New (Social Media) Tools of the Trade: Public Affairs, Ethics, and Lobbying
I&O Communications’ Founder & CEO, Elyse Yates, and Susan McElhenney, Director of Digital Strategy at I&O, recently joined Ross Ramsey, Executive Editor, The Texas Tribune & Editor, Texas Weekly on a panel called “Cool Tools, Concerns and Opportunities in the E-Roots Age” at the PAAT 7th Annual Ethics Compliance Institute. PAAT, The Professional Advocacy Association of Texas is the state’s only recognized statewide group for the lobby community.
Even as the last session of a Friday conference, attendance was impressive and the dialogue, thoughtful. Billed as “An examination of how disintermediation, social media, “crowdsourcing”, e-campaigns, and other tools could impact the legislative process and evolve the role of the lobby,” the session educated lobbyists and other professional advocates about the increasingly pivotal role played by social media in policymaking.
Panel topics ranged from demonstrations of how to take full advantage of twitter streams while watching a candidate debate to the possibilities of full real-time online transcripts of hearings and floor debates. The panel shared several tools for monitoring how people and groups are talking about, and buying advertising around, particular policy issues, as well as touched on strategies for using online intelligence tools to develop an understanding of influence patterns and players for an issue.
Elyse shared her research comparing lists of influencers generated by assessments of online influence to lists of people generally agreed to have the most real-world influence.
Special thanks go to Allison Small and Jack Gullahorn for organizing another top-notch PAAT conference!