Buy PunditMom's book or I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN

Joanne "PunditMom" Bamberger has a book coming out called Mothers of Intention: How Women and Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America.  You should buy it. And then you should read it.  And then you should do whatever Joanne tells you to do, because she's going to rule the world someday and you probably want to be on her good side now. (OK, kidding.)  (But not really.)

This book is important - and not simply because Joanne is more than qualified to write this book as an online mom with an impressive background in government and politics. (She was deputy director of communications at the Securities Exchange Commission, you know.)  It's important because she uses the book to amplify the voices of people the beltway chattering class too often ignore - "everyday" women from different walks of life in America. Seriously - read the essays Joanne compiled in the book and then think about what you see on cable "news" shows or hear on talk radio.

I've spent some time in DC myself, so I'm a bit cynical.  I hope the beltway crowd won't view this book and the perspectives of the women in it as an "I care about politics too" human interest story.  I hope they will take this book as a wake-up call.  I think Joanne and her contributors are telling the politicians (and their sycophants) that while the jobs they have are important, they're wasting everyone's time on irrelevant and potentially harmful flights of fancy.   Moms are life's true decision makers, and they don't have time to waste on distractions.  If moms have more input in political decisions, our politics will be more substantive and our policies will be more effective.

I hope you read this book - not simply because Joanne is someone I've known for years, or because she's helped me out with work from time to time.  I hope you read this book because we all need to do better at understanding what women want and what they care about - and not just for the purposes of selling moms stuff.  Finally, I hope you read this book because for me it's personal.  I was raised by a "pundit mom."  I'm married to another "pundit mom."  For years they've spoken up to help their families, and for as long as I can remember, strong political forces have been aligned against them.  Their actions have helped shape who I am.  In a very real sense, Joanne is speaking up for them and for all the pundit moms out there.

Oh, and the writers she features in the book are pretty amazing too.

SEIU's "Scary Movie"

I think the social media folks at SEIU (hey there, Brad) may be on to something - one way to get your message across online is to mock your opponent for being over the top. So they're pushing out a video that highlights some of the more, umm, colorful comments from the business community on the Employee Free Choice Act:



I think they're distributing this video out rather aggressively. There's been a discussion of the legislation on the merits inside the beltway but to be candid I haven't seen a lot about it here in the Bluegrass beyond snippets of political rhetoric. Of course, the online audience that will be interested in this video probably already understands the merits of the argument. I think if this video is part of a series that includes another video that explains, in simple terms, what the legislation is and what it does for working families SEIU may be able to expand its online base a bit. They could effectively use humor in such a video.

There may already be such a video out there. If not, I think that's something else to keep Brad and his SEIU buddies busy.

Social Media in Plain English

an oldie but goodie (in social media years), from the folks at Common Craft.