Over the weekend, Texas Right to Life was offered an opportunity to attend Gov. Perry's Blogger Summit in Austin, Texas. This event offered conservatives and grassroots leaders some strategies that will help them utilize technology and social media to get their message out and mobilize voters in upcoming campaigns. The summit was designed to give individuals and organizations the tools to best get their message in front of as many viewers as possible.
The Perry campaign is known for using social media in very innovative ways. The use of networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, and others, as well as email blasts, mass texts, blogs, and video enable any group to have a big effect for its movement. With today's access to computers and the internet, virtually anyone can become a media outlet in a way that would have cost thousands in the not so distant past. The key is arming conservative groups and community leaders with the tools needed to help them become their own instant printing press.
The discussions were lead by panels of nationally known bloggers and experts and keynoted by Andrew Breitbart of BigGovernment.com. Also on the panels were commentator and writer Matt Lewis, Ben Domench, and Roger L. Simon, CEO of PJTV.com (PJTV is the first center-right online television network, broadcasting over the Internet from its home studio in El Segundo, California). The panels discussed various ways social platforms can be used to continue the momentum of the recent victories in the Massachusetts Senate and healthcare reform, and to turn these into conservative victories in 2010.
This is one of many examples in which Texas Right to Life works to stay on the cutting edge -bringing the Pro-Life message to Texas and the nation. Currently Texas Right to Life has a Facebook group and a growing website; we also send email blasts for Legislative alerts as well as the most current issues in the Pro-Life movement.