Declare Yourself Socially Networked

One of the best things about social networking is the power for an individual or group to spread a message about…almost anything. Be it a product, event, a service, or something else entirely, word gets across. Fast.

Therefore, Declare Yourself, with the help of BNC, a PR firm, has decided to put its request for 100% of 18-year-old American citizens or older to register as voters through Web locales like MySpace (DY's MySpace page), YouTube, Friendster (DY's Friendster page), Yahoo!, and Google. That’s quite a goal.

Nevermind that 100% will be nearly impossible to reach (Hey, you never know. Though, you kind of do, don’t you?), the effort is commendable, and if the fundamentals of marketing are still recognized as valid, the places chosen to be “public awareness” centers for the upcoming election season in the US will be crucial to engage the number of eyes Declare Yourself seeks, however ideally.

The campaign is fairly straightforward. Declare Yourself wants as many hits, and thus, as many voter registration forms filed as possible, and is looking especially to attract the youth of the nation (anyone over the age of 18 by time the election takes place). Since millions are active participants in the social networking phenomenon, it’s consistent with the laws of numbers for promoters of anything deemed of great social importance to delve into the most popular regions on the Web.

Declare Yourself, one of the groups responsible for increasing voter registration among youth in 2004 and 2006, intents to greatly surpass its figures tallied during the last presidential and congressional election. The organization partnered with Yahoo!, Comedy Central and others to help register over one million 18- to 29-year-olds within the two-year period.

With the emergence and the quick-paced growth of social networks, Declare Yourself will undoubtedly succeed in matching – and perhaps greatly exceeding – the statistics it has recorded in the past. Declare Yourself has even taken on America Ferrera (of “Ugly Betty” fame) and Hayden Panettiere (an actress with a role on the television series “Heroes”) as spokespeople for the movement, and will enlist fashion designers, athletes, and many more influential voices and talents to turn go from one-million registered voters to several million (or more) by election day 2008.

If you’d like to know more about Declare Yourself, the companies it is working with for 2008’s “get out the vote” PR push, and how to get involved with the organization, visit their website.