I just love a good David-and-Goliath story. And as a blogger at Blogivists and friend of Eric Odom, I’ve got a front row seat to a good one. Strap in and hold on tight as we go on a whirlwind tour of the recent refusal of House Republicans to adjourn without voting on offshore drilling, the #dontgo Twitter tag movement, an attempted sabotage of #dontgo by MoveOn.org and the subsequent launch of a hot new conservative website. The story goes like this:
Two Fridays ago, Madame Pelosi ajourned the House over GOP objections. Dems sprinted for the door like kids on the last day of school. The mics were silenced; the lights were unlit; the CSPAN cameras were killed. Even so, a few GOPers who wanted a vote on offshore drilling refused to leave the Floor. Rep. Culberson (R-TX) and Rep. Hoekstra (R-MI) started Twittering (mini-blogging) while Rep. Boehner (R-OH) addressed those still present and Rep. Blunt (R-MO) talked to reporters in the press gallery.
Meanwhile, back in Chicago, a couple of regular guys – Eric Odom and Allen Fuller - threw up the Twitter tag “#dontgo” so the mini-blog reports and emails coming in could be easily searched/tracked. The tag was chosen to support the GOP hold-outs, as in “don’t go until something is done on energy.” Reps and staffers started using #dontgo to call the action. Though the CSPAN cameras were dead, some video of the goings-on was captured on Rep. Culberson’s cell phone and broadcast on qik.com.
Word began to spread. MoveOn.org got wind of the Twitter feed and started spamming with irrelevant messages – but rather than jamming #don’tgo, all the spam pushed the tag to the top of Twitter’s list. (Rob Neppell has since created a low-on-spam version of the Twitter Stream so it is virtually spam free.)
As the Twitter community chirped on, Fuller purchased the domain name dontgo.us; Odom installed WordPress, created some graphics, and wrote some copy and petition (sign here!); and the two took the site Live and began sending out links. Media forces like Media Lizzy helped Eric and Allen spread the word. On Tuesday morning, encouraged by the momentum, the duo threw up a jazzier replacement website called Dontgomovement.com to serve as hub. Thousands of hits started coming in and within a few hours, Eric was contacted by reporters from several major media outlets, including CNN.
The CNN story went live just after the site was opened up, and the story was followed by The Next Right, Red State, Politico, Michelle Malkin, HotAir, Washington Examiner, and scores of bloggers. This wave of attention sent more than 60,000 unique visits to the new site within 24 hours. Eric has been swamped with emails and already has a good-sized (10,000) mailing list compiled. The e-mail RSS subscriber list is about 1,200 strong and the #dontgo Twitter Army marches on.
And so it came to be that a couple of fast-on-their-feet guys planted a Twitter tag on Friday and by Wednesday, their new website had been slingshot into national media attention. Bloggers and Twitterers and web publishers should take a page from that playbook. This is the “New Media” at its best: alert, agile and ready to fight the Giants.
