1 / 38

Advocacy and Technology: Expanding Your Reach

Advocacy and Technology: Expanding Your Reach. PLAN Fall Institute 2008. Using technology is: Scary Out of my League Makes my life easier Expensive. In terms of technology, my organization is: Ahead of the curve Behind the curve Not even on the curve What’s a curve?.

mostyn
Download Presentation

Advocacy and Technology: Expanding Your Reach

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Advocacy and Technology: Expanding Your Reach PLAN Fall Institute 2008

  2. Using technology is: Scary Out of my League Makes my life easier Expensive In terms of technology, my organization is: Ahead of the curve Behind the curve Not even on the curve What’s a curve? Four Corners Exercise

  3. What would you like to take away from this presentation?

  4. Benefits It’s massive. 71 percent of all adults are online 91 percent of college-educated adults 60 percent of people in rural areas It’s fast. It’s (relatively) easy. It’s (relatively) cheap. Challenges It takes time. It takes money. It’s intimidating. It requires some technical know-how. It can be hard to get buy-in from the organization. It takes persistence. The Benefits & Challenges of Online Outreach

  5. Big Picture • What does your organization want to achieve online? • Fundraising • Building an Activist Base • Both • Choose a tool that makes sense. • Convio – $$$$ - Fundraising Focused • Democracy in Action - $$ - Advocacy Focused • Constant Contact - $ - Limited Options

  6. Recruit Sign-on Letters Petitions Pledges List Sign-up Sheets at Meetings and Events Maintain Plan Regular Communications Info-exchanges Letters to the Editor Edit Board Meetings General Press Activate Events Press Conferences Rallies Lobby Days Special Deliveries Contacting Congress Action Alerts Calls In-District Meetings DC Meetings Tools of the Trade

  7. Campaign Basics • Who are you? • Who do you need to know? • How do you communicate with them?

  8. Path to Engagement • Recruit • One on Ones, List Mapping, List Serves, etc. • Educate • Newsletters, Conferences, Coalition Meetings, etc. • Activate • Call-in-days, Capital Hill Visits, Grasstops Calls, etc.

  9. Which tool(s) to use? • Determine Success • Pass the bill, List growth, Get a vote on the bill, etc. • Scale • Local, State, National, International • Resources • Time & Money • Effectiveness

  10. Key Concepts • What is the difference between Grasstops & Grassroots? • What is “the field?” • What is the relationship between outreach and communications? • How do you know when the time is right to activate “the field.”

  11. Make sure it’s easy to sign up to your e-mail list from your website Hold events that require attendees to sign up through your website Distribute sign-up forms at conferences Stay connected with your supporters Be patient! Collect business cards Offer something useful or interesting – i.e. trainings, funny cartoons, regular policy briefings, event listings, etc. Volunteer to be the collection point for coalition work Get to know list serve owners – make friends! Building Your E-mail Lists

  12. Most People Don’t Read Their E-mail • Open rates average 15-30 percent for blast e-mails. • The more people you send a message to, the lower your open rate will be.

  13. www.convio.com

  14. E-Newsletters Advocacy alerts Fundraising appeals News Updates Letters to the Editor Events In-district Meetings Sign-on Letters Job Postings Cartoons Coalition Updates Any More Ideas? Types of E-mail Communications

  15. Think Big! • E-mail communications can help support offline work!

  16. Online communications shouldn’t exist in a vacuum!

  17. Tips for Creating Strong E-mail Alerts • Use short paragraphs, bulleted lists, and lots of links • Use images wisely • Personalize e-mails using the recipient’s name • Think about your “From” line • Don’t use “Click Here” links • Keep an eye on your e-mail frequency • Make sure the subject line is short, does not include acronyms,

  18. What is Web 2.0? “A perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services… which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users.” — Wikipedia.org

  19. Web 2.0 Technologies: • Blogging • Social networking • Video sharing • Photo sharing • Wikis • And many, many more

  20. Today we will look at… BLOGS and SOCIAL NETWORKS • What is it? • Who’s doing it? • Sign me up (or log me in)!

  21. What is a BLOG? A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. — Wikipedia.org

  22. Top Blogs • The Huffington Post • TechCrunch • Gizmodo

  23. Blogging 101 • 120,000 new blogs are started every day • 57 million Americans read blogs • A blog isn’t a one-way speech, it’s a conversation • Blogging is a commitment

  24. Before Starting a Blog, Think About… • Who’s your target audience? • What will make up the bulk of your subject matter? • How much time can you devote to blogging?

  25. When Starting a Blog, Think About… • Who will write the posts? • How will you handle comments? • How will you promote your blog? • What blog platform will you use? • WordPress (free) • Blogger (free) • TypePad (cheap)

  26. Alternatives to Starting Your Own Blog • Create a “Diary” on a larger blog, like DailyKos.com • Pitch news stories to bloggers who cover your field • Become an active commenter on other blogs and online communities • Use blog software to share information, rather than keeping a traditional blog • Guest post on other people’s blogs

  27. MySpace.com Facebook.com Care2.com Change.org Idealist.org Flickr.com del.icio.us YouTube.com Twitter.com Digg.com Squidoo.com MeetUp.com Wikipedia.org StumbleUpon.com And on, and on… Social Networking Services

  28. Facebook Advocacy • Facebook was launched in 2004 • 64 million active users in last 30 days • More than half of users out of college • The fastest growing demographic are people over 25 • People spend an average of 20 minutes on the site daily.

  29. Facebook Group • Can’t message over 1,200 members • Includes photos, videos, discussion forums

  30. Facebook Page • Can’t send messages • Activity appears in the newsfeed • Includes photos, videos, discussion forums, and other applications

  31. Facebook Cause • Many, but not all people, have this application added • Can send one message per week • Five newsfeed notifications per week • Allows for donations

  32. Key to Facebook(and other social networking tools) • Engaging members – allow them to participate by leaving comments, adding applications, join a discussion. • It’s a teaser – it allows people to get interested in what you are doing on an ongoing basis, at their own leisure. • It’s a long term commitment – this is to nurture advocates and not meant for immediate results.

  33. Incorporating Online Outreach into Your Current Work • Add bloggers in your field to your press release list • Send an e-mail alert to all your contacts when you send out direct mail appeals • Plug your website and online network everywhere you can • Conferences • Handouts • Publications

  34. General: NTEN.org Fundraising123.org TechSoup.org Epolitics.com BethKanter.org NetSquared.org E-mail Marketing: Email-Marketing-Reports.com Blogging: Technorati.com Resources

  35. Melanie Ross Levin Outreach Manager mrosslevin@nwlc.org Thao Nguyen Outreach Manager, Health & Reproductive Rights tnguyen@nwlc.org Questions? Comments?

More Related