K Street All a-Twitter

As Americans of all ages flock to interactive websites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr, lobbyists are logging on, too, reports National Journal Magazine. And they are discovering that social networks hold both promise and peril.

After President Obama built a massive political following using social networks, Washington's lobbyists and advocacy experts quickly recognized the value such tools might have in their own jobs. And why not? Social networks are cheap, interactive, get a message out quickly and tend to cast a wide net.

But there's a difference between pumping up supporters during a presidential campaign and convincing people to get involved in policy debates. Sites such as Facebook can work well for those driven by passion - the group trying to save endangered animals, for instance - but it may not be as advantageous for a corporation accustomed to controlling its public message.

"There are certain issues that can be lobbied, and there are certain issues that can't," Doug Pinkham, president of the Public Affairs Council, told National Journal. "One of the first things you have to keep in mind is, these social networks are social. People go to them generally for a social experience -- here's my rock band, here are my kids, here I am traveling in the Alps." He adds: "If you go on these sites and start proselytizing about your cause in a very hard-core way, you're going to turn a lot of people off."

See the full story, "K Street All a-Twitter," and view related video here.


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	As Americans of all ages flock to interactive websites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr, lobbyists are logging on, too, reports National Journal Magazine. And they are discovering that social networks hold both promise and peril. After President Obama built a massive political following using social networks, Washington's lobbyists and advocacy experts quickly recognized the value such tools might have in their own jobs. And why not? Social networks are cheap, interactive, get a message out quickly and tend to cast a wide net. But there's a difference between pumping up supporters during a presidential campaign and convincing people to get involved in policy debates. Sites such as Facebook can work well for those driven by passion - the group trying to save endangered animals, for instance - but it may not be as advantageous for a corporation accustomed to controlling its public message. "There are certain issues that can be lobbied, and there are certain issues that can't," Doug Pinkham, president of the Public Affairs Council, told National Journal. "One of the first things you have to keep in mind is, these social networks are social. People go to them generally for a social experience -- here's my rock band, here are my kids, here I am traveling in the Alps." He adds: "If you go on these sites and start proselytizing about your cause in a very hard-core way, you're going to turn a lot of people off." See the full story, "K Street All a-Twitter," and view related video here.
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