K Street Cafe

There’s a Congressional App for That
(Library of Congress)
Check out a list of apps for getting in touch or keeping up with Congress.

6 Easy Ways To Reward Your Twitter Followers (Mashable)
Turn your twitter followers into brand ambassadors by offering simple and easy rewards.

Popvox Connects Advocacy Groups, Public to Congress (The Washington Post)
This online system creates a direct and transparent line of communication for constituents and advocacy groups to reach their representatives.

The Social Media/First Amendment Face Off
(Law Technology News)
Social media sites are becoming a significant source of evidence for federal and state criminal investigators.

Budget overtook health care as the top issue on the Congressional Conversation Index (CCI) in the month of March, most likely due to fear of a federal government shutdown that was only just resolved at the beginning of April.

With 565 total contacts, budget was clearly the topic constituents were most concerned with amidst the controversial debates in Congress. Given the context that there were 180 constituent contacts on this issue in February, it is clear that budget issues gained considerable visibility in March. Spurred on by the same discussion in Congress, abortion & women’s issues moved into second on the CCI, jumping from fourth in February. In third place, health care slipped from its number one spot the issue held in January and February, yet remained top of mind with 169 contacts.

To round out the top ten issues: (4) Foreign Affairs, (5) Energy, (6) Education, (7) Judiciary, (8) Environment, (9) Technology and (10) Defense. Full CCI data is available below.

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Cross-posted from The Partnership for a More Perfect Union

I recently made an historic discovery regarding what is probably the first system to track relationships between Members of Congress and organizations that seek to influence them. Any grassroots or government relations professional knows that it is essential to have an understanding of Congress, and one of the best ways to do this is to set up a customer relationship management (CRM) system to track relationships between supporters and legislators. The tools also are used to note important characteristics or interests of the legislator that may either connect him to your cause, track meeting discussions, and note follow-up actions.

But one does not need to be a masterful 21st century practitioner of CRM software best practices to create this kind of system. In fact, I believe I recently stumbled onto the first CRM of Congress. The group had a vital issue pending before the Congress; they had a motivated and well-organized grassroots base; and they created a system for tracking every detail of their interaction with legislators as well as the interests of congressmen (and they were all men). The time was 1900. The issue: whether women should have the right to vote.

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When communicating with congressional offices, the most pressing question used to be: are email or postal messages more effective? While each has its advantages, congressional staff view them equally. The more important question is: are the messages personalized?

In our recent survey of staff we asked, “If your Member/Senator has not already arrived at a firm decision on an issue, how much influence might the following advocacy strategies directed to the Washington office have on his/her decision?” Among the possible answers were advocacy tactics like faxes, visits from lobbyists, social media site comments, phone calls, as well as “Individualized Postal Letters,” Individualized Email Messages,” “Form Postal Letters,” and “Form Email Messages.”

Not surprisingly, “In-Person Visits from Constituents” ranked the highest. However, we all know how impractical it is for every citizen or advocacy organization to arrange face-to-face meetings with their corresponding Representatives and Senators. That being the case, written communication (emails and postal letters) are a much more practical form of communication.

So which of the two is going to have the greatest impact?

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Congressmen, Facebook Go Back and Forth Over Personal Data Sharing (Ars Technica)
Facebook recently reiterated its plan to make users’ addresses and phone numbers available to third-party developers in a letter to US Reps Ed Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX).

Two Years Later: Recovery.gov Still Sucks At Public Engagement (Tech President)
A look into why the interactive website, Recovery.gov, has had no discernible effect on public trust in Obama.

Cross-posted from The Partnership for a More Perfect Union

Managing high volumes of constituent calls is a challenge for many congressional offices, but the office of Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) is taking matters into its own hands to help New Mexicans get their answer when they first call the office.

Most of us take the telephone for granted—myself included—but I remember as a kid (here we go, right?) calling my friend’s house to see if he could go do something. If the line was busy, I’d hunker down, exercising my redial finger until my call would finally go through. I’m happily pushing 40, but I suspect other people can also appreciate what life was like before voicemail, call waiting, texting, and all the other amazing things we now can’t picture our lives without.

Congress has experienced and leveraged a great many of those advances in telecommunications, too, but still congressional offices struggle with how to effectively manage what can—at times—be an overwhelming volume of calls. I was in Sen. Bingaman’s office recently and his staff told me how they were handling some of the challenges they face on the front lines with phones. I thought one approach, in particular, was innovative.

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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.

Comcast-NBC Universal Deal Gets Thumbs Up From FCC and Justice Department (Los Angeles Times)
The Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department have approved Comcast Corp.’s deal to take a majority stake in General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal.

A Virtual Congress Would Put its Members Back in Their Home States (The Tennessean)
Opinion piece on how we can save our political system by creating a virtual Congress, where members would telecommute from their home districts and states to Washington.

Grassroots advocacy in the first quarter of 2011 – a new year and a new Congress – presents some challenges, but even more opportunities for your organization and its members.

Let’s acknowledge that, in the first three months, it will be a bit difficult  to deliver your messages to Congress. What do you do when some offices haven’t been filled yet (some Senate offices won’t be filled until March) and many House offices aren’t yet fully staffed?

That said, the first quarter also brings tremendous opportunities to educate and engage members of Congress, particularly the freshman class, early on.

As Brad Fitch rightly noted in his post, New House Calendar Benefits Grassroots Advocates, the 2011 House calendar currently has 13 District Work periods – more than double from 2010. This means your organization and members have more opportunities to engage with your member of Congress at home, and your member of Congress has more face time with constituents from the district. This is a win-win situation.

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