It’s no secret that the Democratic Party’s ties to Silicon Valley have given the Left a giant advantage in the age of the digital campaign. The Left’s superior means of collecting data and distributing it have made Democrats an unstoppable force in most aspects of online organizing. But conservatives aren’t as technologically challenged as the Republican Party’s recent electoral loss makes it seem, and this daunting fact has liberals shaking in their faux fur boots.
At Netroots Nation – a progressive conference for bloggers and activists that is coincidentally being held in the heart of Silicon Valley this year in San Jose, Calif. – the general consensus of panelists and convention goers alike is that the Right is killing it on twitter. Liberals at the conference have zeroed in on one conservative activist as example of how to effectively get your message out on twitter: Twitchy creator Michelle Malkin.
Malkin’s name has repeatedly come up at the conference and in one instance prominently where her ability to “amplify” and bring attention to issues that would otherwise go ignored was dubbed the “The Michelle Malkin effect.”
At a panel Thursday on “Fighting Together to Block the Right-Wing Agenda” attendees were advised to court influential tweeters on their side similar to Malkin if they wanted to bring the maximum amount of attention to their issue organizations’ issues.
The panel lamented how hard it is to push back on conservative messaging on issues like abortion when conservative Twitter power users like Malkin are constantly tweeting and their side is not.
“The truth is, it’s pretty hard when Michelle Malkin’s tweeting literally on the minute on this stuff,” said Heather Holdridge, director of digital strategy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, noting that Malkin’s numerous followers make her “an incredibly effective amplifier.”
“We have to figure out ways to rally our supporters to push back, understanding that there’s a Michelle Malkin effect that I’m not certain I’ve figured out either,” Amy Runyon Harms, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, added later.
Judging by the number of tweets using the conference’s hashtag, the Left really could take some direction from the conservative firebrand about how “to be more effective in using technology to influence the public debate.” The total number of tweets at the using the conference hashtag per hour are roughly the same number of tweets users like Malkin send in a day.
And given that the conference has FREE wifi, it’s hard to understand why more attendees of the conference weren’t tweeting, though this picture taken by a Netroots attendee explains a lot.
*To be fair, though, once again the conference has an amazing phone app that’s far better than any conservative conference have ever offered.
