The Stop Act

The perception is that when politicians first arrive in Washington DC from their districts, they enter an evil cesspool and become jaded focusing on fundraising, rather than their constituents and appropriate legislation. The reality is a blurred line, where members are requested to call donors and fundraise for their respective parties. Former Congressman David Jolly (FL) exposed this practice to the masses by giving an exclusive interview to 60 Minutes during the spring 2016 to tout a piece of legislation he introduced entitled The Stop Act.

While The Stop Act is an interesting topic, I’d like to specifically emphasize the way the Congressman communicated his message, as opposed to the message itself. First, he leveraged social media as his primary outreach tool. The steps he took included an integrated Twitter and Facebook campaign prior to the airing of the interview and serving as a teaser for the 60 Minutes segment, starting a virtual uprising for the issue.

During the airing of 60 Minutes, and for the next 12 hours, #stopact was a top ten trending hashtag on Twitter. In addition the social media campaign drove his Twitter following exponentially higher and led to a cascade of tweets. In fact, two high profile influencers engaged and helped build-off of the 60 Minutes buzz. The two influencers, both with high levels of reach, engagement and amplification were Mark Ruffalo and Mia Farrow.

Important to note is that when Mr. Ruffalo and Ms. Farrow tweeted about the Stop Act, it expanded Congressman Jolly’s reach and amplified his message to millions of additional people…people who care about the issues Mark Ruffalo and Mia Farrow tweet. These influencers hit a political activism demographic on social media that expanded reach by micro-targeting social medial political activists. The social media strategy employed by Congressman Jolly was both smart and effective.

The outreach campaign described above is non-traditional and is changing the way people communicate. In DC, where shoe-leather lobbying and traditional media once ruled, SociallyMined is changing the way people communicate their issues to the masses. As a full-service public affairs/digital advocacy firm we drive awareness for issues by leveraging innovative outreach technology solutions to micro-target key influencers and create a virtual uprising in concert with traditional outreach, branding, and public relations.

Perception is no longer reality and we’re changing the paradigm by introducing Advocacy 2.0 to our nation’s capital. We’re an influential company that is starting to get noticed; SociallyMined has been the silent engine behind the scenes creating awareness for the issues you care most about. Exciting news in the coming weeks as we step out from behind the scenes…follow us today @SociallyMined to ensure you are first to know.