Cross-posted from K Street Cafe
After 16 days, the government shutdown of 2013 finally ended when Congressmen and women from both sides of the aisle worked together on a compromise. Did the ability to ‘drunk dial Congress’ help conclude this mess? Probably not. Could a new way to mobilize audiences impact how we, as communicators, strategize our future advocacy efforts? Maybe.
Revolution Messaging launched DrunkDialCongress.org to make it easy for the American public to communicate with their members of Congress about what made them angry about the government shutdown. The website offers talking points on issues like immigration, the farm bill and college affordability, along with themed cocktail recipes with playful names such as “The Legislative-Ade.” Users can input their phone number and wait for a call back. According to Social Media Today, once your phone rings, you will be connected to a member of Congress to air your concerns, frustrations and questions. Users are also encouraged to share their experience with their own social networks to further spread this new capability.
According to the site, more than 100,000 people used DrunkDialCongress.org to call their members of Congress. But Bloomberg Businessweek reported that the chances that an actual Congressman answered the phone is basically none. If the so-called ‘drunk dials’ only reached low-level staffers or interns, was it worth the effort?
Yes, it was, and you can learn from it. One hundred thousand people answered a specific call to action in a short time period. This effort empowered people to think that their opinions and actions mattered and would make a difference. Many campaigns try to make a much smaller impact than this one and fail. Here are some key takeaways:
- Providing specific, easy-to-follow instruction is critical. DrunkDialCongress.org didn’t just connect constituents with their lawmakers; it gave them actual talking points. Help your audience where you can.
- Be creative in your planning. People will be more likely to participate if taking an action – large or small – seems like fun.
- Make the results of your campaign easy to share. We live in a digital world and people appreciate the ability to share their actions on their social networks. Plus, sharing helps spread the campaign far and wide.
Now that the shutdown is over, DrunkDialCongress.org is still active and encouraging users to “call [their] member of Congress to thank (or berate) and talk about any issues on [their] mind.”
So what can we take away from DrunkDialCongress.org? At the very least, we should use this tongue-in-cheek example of social advocacy to inspire our future efforts as policy influencers.