Comments On Election 2.0, MySpacing @ Work & 'Indulgences' Doing Good

Just wanted to share some of the always insightful comments from Ypulse readers this week. I'll kick it off with a comment on my post about the YouTube debate, which will be aired tonight on CNN.

Brian said:

Excellent post. Unfortunately, I think this concept of making politics accessible comes at the expense of some of the substantive discussion about the issues, and that problem in politics extends to all audiences, of all ages. Politics has been co-opted by the marketers (and I say this as a marketer and a recovering political operative) and the political process has suffered as a result. But there is hope.

A few quick thoughts:

1) Young(er) people may not pay attention to the news, but they are aware of what is happening in the world. I talked to an executive at NBC news who explained to me that, when asked, young(er) audiences explain that if news is important, it will find its way to them… as opposed to the old model where we all had to go searching for the news.

2) Substance rules. A big part of the reason that young audiences, any audience really, tunes out a lot of the political discussion is because, well, there isn't much of a discussion going on. I would guess that with all the hoopla around the Presidential election, most people can name at least one or two of the major Democratic candidates (GoOpers may not be as fortunate), but beyond their personality, they aren't talking about much, so there isn't much to pay attention to, so I am not surprised that there isn't more interest of awareness. Talk about issues that are important to them, and do it in a substantive way, and you will get people to pay more attention.

3) Finally… I think there is too much dictating what issues are important. I have been working with the Alliance for Climate Protection in the early stages of a 3-5 year campaign to help people learn more about the climate crisis and take action in their life to address it. After much discussion, we felt that the website (which is obviously just one tiny piece of the overall effort) had to err on the side of exploration and not try and force a single activity or message about what people can do to get involved. It's an experiment, but early results show that the audiences who visit the site spend a lot of time, consume a lot of (very substantive) content, and bring their friends into the mix as well. We had the benefit of Live Earth to help raise awareness, but the substance married with the audience having control over how they want to get involved, is working out so far.

Thanks for the post.

You can always check out this article for examples of how to engage young people as well.

In response to my post about Gen Yers using MySpace and/or Facebook at work, Kelly said:

If a company has a specific policy, then of course I don't use my personal email or anything else. However, as a reporter, certain social networking sites are useful tools for finding sources. But I don't foresee myself using it for professional communication.

Rebecca said:

Hooray for the last two options! Companies need to think about why we might be checking or networking sites so often in the first place. It's probably because the job isn't challenging enough (read: boring) and they aren't giving us enough ownership of projects.

And the GenerationXpert blog picked up the post as well…

Finally, in response to my post about whether companies that create indulgences can do "good," Drew said yes! (and I agree, at least in the case of Jones Soda):

I write a lot about marketers who try do well by doing good, even those who sell products that aren't necessarily good for you like Jones. And frankly, I'm prepared to cut them a lot of slack since there are plenty of companies that sell crap and don't give a crap about the world they share. My feeling is that we need to celebrate the good wherever we find it. Plus there's nothing better than a cool Jones on a hot day–just don't pour it on your breakfast cereal…

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