The Word is Spreading

As of now the number of voters on IfTheWorldCouldVote.com has exceeded the total population in Iceland. We have now 341.000 votes from 198 countries. We have only used social media to spread the word. No ads bought, no links or registrations bought. It's just natural spread on the Internet and traditional media in various countries picking it up.

Sometimes we see a peak in the results from a certain nation. When that happens we check where the traffic came from. Was it a blog (like those from Egypt, Jamaica, USA and here and there, yes, even from Northern Marina Islands), a bookmarking site, a newspaper or just word of mouth? When it's online publicity it's easy to track. But word of mouth off-line is very difficult to track.

Last Saturday I got a great letter all the way from Australia. It's from Bob, a seventy year old guy in Sydney who liked our idea and decided to take the matters in his own hands and really spread the word:

"A couple of days ago I decided to help you further, and in particular Australia. I sat down at the computer and typed up the web address along with a short 4 line message 14 times to fit an A 4 sheet, and then printed multiple copies to yield around 200 units, then cut them up on the guillotine. I carry them in my pocket and hand them out to people in the street or on the bus and invite them to check the web site out. So far I have handed out just over 100, I plan to produce a lot more as I will be participating in an annual bike ride on Sunday where there will be 6 to 7 thousand riders taking part. So after Sunday it is possible that you may see an appreciable increase in the number of votes coming from Australia, if that should be the case you will know the reason why, and I will also feel good about it."

Today it's Tuesday and we've got over 10.000 votes from Australia. When Bob started a few days ago, there where 4.541 votes from Australia. But Bob doesn't just have friends in Australia.

"Then earlier today (Friday) I decided to make a single handed assault on boosting the numbers in one particular country. You may well say how could I possibly do that (I am 70 and not silly) I noted one country (there are a few others) that only had one vote registered, this being Vanuatu, which is a small Pacific Island country which lies North and to the East of Australia which has a population of well under one million. I have been there (3 years ago) and have a good friend who is a local man. He and I correspond quite regularly by email, so I wrote to him and gave him all the details and instructed him to write the details up like I did. Now remember this is a Third world Pacific Paradise, and there are very few computers, and even less people who are connected to an internet service. So I have asked my friend Ben to canvass all the shops and offices in their main (small) capitol city of Port Vila and invite those who have internet access to participate if they wish. He has friends on some of the other islands, and I have asked him to pass the details on to some of them.

 

So if you see some votes starting to arrive in the next few days from Vanuatu, you will know the reason for the sudden increase of interest in the project. I would know how you managed to receive the first vote, there are quite a lot of Expat people from several countries who live in Vanuatu, and it would be safe to say that one of their friends sent them the details in an email."

I've been monitoring Vanuatu for a few days now and it just stood still in 1 vote. Today something happened though and when I checked the numbers, all of a sudden we had 30 votes from Vanuatu. My guess is, Ben read his email :) While writing this email, 9 more have come in from Vanuatu. It may not be big on global scale, but it's big for Vanuatu and all this is a great example of the importance of a single man picking up the cause and spreading the word.

If you have more stories about people going the extra mile to spread the word about our site, please share them. We love to get stories like this one.

Keep up the good work people. We have two weeks to go to the election. We won't manage to get more voters than voted in the last US election, but we are determent in getting more than a million votes. With your help, that is quite possible.

Thank you world, for participating
Hjörtur

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Comments

[Darren Cronian]

A simple idea like this can become a hit overnight. That's brilliant and I think it gives people like me hope that one day out little peice of the internet will be a success too.

[Andrew]

I think this is brilliant - I have always believed in the ability of off-line distribution to power online adoption - but marketing speak aside - how freakin cool - Bob, if you're reading this - Good on yer mate - oh and good on yer too Hjörtur

[Angelo Villagomez]

Greetings from the Northern Marianas!

[websatan]

Phew! Quite a campaign, I wish we had launched our product Tell-a-friend before that. Any way but great going.

[Gray]

A fantastic project! And I hope that the US citizen see this as evidence that the world cares, and that we here in the rest of the world know that the US choice of the next president will have global consequences. All the best to all Americans who are fighting hard for change!

And that story about Vanatu is cute. A small nation, with many worries of its own, struggling to make itself heard in the cacophonia of world news. Vanatians, keep your heads up, some here in the rest of the world care about you! All the best to you, too!

I'm wondering about one number in the list of participating nations, though: So far, 92.6 of Icelanders voted for Obama. Hmm, great, but how come you yourself have a right wing government now, conducting the same kind of failed economic policies as Bush and his crooks? Something doesn't compute here.

[Hjörtur Smárason]

That's an interesting question, Gray. The thing is that the "right wing" here in Iceland is a lot closer to the Democrats than the Republicans. Most people find the Republicans and their "Christian" values extreme. In the same way, the left in the US probably finds the left wing here extreme.

[Duchess]

This is brilliant! We who are fighting the Cheney/Bush Republicans here in the USA know the world is watching, and to see the way the world is voting is making this Kentuckian cry into my keyboard.
It's also interesting to see the neo-con influence in *certain* countries.
I most thankfully applaud this wonderful idea!

namaste