Okay, so I'm a newbie here and I don't work in marketing so take these ideas with a grain of salt. But as a newcomer to posting at DailyKos, I have an outsider's perspective and not a lot invested in this place yet. So maybe it wouldn't hurt to listen when I say, I don't think you are selling the brand well.
That is not to disrespect the fine work of all the great canvassers who actually put foot to pavement. You guys are great. I'm talking about this place, DailyKos, and the outsiders who come here, for whatever reason.
This is your place, and I respect that. There are people who have been posting here for years, who know each other, who have met offline, worked hand in hand with on issues that matter. This is your club, your hangout, your refuge from the outside world of hate and scorn and ignorance. I get it. I may be a newbie here but I have been posting online since before there was even an Internet, and I have my little home on the Internet where I have been posting for over a decade.
But this place has grown beyond a mere home for wayward liberals. Somewhere along the way, you guys seem to have put up a storefront. Was there a memo, did you get the memo? I wasn't here when it happened, so I don't know. ;) But this is a very public place now. It is no longer just your home.
When a rude stranger barges into your home and begins shouting idiotic things at you, your natural human inclination is to get angry and shout right back or physically kick them out. But if you've ever worked customer service, and had rude strangers shouting idiotic things at you all day long, you know that getting angry is just counter-productive, when you work at a store. Selling things.
So, if getting angry is not the answer, what is?
Again I am not an expert so I do hope that some real experts in marketing can chime in here.These are just my observations. I give them to you to shit upon, treasure or ignore as you will. First let me say something about the breed of customer colloquially known as the troll. I've known him for years, even played him a time or two in various locales. But as a newcomer here, just let me say that I take this place seriously, so I'm not going to do that here. Then I want to throw out a few theories about reaching more customers and converting them to our brand. The DailyKos brand, the Obama brand, the 'primary Obama' brand, the Democratic brand, the Progressive brand, whatever.
The first thing to know about trolls is that all of them are unique, but all of them want something out of you. If you can be like a Shaolin monk, control your anger, remain still and let them come to you, you can easily outwit and outmaneuver them. Because all of them are coming at you from a place of hurt, anger, and primarily neediness. Their emotions are already running high, clouding their judgement. Don't let yours do the same thing. If you can't control your emotions, back away and let another representative handle the case. They will.
Next you need to find out as much as you can about what they want, why they want it, and why they came here to get it. Some will be payed operatives whose loyalty can't be shifted (or can it?). Some will be partisans of the right, of similar staunch loyalty (or is it?). Some will be the equivalent of teenage street punks, with no particular loyalties or even political understanding, but a general desire to hurt and destroy for the fun of it. Some will just be desperately lonely individuals, the kind of 'trolls' all customer service people have met in real life. They just want your time, as much of it as you will give them.
But here is the important part, some won't be trolls at all, but loyal customers with what they believe to be a legitimate complaint about the product you, here in the storefront, are selling. These are the guys you don't want to lose, whatever happens with the time wasting trolls. And you can't always tell the time wasters from the loyal customers, who can look pretty damn grumpy sometimes. In fact, because they are loyal customers, they feel even more emboldened to let off steam when they feel their favorite brand has let them down. So they look exactly like trolls, all screaming and yelling and saying outrageous and idiotic things.
Because they are mad, and a lot of them aren't even in the customer service line yelling idiotic angry things at strangers, they are in their own Internet home yelling things at people they know and love.
As someone who has been watching with pleasure as the DKos brand grows, let me tell you what I think "our brand" is all about, the whole "liberal" brand, and DKos embodies it fully: Community. Love. Acceptance. Civil discourse as a means of problem solving. Humanism, the idea that all humans have an inherent nobility to them, that we are in some way all our brother's keepers, that we have a responsibility to look out for one another. We, as a brand, have a strong moral core and THAT is what "they," the competition if you will, have been attacking, trying to paint US as selfish, angry and elitist!
It's a classic trick, but we've been falling for it. They attack us like monsters, all the while claiming we are the monsters. And because our brand is supposed to be mature and intellectual, when we do react with anger, they win, even though they provoked it. My God. Are all of you only children? Did none of you have annoying siblings? Don't fall for this preschool bullshit.
We can do better, we can sell our brand. Look at this place. We're awesome! We help people in real life, at the drop of a hat. Oh come live on my farm for this guy. Here let's hold a raffle for that guy. Not to mention all the actual volunteering for worthy causes outside of DKos that goes on, those are just two examples of what I've seen here in the last year.
So remember, even the trolls and the hardcore time wasters or apparant complete nutters are all potential converts. You want to stop organized trolling? Make it too expensive for the other side because we win converts every time they do it. Be that good a salesman, because you believe in the brand and it's an easy sell. They are coming right at you with their neediness hanging out there for everyone to see.
They came here for something and I'm telling you, It's our brand. Love Compassion. Acceptance. Civil discourse, yadda yadda yadda you know this! Why I am telling you this? You're the most passionate bunch of salespeople I've ever seen in my life, you love the hell out of this brand, because it WORKS!
So get out there and sell it. Use it when you sell it. Show them it works. Demonstrate the value of our brand. Refute their foul slander through your words and deeds, and SELL!
SELL!
SELL!
THIS JACKET IS FOR EVERYBODY, not just closers, 'cause that's our brand. We love everybody, not just those who come out on top in a brutal competition no sane person would want to take part in. There is so much love here, don't try to use hate to sell it.