser control by the campaign in the organized direct tweeting to voters, compared to the campaign's control in telephone calling, texting and post carding. This in turn makes for the campaign being less able to judge the effectiveness of the tweeting the volunteers do.
I think it is the lesser control that the campaign has in the organized direct tweeting to voters, compared to telephone calling, texting and post carding, that leads the campaign to say that organized direct tweeting is not "viable."
I think the lesser campaign control, and the greater volunteer discretion, in the organized direct tweeting to voters has a positive side. The organized direct tweeting has an extra "personal" dimension that telephone calling, texting and post carding lacks, and this is both on the volunteer side and the recipient side. In deciding to send a tweet or not, the volunteer can see the Twitter image and profile information about the recipient; and the recipient, in deciding whether to click on the link in the tweet, can see the Twitter image and profile information about the sender. This "personal" dimension of organized direct tweeting, among other things, may lend itself to a greater potential for "persuasion."
I continue to think the campaign should consider organized direct tweeting to voters as an official campaign activity for volunteers to do.
If organized direct tweeting is not an official campaign activity, I think the campaign should be encouraging of Doug Jones supporters to learn about the activity and participate in the activity if supporters are interested in doing the activity.
Follow up on Facebook
I posted the below two comments to the group administrators on Facebook:
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8/16/2020
This morning I submitted the below post to the group administrators for approval and posting on the Doug Jones for Senate Facebook page:
Below link is a first suggestion for willing members of this group to avail of for doing organized, direct tweeting to AL voters to promote Doug's candidacy.
Please make comments about the suggestion and ask questions about the suggestion.
Then let's get started doing the organized, direct tweeting, including identifying third party Twitter accounts whose "follower" and "following" lists individual members of this group can utilize in sending their tweets.
https://dougjones4senate.blogspot.com/2020/08/bidenharrisjones-yes.html
- 8/17/2020
- The above post submitted yesterday to the group administrators for approval and posting on the Doug Jones for Senate Facebook page has not been approved and posted.
- This morning I submitted another post to the group administrators for approval and posting on the Doug Jones for Senate Facebook page, which submitted post was substantially as follows:
I think it would be beneficial to Doug's campaign to get Alabama TV stations and their news reporters to be on Tuberville's case and try to force Tuberville to answer important questions. Please read the below link and tell me what you think. Thanks.
- Neither of the above posts submitted on August 16 and 17 to the group administrators for approval and posting on the Doug Jones for Senate Facebook page has not been approved and posted.
- Yesterday morning I submitted a further post to the group administrators for approval and posting on the Doug Jones for Senate Facebook page, which submitted post was as follows:
I am tweetingBiden/Harris/Jones - YESandTrump/Pence/Tuberville - NO.Please join with me by clicking on https://dougjones4senate.blogspot.com/2020/08/bidenharrisjones-yes.htmlThanks.
More Facebook
