K Street Cafe

By Kalee Miller and Caroline Sheedy of Adfero Group

With 800 million active users, Facebook has earned the title of most popular social network around the globe. At the f8 conference a few weeks ago, CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg announced some big changes, the latest in the site’s constant evolution. It’s hard for a lot of users to adjust to the new features and, for organizations using Facebook in advocacy efforts, it may seem like things are changing just as they were getting the hang of things. Despite the growing pains, Facebook is a valuable tool that can raise awareness and inspire action.  

Here are a few rules to live by:

1.       A Few Can Activate Many

Engagement, not number of fans, is key. On average, every time someone shares a link to your organization’s website on Facebook, two to five people will visit it. In any online campaign, it’s imperative to utilize social context. People care about what their friends are doing and are heavily influenced by actions. If you can show Facebook users that their friends “liked” or engaged with your page, chances are high that you can get them involved, too.  
So, now the question is, how? 

 
• Use Facebook Questions. Asking your fans a question leads to viral exposure. If you ask a question, it will appear on your fans’ newsfeed. If they answer or follow that question, their friends can also see the activity. This is also a good way to get direct feedback from your fans. 
• Use Facebook to live stream your events or town halls. Free tools like UStream allow you to broadcast your event to all of your fans. Also, if you use event materials to let people know they can tune in on your Facebook page, you are likely to get more fans.
•  Make everything you can an event.  All of your organization’s events should be shared on Facebook. You should also use this tool for virtual events or calls to action (i.e. “Call your congressman by noon today!”).  Again, this allows your fans’ friends to see their action, making them more likely to join in. (more…)

Many Americans are consumed with football in the fall.  But the budget and economic crisis has advocacy professionals obsessed with a slightly different group—the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction—or the ‘Super Committee.’

The Super Committee is charged with recommending how to reduce the U.S. deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over the next ten years, and has until Thanksgiving to do so. Committee members say comments from the public are being taken seriously (here’s the web form to prove it), though some of them are also limiting participation: for instance, Senator Baucus (D-Mont.) is not taking messages from any one who doesn’t live in Montana — even though the mission is national in scope.

The limited time frame for decisions and the committee’s difficult task makes advocacy especially challenging. What’s an advocacy group to do?

Hopefully, most organizations have plans in place to handle a sudden grassroots need. But if your organization was not quite as prepared as others, don’t despair. Even in this Internet age, all politics is still local. (more…)

Cross-posted from No Straw Men

Why you should host one, and how to do it

Bloggers’ roundtables have been around for a while. They’re especially popular for book clubs, with the Department of Defense, and among politicians. (One wag asked John McCain if he knew the difference between YouTube and MySpace.)

Yet roundtables never really took off as a form of outreach. That’s too bad, because as a vehicle to engage many stakeholders at once, roundtables can be as effective, if not more so, than their headline-grabbing cousins, Twitter and Facebook.

What is a bloggers’ roundtable? Technically, it’s a conference call. Figuratively, it’s a virtual press conference or editorial board meeting. Instead of standing at a podium, the speakers sit by a speakerphone, while the audience—the bloggers—dial into a conference line.

When is a bloggers’ roundtable useful? A roundtable works best when you want to share your story with a small, engaged group; when you want thoughtful feedback; and when you want substantive write-ups. (“Small” can range from a car-full of people to a dinner party to an NFL team.) The conversation is more intimate than a live chat, the invitation is more prestigious than a tweet or Facebook update, and the whole thing is more fun than an e-mail. (more…)

Event: Using Research to Guide Your Advocacy Strategy
When: Friday, September 16 (9 – 10:30 am)
Where: The National Press Club (529 14th Street NW, Washington DC)

Can opinion research help unlock the key to winning your advocacy effort? From free survey platforms and social media polling to state-of-the-art message testing, Adfero Group’s Sue Zoldak will be discussing the research tools that you can apply to increase your campaign’s effectiveness.

Join us as we explore how public affairs campaigns use research to find, reach, and win over their audience. We will take questions from attendees and discuss your case study live.

Click here to find out more
and
REGISTER TODAY!

Cross posted from Security Debrief

The Bay Area Transit Police, amusingly known as BART, show that law enforcement still doesn’t understand the value — and challenges — of social media. The police force reacted to planned flash mobs — protests organized rapidly through social media platforms, Twitter foremost among them — by shutting down cell phone service in the BART stations. Hey, if you can’t talk to one another, how are you going to organize, right? Thank God BART wasn’t around when the Founding Fathers were trying to hammer out the U.S. Constitution. Perhaps the transit agency would have drummed the unruly bastards out of Philadelphia before they could dream up the First Amendment.

You can understand why the transit police were frazzled. There is no question that social media has made communications easier, quicker and more effective. By and large, this is a good thing, put to good use by millions around the world daily. Unfortunately, there are people who put this new generation of communications to bad use, too. And the advent of flash mobs is an example of how social media can be used for hooliganism (I’ve always wanted to use that word) and criminal activity. Just look to Great Britain, where so-called protesters are protesting very little other than doors and windows as they smash them in and loot stores. Power to the people.

However, social media — including flash mobs — is also used for noble causes and nonviolent protests. Just look to the Middle East and the Arab Spring. Look to Iran. Admittedly Iran was less flash and more of a truly spontaneous movement, but new tactics such as flash mobs will become increasingly common as protestors in authoritarian states seek ways to make their voices heard while minimizing persecution from state police.

What law enforcement, national security agencies and others in positions of power over civil liberties must understand is that while social media is a new medium of communication, it is still a medium of communication, protected by the Constitution. If the protests in San Francisco were violent and posed a threat to public safety, then BART had a duty to manage the situation and protect the public. Protestors have no inherent right to endanger the safety of commuters in a busy subway station any more than shout fire in a theater. (more…)

Cross-posted from the Public Affairs Council blog.

By Sheree Anne Kelly, Vice President of the Public Affairs Council

I wouldn’t feel comfortable if our head of IT asked me to disassemble my computer, rebuild it and then go back to using it. I bet I’d enjoy the process of seeing what’s actually inside my PC, and I might even learn something. But how likely is it that my computer would function properly after such an exercise? Odds are pretty slim. When it comes to motherboards, I’ve had no training. I’m flying blind.

Many global companies are also flying blind when it comes to managing their in-country public affairs activities. According to the Public Affairs Council’s 2010-2011 International Public Affairs Benchmarking Report, most country managers (business heads in a particular host country) lack consistent public affairs training. Yet they are often responsible for the public affairs function.

The survey examines how firms organize, staff and resource global public affairs. It also looks at common decision-making processes, activities, challenges and trends in the field. In addition, respondents rated their ability to have an impact on public policy in markets such as China, the EU, Argentina, India and South Korea. Copies of the report can be ordered on the Council’s website at www.pac.org. (more…)

Originally published on PMPU.org.

One year ago today the Congressional Management Foundation launched its new venture, the Partnership for a More Perfect Union. For those of you that have been following the Partnership, you know that this represents a broadening of CMF’s core mission, which has always been to support the Member, committee, and leadership offices of the U.S. Congress. Now, through the Partnership, CMF is seeking to improve the communication, understanding, and relationship between Members of Congress and the citizens they represent.

Here’s a little bit about what we’ve been up to in the last year:

• On April 21, 2010, CMF launched the Partnership for a More Perfect Union with the help of our Founding Partners: Fleishman-Hillard, AT&T, Convio, and the Hansan Family Foundation.
• CMF and the Partnership released the results of the 111th Congress Gold Mouse Project that seeks to improve the quality of congressional websites to meet constituents’ needs and expectations. We reviewed all 620 Member, committee, and leadership office websites of the House and Senate, presenting the best 135 websites in Congress with the coveted Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Mouse awards.
• On January 26, 2011, we released the report, Communicating with Congress: Perceptions of Citizen Advocacy on Capitol Hill, the results of a survey of 260 congressional staff on both sides of the Hill and aisle about how they perceive and manage constituent “mail.” That same day, CMF’s President and CEO, Brad Fitch, delivered the key note address on the key findings from the report at the Public Affairs Council’s National Grassroots Conference in Key West, Florida. (more…)

Cross-posted from Adfero

Key contact programs are vital in today’s advocacy environment.  Having a large grassroots army that can mobilize on a range of issues is necessary, but not sufficient.  Organizations also need to be able to call on a committed group of activists who are willing to go above and beyond.

Unlike a traditional grassroots campaign, a key contact program focuses on a narrower subset of individuals.  Specifically, a “key contact” is someone who either (1) has an established relationship with an elected official; (2) has a comfort level with engaging in intense advocacy activities, such as making phone calls or doing in-person visits; or (3) has built up political capital through involvement in groups like the PTA.  One useful approach to building a key contact program around these types of individuals is the RAP Index.

Earlier this year, the Congressional Management Foundation released “Perceptions of Citizen Advocacy on Capitol Hill,” compiling the results of a survey of more than 250 congressional staff about constituent communications.  (Disclaimer: My firm, Adfero Group, is a co-sponsor of the report.)

(more…)

Written by Kate Kaye, ClickZ Politics & Advocacy

E-mails to congressional representatives are the common currency of online advocacy campaigns, but a new study shows all advocacy e-mails are not created alike. In a report published earlier this month, the Congressional Management Foundation aimed to determine how much influence e-mail, social media channels, and traditional media channels have on U.S. House Members and Senators.

The CMF survey of more than 250 congressional staffers showed that e-mails with individualized messages are far better received than form e-mails, which are often automated through advocacy campaign websites. Nineteen percent of respondents said e-mails including more personalized messages had “a lot of positive influence” on office holders who had yet to firmly decide on an issue, and 69 percent said they had some influence.

“What matters most is the content, not the vehicle,” suggested the “Communicating with Congress” report, which showed that postal mail featuring personalized messages is seen as almost equally influential to personalized e-mails. Twenty percent said they had “a lot of positive influence” and 70 percent said they had some.

Form e-mails, on the other hand, were seen as having “a lot of positive influence” by just 1 percent of participants and “some influence” by 50 percent. Social media site comments were also attributed less value. Just 1 percent said social site comments had “a lot of positive influence,” and 41 percent said they had “some influence.”

To read the entire article on ClickZ, click here.