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Monday, June 4, 2012

Palin to rally conservative online army

The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee has committed to delivering the keynote address at Right Online, the annual gathering of conservative bloggers and online activists organized by the Koch-backed non-profit group Americans for Prosperity Foundation.

This year’s meeting is focused on higher-level tactics and strategies than past year’s editions of Right Online, which sometimes had the feel of a crash course on blogging 101. The Vegas conference features training on video exposes to be conducted by guerrilla video journalist James O’Keefe, a session on polling featuring conservative’s favorite pollster Scott Rasmussen and a session moderated by columnist Michelle Malkin entitled “How to Use Facebook & Twitter to Win,” which will include instruction on using social media to drive narratives.

It’s an area in which Palin can rightly be considered a pioneer, having mastered a high-impact, communication style that almost completely circumvents a traditional media from which she’s sometimes gotten rough treatment.

In addition to her regular, paid appearances on Fox News, Palin tapped social media such as Facebook and Twitter, combined with her own star power, to deliver endorsements of allies and cutting attacks on opponents that sometimes drove the political debate for days. While her impact had diminished somewhat after she announced that she wouldn’t seek the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, she’s increasingly carved out a place for herself in recent months as a Triple-A level political kingmaker and conservative movement figure.

“Sarah Palin is an expert at harnessing social media technology and tactics to shape the narrative,” Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity Foundation, said in a statement announcing Palin’s Right Online keynote address. “Few others have demonstrated Palin’s prowess at breaking the rules of the Old Guard Media.” (More)

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