#polichat

Questions for today:

1) What private companies and/or non-profits should political organizations look at to see who is doing digital right?

2) What are the top metrics every campaign, large and small, should measure on social media?

3) Last week we’ve seen the NRCC and RNC use Vine. Going forward how can campaigns take advantage of this platform?

Don’t forget, the best way to participate is by going to www.twubs.com/polichat at 12pm ET!

#polichat Resources

We will be compiling a list of resources recommended by #polichat participants here. To add to this list, please email us!

Online Courses
W3 Schools - http://www.w3schools.com/
Code Academy - http://www.codecademy.com/
Coursea - https://www.coursera.org/
Udacity - https://www.udacity.com/

Social Media Management
Hootsuite - http://hootsuite.com/
Tweetdeck - http://tweetdeck.com

Email
Mailchimp - http://mailchimp.com/
Silverpop - http://www.silverpop.com/
Sendgrid - http://sendgrid.com/

Wordpress Plugins
Jetpack - http://jetpack.me/
All In One SEO Pack- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
Total Cache - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/

CRM
Political Gravity - http://win.politicalgravity.com/
CiviCRM - http://civicrm.org/

Monitoring
Radian6 - www.radian6.com
Tracx - http://www.tracx.com/
Zignal Labs - http://zignallabs.com/

Posted 3 months ago

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Testing VoterIntel Canvassing Tool

I conducted a test of a canvassing/mapping software called VoterIntel last year during GOTV efforts. VoterIntel is not an application that is downloaded on a phone or tablet, instead it is a secure website. The user interacts via their phone/tablet’s web browser. This allows the designers of VI to focus on a singular browser-based experience, rather than developing a multitude of apps for various phones and operating systems.

In an era when users do not want to read instruction manuals, it is important for users to feel comfortable quickly. The VI platform is simple enough to log-in and begin using without having to read extensive instructions.

The voters are targeted by pinpoints on a map that can be zoomed in or out. As we knock doors and enter data, the pinpoints change in color to show progress. Everything is visually appealing. The colored pinpoints provide the volunteer with a sense of achievement, and more important avoids confusion as targets are clearly marked as completed in real time, meaning volunteers will not mistakenly double-knock a voter’s door.

Because the users are interacting with voters and entering responses in VI, the data is captured in real time. This allows for both accountability of the users (less likelihood of fudging numbers) and of the campaign (certain capture of the data, ability to report numbers instantly). VI staff was able to give me a verbal report on our numbers every evening.

I can see how VI would allow a campaign to very quickly adjust or entirely change its targeting. Instead of having to print new walkbooks, a campaign can just adjust the data and the targets will change in realtime on users’ phone screens.

For screen shot, click here.

Jonathan Gormley is the President of Gormley Greenlight Consulting

#polichat questions for 2/4/13

Starting with today’s Twitter chat, we will be building a resource list of your top tools for other digital and political strategists. What does every campaign need to be successful? Let us know.

Today’s questions:

What tools are best for targeting and analysis of audiences on social media?

What online resources do you use to get the skills to work with data, build websites, etc?

What are your essential Wordpress plugins?

Who is the best bulk email provider?

Aside from NationBuilder, what are a campaign’s CRM options?

Join the discussion at 12pm ET HERE.

Posted 3 months ago

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Facebook graph and politics

In last week’s Polichat the question was asked how Facebook’s graph search would change a campaign’s online advertising strategy. The fact is graph search doesn’t change much for campaigns, but the social graph can be a very powerful tool.

Facebook’s social graph is simply the people and connections a user has to everything they care about. This is what the Obama campaign tapped into with it’s targeted sharing tool it released towards the end of the 2012 campaign. It used the social graph to not just show users a random collection of friends to reach out to about helping the campaign or voting, but to show them close friends in key swing states like Wisconsin, Virginia, etc.

The campaign also used the graph to show users which of their friends were making phone calls, or which of their friends on election day should be encouraged to keep standing in line to vote. All of these actions that were shared with friends could then be boosted as an ad to those friends as well.

Graph search is simply a way for users to look up anything shared with them on Facebook and for others to find stuff shared with them. Each person see’s unique results. Campaigns can use this to show visitors to their website that have logged in with Facebook specific friends to share content with.

To learn more about the graph and how you can integrate it into your website visit developers.facebook.com.

Katie Harbath is a Manger for Policy at Facebook

Posted 3 months ago

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Best practices for building your business on Twitter

Ben Howe of Mister Smith Media talks best practices for professionals looking to build their business and network on Twitter:

If you missed where the transition was from miserable to indispensable, it is quite simple: I cleaned up my twitter feed so I could be interactive instead of simply taking. I talked to people and had meaningful conversations rather than just tweeting links and reacting to people. Essentially, I stopped acting as though people were lucky to be following me and started acting like a normal person would in real life interactions: conversational, funny, snarky, and hopefully interesting.

….

If you use your twitter feed for the sole purpose of pitching your wares and ignoring most other interactions, that isn’t professional, it’s rude and anti-social.

Treat twitter interactions with the same attitude you treat real life interactions, and it is an indispensable business tool with the added bonus of being an enjoyable experience. Treat it like the comment section of a blog wherein you are only reacting to or moderating, and you’ll probably be viewed by most people as a snob.

Read his entire post at Red State.

Posted 3 months ago

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1 note

#polichat on Mashable

Digital Republicans Have Weekly Twitter Chat to Rejuvenate Before 2016:

#Polichat has become a hub for right-leaning digital and social directors to openly discuss and debate online politics.

Topics discussed so far range from messaging strategies to online advertising to the role of big data in modern campaigns. Participants often ask one another questions, helping to generate a cross-party collaboration and, perhaps, heal the post-Romney rift.