Daily Inspiration: Online Organizing – ”Old ways of doing new things? Often it’s only the young who can shake it off”

”Old ways of doing new things? Often it’s only the young who can shake it off” – Futurist Jim Carroll

(I saw what you did, said Swifties!)

Everyone hated Zoom – until they didn’t anymore. We spent so much time in Zoom rooms during the pandemic that we came to dread Zoom calls – and we couldn’t get away from it fast enough. And then suddenly, it’s hot again.

In 1960, TV was new  – and JFK took advantage of the new medium to accelerate his bid for the Presidency. In the 80s, it was a highly targeted direct mail campaign methodology In the 90s, it involved preliminary steps on the emerging Internet. In the 2000s, blogs and e-mail. By the 2010s it was the fast-emerging new world of social media.

And in 2024, it’s Zoom and TikTok.

Last night, to get a sense of how our world is changing, I signed onto the Swifties for Kamala Zoom call, because I am fascinated by what is happening with the 2024 US Presidential election in terms of the new influencers. Weeks ago, I realized that this election would be different in terms of how the next generation – those who were weaned on connectivity, technology, and online collaboration – would organize themselves differently. This Zoom call was the perfect example.

Something is going on with how people are organizing and mobilizing concerning this election cycle.

Less than four hours later, Swifties for Kamala was born. The coalition, sparked by Medrano’s tweet and brought to action through a community of 300 volunteers on Discord, soon declared their mission statement: to help elect Harris as the 47th president of the United States. The group currently has more than 165,000 followers across its social media platforms, with 82,000 on TikTok alone…Inside the Swifties Movement to Elect Kamala Harris, Rolling Stone, August 1, 2024

Carole King – yes, that Carole King – showed up.

This is but of many new communities springing up in what is turning out to be a pretty seismic election year.

For example, the ‘cat ladies’ did a thing.

Cooks are organizing themselves.

As are a new form of generic online snark.

And comics.

If everyone hated Zoom so much, why is it now a thing again? Because as much as people hated it, they’ve recognized the power of instant community. It is a fascinating new world – with so many online events like these coalescing that Zoom has had to scale up its resources to handle something it might not have expected just 6 months ago.

They recognize something big is happening:

The company now offers various tiers to accommodate large events. Customers can choose from webinars that feature max capacities of 10K, 50K, 100K, 250K, 500K, and, of course, 1M attendees. These are single-use webinar packages that come with support from Zoom’s Event Services team to ensure a “professional, engaging experience” for all.

“Now event organizers have the flexibility and power to host truly interactive experiences on an unprecedented scale and the ability to purchase large single-use webinars,” said Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom.

Despite being recently used for political fundraising, Zoom envisions a future in which these large-scale virtual events are common across the enterprise, entertainment and public sectors. The company says, for instance, that celebrities and entertainers can use these webinar capabilities to host fan meet-and-greets and other kinds of virtual events.

These events, however, don’t come cheap. Booking a one-time webinar for a million people will set you back a cool $100,000. That’s actually a good deal, as a webinar for 10,000 people costs $9,000, which is almost a dollar per person.

I was drawn to two comments that were made on the call yesterday:

• “You have your ways of organizing and socializing...” Carole King.
• “No one organizes like Swifties...’ Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

The call wasn’t just about fans fanning over Taylor – it was an actual organizing call with tips on how to do door-knocking, getting out the vote, using new online tools. and more. In other words, it was about using the power of the community to influence the community.

I haven’t even mentioned what’s happening over on TikTok, which is wild. It’s the TikTok election, and the younger generation is clearly in charge. Because when it comes to old ways of doing things, they’re pretty ready to shake it off.