Pirate Congress 2015/Submissions

Submission on increased and diversified use of social media
Submitted by: Aaron Kilpatrick.

Discussion point

The purpose of this submission is to:


 * 1) Promote awareness of the Party's positions.
 * 2) Identify and recruit new blood into the Party.
 * 3) Grow and utilise existing party and member talent(s).

Currently the Party is stagnant in terms of its members and resources available (human capital). This is because the methods for involvement, growth, and continued social interactions are lacking. A new direction for the Party should be to migrate and integrate as heavily as possible with social media and the channels it provides.

This submission discusses Facebook briefly, as there are far too many things to talk about at this stage. It is important to treat this submission with urgency and embrace change for the Pirate Party to place itself where it should be.

Facebook
We are in the digital age and it is the youth of today that will be voting tomorrow. The Pirate Party has the power to position itself to become the primary party in Australia within a generation. However, this will not happen if our message is not heard by the key demographics and audiences out there today.

Simply put, upcoming voters (those under the voting age) will be heavily influenced by social media as the online/digital space is their current and future domain for social interaction and media. There is a real opportunity to start growing the social presences of the Party and its future members. If we want a real Pirate Party, then we need to start dominating the Internet and the messages it sends to Australians.

I suggest we start with Facebook and branch out from there. As time passes this will likely be the best form of political investment and engagement possible in both the short and long term, especially as it's free. If you already know what Facebook is, then why aren't we taking full advantage of its capabilities?

Facebook's capabilities
Currently there is no competition between the Pirate Party's forum and Facebook in terms of engagement and social outreach capabilities — Facebook is the clear winner.



Facebook has a number of features, including:


 * events,
 * calendars,
 * new groups,
 * a share function,
 * notifications,
 * new members,
 * invite methods, and
 * social outreach.

I have chosen not to discuss these capabilities — they are all great and if you do not understand them they can be discussed at a later time or explain on-the-spot.

Current members will spend significantly more time on social media sites that are mobile-friendly, compared to the Pirate Party's IRC channels and forum. If we properly utilise Facebook we can better fuel party engagement. Imagine the possibilities if we were all connected on Facebook as opposed to the Pirate Party forum or IRC network, with reminders, event invitations and calendars we could personally customise.

Facebook's "share" function allows people to share information, posts, news articles, and other interesting materials with other Facebook users. Whenever legislation or change appears that is aligned with or contradictory to party policy, if even half of the members shared a news article, story or image once a month within their network there could be some real engagement on topics of concern to the Pirate Party.

Discussion point

I suggest that it would be highly beneficial and recommended for all Pirate Party members to "like" or "share" at least one update from the Pirate Party's Facebook team per fortnight.

Facebook groups and events for each state and sub-major city would encourage face-to-face engagement. People want to be involved in an active and "real" party. For many people this means seeing faces (whether in person or an online profile picture) and knowing there are people in a similar location that they can meet to discuss Pirate-related issues. The Pirate Party forum is a worse version of Facebook — we should be discussing real issues on a social platform and inviting real people to discuss and join us in our endeavour.

Discussion point

I suggest that the volunteer groups and subgroups (Design Team, Internet Engineering Committee, Policy Development Committee, and so on) be moved to Facebook for greater active involvement and and new user contribution. Meeting and event requests can include a far more likely and reasonable expectation of what can be done and who is involved. There can also be a "central member group" with all members listed, which means there are plenty more easily and accessible options to be involved in the Party and find new talent to help us! This would also solve the issue of monthly or weekly updated/announcements.

If members spent most of their time on the Pirate Party Facebook pages rather than the forums, there would be far greater social interaction and opportunities, which I won't list here as I'm sure you can imagine them yourself. These will in turn lead to a far greater participation rate in the many Pirate Party and related activities. Members could — and should — be a part of multiple groups. The forums should be very specific in what they are used for, and the main source of discussions should be on Facebook where possible.

This is important because:


 * people who engage with any social media content may be indicating or showing alignment with the Pirate Party,
 * it helps identify and find potential members; if a member "likes" or leaves a comment, then very often it is the beginning of finding those around you who share similar beliefs or interests, and
 * if they can "understand" that their position is alignment with the Pirate Party, then it can help grow the Party's position.

Parties that engage with social media effectively will position themselves to become a formidable political party in Australia. We should move to Facebook in a big way — in every way possible.