PopRule Launches on Inauguration Day: Why Businesses Should Care

By Rob Reed of PopRule Social media has enabled companies to better communicate with their various stakeholders more directly through mediums such as blogging, online video, and micro media. Companies are producing and distributing their own news. They no longer rely exclusively on the mainstream media to tell their stories. The PopRule platform gives them a venue in which to distribute and promote policy-driven news, including social and environmental issues, to a politically active and engaged audience. PopRule is democratic by design, enabling the most important and popular news to generate the attention it deserves, regardless of its source. We've seen the impact Web 2.0 can have on politics, elections, and history. In this next phase, we'll see how it impacts the Obama administration and all levels of government. We'll see how the conservative movement rebuilds with a social media foundation. We'll see how the Fourth Estate and the Fifth Estate (the People) work together as checks on government, while checking and rivaling one another. As with Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, we feel that PopRule will play a major role in this new era of politics. How does PopRule empower citizens? Break through the clutter. Given the overwhelming rate at which news is published online, PopRule provides a community-driven platform that helps users to better access and organize political news. PopRule helps to cut through the noise. And while we tend to get excited about the drama of Washington D.C., what really matters to us on a personal level is local and state politics. PopRule is unique in helping users stay informed about the political news and issues most relevant to them, their groups, and their communities. Power to the People. PopRule enables citizens to submit political stories, photos and videos to 56 different categories (including each of the 50 States), cast their votes, add commentary, and ultimately drive awareness for political issues. The PopRule site features two levels of popularity. Stories are first made popular in their respective category, such as National or California. So a look at California’s front page will give you the most important political news in California at that moment. The PopRule front page pulls the most popular of the popular stories—the best of the best—from all 56 categories. Get organized with PopRule Groups. PopRule Groups enables users to organize around locations, issues, ballot measures, partisanship, or any other political topic. Stories being submitted to PopRule can then be directed to these specific interest groups. For example, the Energy Independence group is for news about reducing America’s dependence on foreign energy. Relevant stories appear in the group’s news feed for members to vote and comment on. Users can also subscribe to the news feed via email or RSS, and the group administrator can further organize by facilitating political action. A diverse and open community. PopRule is a platform for all political views and ideas. Its design encourages participation from every corner of the political landscape. It is through this diverse range of opinion, thought, and experience that PopRule can achieve its mission of organizing political news at the federal, state, and local levels. What does PopRule mean for publishers? With PopRule, all content is created equal. It is a forum where important political news of any type can be discovered, promoted, and distributed by way of the community. Due to the democratic nature of the site, content from bloggers and local newspapers has the same opportunity to become popular as content from national newspapers and television networks. In addition to independent publishers, such as bloggers, we see an opportunity for local newspapers to leverage PopRule in driving traffic and awareness to their websites, especially for topics and issues with cross-state and national relevance. Why Inauguration Day? We chose to launch PopRule on Inauguration Day because the past few years have witnessed a sea change in U.S. politics, and it has lead to this moment. We are entering a new era. It’s neither conservative nor liberal, Democratic nor Republican. It is an era where citizens are engaged and empowered in the political process through the technologies of Web 2.0 and the principles of transparency. This is Politics 2.0. It is Government 2.0. It is the raison d’etre and driving force for PopRule. About PopRule PopRule was founded by Rob Kramer, Rob Reed, and Andrew Skinner and launched by Media Maxwell , a social media strategy firm that was founded by Reed and Kramer.