Here’s what I have to tell you: according to official data, about 12 million people live permanently in Moscow, and 7.2 million of them are eligible voters. According to TNS, 77% of people in Moscow use the internet. Social networks account for 80% of the daily audience. What does this mean for us? It means that if the entire internet audience turns out to vote, we win immediately. Not because absolutely no one online supports Sobyanin and United Russia, but because their support there corresponds to the level dubious politicians like Putin and Sobyanin can count on in an informed society: 15–15%. There’s a well-known idea that even though “the internet” knows everything, it’s “offline” voters—the ones who actually show up—who decide elections. That is partly true. Traditionally, almost everyone whose brains have been washed by the zombie box (slang for television) goes to vote, while a much smaller share of internet users does. However, that statement was true yesterday. Who says we can’t make it irrelevant tomorrow? More than 6.7 million Moscow residents aged 18+ are registered on VKontakte, the largest social network in the Russian-speaking internet. Of those, about 4 million are active on the platform. According to VTsIOM (though, as we know, that’s still open to question), 49% of respondents already say they want to vote. That’s about 3.6 million people. To win in the first round, we need to get more than 50% plus one vote, which by current estimates means 1.8 million people. See where I’m going with this? We have the technical ability to speak with every Muscovite who uses VKontakte and get them to the polls. Of course, the campaign headquarters can’t do that directly. It would require a gigantic untargeted spam mailing. We are against spam. But each of the thousands of volunteers can easily send a few personal messages on VK. Without even leaving your own cozy computer, which matters. Remember our DMP project, "Krasnodar"? We’ve prepared a similar one for Moscow. We’ve called it "Campaign for Moscow". As always, it’s very simple: Go here: http://moskva.navalny.ru
You’ll send messages through VKontakte, but you can register for the project using your volunteer ID through any social network that’s convenient for you.
Next, you’ll see a text our team has prepared for you.
VKontakte allows you to send no more than 20 messages per day to people who are not on your friends list. That’s why we’ve specially prepared several different texts that can be copied with one click. But of course, it would be much better if you write your own message or edit the suggested one. No one can explain better than you why this election matters to them personally. Or you can simply add something of your own. In short: experiment. Then send it to a user from Moscow. Once a user has received a message, they are removed from the database. In other words, we guarantee that people will not be flooded with identical messages. According to our data, at least 12% of new contacts convert into guaranteed votes. That means that if we reach our goal and send all 4 million personal messages, this service could bring us up to 500,000 votes. Getting a third of the votes needed to win in the first round by spending just 20 minutes a day from anywhere with internet access—isn’t that the catch of your dreams? The most important thing is that you come back to this page every day. Our goal is to send out 4 million messages before the election. So be sure to spend 20 minutes a day on this, and ask your friends, loved ones, relatives, and all social media users—active or not so active—to help us. This blog has many readers who are not Muscovites and, for personal reasons, cannot come help through MosVpiska (a volunteer housing network in Moscow), but still dream of spending 20 minutes a day fighting the regime. Guys, your finest hour has come. Reach out to hundreds of Muscovites and convince them not to be lazy, but to come vote in the September 8 election. "Campaign for Moscow" is here to help. It may happen that users ask you additional questions. Keep calm, and only calm—we’ve planned for that. Talk to them. We even have a “guidebook” with answers to the most frequently asked questions (it’s called "A Short Guide to Communication"—you’ll find it on the homepage). So, citizens, don’t be lazy. They may be able to cut off our access to Avtoradio (a popular Russian radio station), but it is impossible to switch off people who are ready to persuade other people. Before September 8, everyone should do 20 rounds of VKontakte messaging.
Just imagine the look on Putin and Sobyanin’s faces when they read these messages. Excellent motivation. PS: Let me answer the question about the message texts right away. There is no perfect text; the campaign headquarters will closely monitor users’ reactions and keep adjusting the message templates until they reach campaign perfection. PPS: It is extremely important to promote this post and the link http://moskva.navalny.ru/ as widely as possible. We would be very grateful for any help in that effort.