Jefferson-Jackson Day, Session II: Integrating online activities with offline ones

The purpose of this panel is how to make online activities translate into "getting boots on the ground." Alison Morano of the Florida Progressive Coalition is moderating this session.

Joining Susan Smith and Josh Koster from the last panel are Brian Franklin of Impact Politics, who works with Robert Wexler and Chris Chiari as well as the Broward Democratic Party, and Alan Brock from Florida Young Democrats, who also is running for Wakulla County Commission.

l-r: Susan Smith, Josh Koster, Brian Franklin, Alan Brock, and moderator Alison Morano

Alison notes that online stuff didn't start with Obama. She has been in the Internet business since 1995, so this has been going on even before Howard Dean's involvement. We've been trying to get people online for a long time, and Alison started doing that through her business before she even used it for politics.

Brian draws an analogy with music. Things have changed with how music is made and distributed, but what hasn't changed is how people enjoy music. Same thing with the Internet: it's evolved over time but the key remains good communication. Internet campaigning is treated differently, but it shouldn't be, because it's just another method of communication. What matters when you look at the communication is whether you really are seeing the message the campaign is trying to deliver; technology is secondary to the message.

Susan reminds us that on Eschaton, she read that Atrios mocked Huggy Bear for his statement that he leaves the Internet to his wife; shouldn't the leader of the free world understand the most extensive communication tool of our time?

Alison: if you're using VoteBuilder, the MyCampaign piece is really awesome. Susan is just getting started with it, but others in the room have it. You can create volunteer profiles for people, set up events and establish a calendar, look for people to staff a phone bank, etc.

Florida Democratic Party chair Karen Thurman stopped by to greet the Netroots Coalition.

Brian says that you need to have the best writer writing your e-mails -- even if it's not the fundraiser. Josh says that communications directors don't necessarily know how to ask for money, so the fundraiser must be involved. Alan: look at your website on a PDA and see how it looks; Josh says it's not that hard to add a page that is designed for mobile applications (like http://m.dangelber.com).

Brian adds that you can't look at online marketing as its own entity, but it must be coordinated and integrated with your other marketing efforts. Alison says that her organization's budgets have shifted expenditures from direct mail and phone to Internet and have been far more effective than before.

Free tips from Josh: don't send e-mails before 10:00 am or after 2:00 pm. Monday through Thursday is better for fundraising than Friday. Direct mail -- instead of just "send me a check," candidates should include "send me information" and allow the respondents to say how often and what type of information they want to hear from you. Finally, "use really, really obnoxious subject lines" -- exaggerate the tone of the e-mail. Alan reminds us that "Obama resigns" was heavily read, when he withdrew from his church, and Susan says "Latest poll results" is a DFA specialty. Brian: if you don't have the technology to break down lists by category, then don't offer to limit messages as noted above. Josh: if you're going to ask for money or time, make sure to thank people afterwards, at least the people who gave.

Alan tells us about his campaign for Wakulla County Commission, and he uses Facebook as well as Wakulla.com. And you have to give very specific directions when you want a response, he says. Use e-mail a lot, but I'm not going to have 20,000 volunteers, says Alan. If I have 20-25 and I can get 5 more from e-mails, then great.

Brian: remember the generational issues, too. He says his dad might read his e-mail, but we'll have to communicate in some other way in order to really connect with him. A big problem is that we don't respect people's time. We need to pick a couple of themes for different audiences and hit those themes over and over and over again. It's a basic advertising principle: "people don't live in segments, they just live."

Susan: DFA attendance has fallen off, and that might be because people are working in other organizations. So that's a good way to develop off-line networks, by being involved in groups "the old-fashioned way." We also must remember the people who still don't use computers and don't use e-mails or the Internet. Groups really can't or shouldn't stop calling ... or they need to stress to people that they need to "get with technology" and help with training. Many people have computers at home but they just don't use them. [Sinfonian here: my mother is definitely one of those people.]

Josh: I'm trying to replicate an accidental happening -- an e-mail went out to campaign hosts that each one had to raise $500, and one host inadvertently "replied all" and said to another host, "You're gonna eat my dust." That made all the hosts competitive ... publicly post results and get the competition going!

Brian: you may want to purchase e-mail lists, say, if you have an existing regular address list and you want it matched to e-mails. But if you purchase an e-mail list outright, it's unlikely that the people will connect to you and you're really just spamming them.

Josh notes that online givers are great, but the technique isn't very effective for people who haven't given before. Use the old-fashioned campaign tactics for getting first donations and then you can convert them to regular online donors thereafter.

The session is over ... awards are up next and because I'm co-presenting the awards, I can't liveblog it. But I'll have coverage soon ...

UPDATE (3:03 pm 6/14/08): Alan Brock dropped by Blast Off!'s laptop to encourage you all to visit VoteForAlan.com. If you live in Wakulla County, you get bonus points.