#1 – Share the love (and the stress!) of the editing process.

Sara Wolfson over at the M+R blog writes encouraging advice for email writers and digital organizers.  By bringing other team members along in the writing and editing process, you can invite valuable feedback from fresh eyes while you spruce up potentially stale copy.

#2 – Get back to the basics of storytelling.

Sara’s point #3 includes six great aspects of storytelling – sure to inspire and help break through any hint of writers block.  Whether it’s re-engaging the senses, pitting innocents against the villains of your cause, or activating nostalgia to help people open up to your email, this excellent list of storytelling elements will help you revamp your copy and catch the attention of your readers.

#3 – Launch Facebook ads before you send the email.

Jeanette Russell at Attentive.ly weighs in with excellent advice on how to craft a cross-channel campaign to help amplify the effect of end of year email. Launching relevant Facebook ads before and after fundraising email has the potential for increasing attention from your supporters and members, as well as potentially increasing those very last end of year online donations.

#4 – Thank your donors on multiple platforms.

Leveraging your social media following on Facebook and Twitter can help create positive feedback that will encourage your readers to open your holiday email.  Jeanette also reminds us to be sure to double check that you’re following your donors on Twitter before you ask!  Nothing beats a personal, authentic interaction on social media, and following your donors on social media is part of that connection.

#5 – Show the impact of the donation you’re asking for.

Danielle Johnson-Vermenton over at NPEngage offers us a different kind of helpful list.  Danielle curates advice from ten online practitioners on what not to do with 10 ways to lose a donor in 1 email.  Point #8 mentioned by Tammy Radencic is particularly insightful, as she encourages us to “show the impact of the donation you’re asking for.”  Being able to show a direct link between a member or supporter’d donation and a specific benefit (like “$10 more could help us feed another family” or “another $25 will help us deliver veterinary services to an animal at our shelter”) can help motivate a donor to bump up their contribution, rather than motivate with a negative outcome.

Other useful cautionary tips include:

• Make it easy to get to the donation page.  Minimize the number of clicks it will take for a reader to donate.
• Details matter like making sure the data is not being set up wrong. For example, making sure email is addressed to a person’s first and not last name.
• Don’t use fear or guilt to motivate donations particularly during a holiday season.

Danielle’s post can be a valuable asset as a check list of what not to do in your end of year appeals!

Bonus: Don’t forget the A/B testing! 

Even though December feels like it’s nearly over, there is still time to craft effective A/B tests that support your data-driven plan to close out the busy holiday season.  Competition for attention will be fierce and writing compelling subject headers (with a little bit of data collection) could mean the difference between an email being opened or ignored. Consider also using testing on additional platforms beyond your email program, like Facebook and other forms of social media.

From everyone at New Media Mentors, happy holidays and we’re looking forward to a very joyful and busy 2016!

Credit: Toby on the Porch by Julie Falk

Last week, Opening Day included staff and executives from Maine People’s Alliance and Missouri Jobs with Justice.  Two guest speakers also joined us.  B Loewe from the #notonemore deportation campaign and William Winters from Citizen Engagement Lab who talked about Color of Change’s campaign to protect net neutrality.

B walked us through their campaign on ending deportation – how they designed it, rolled it out and how they won, at least in part. The depth and breadth of their work included compelling video of personal stories, clear targeting of both the opposition and their supporters at all levels, work with traditional and social media across platforms and an organizing team adept at both online and offline work.

William also talked about what it takes to win, including staying in for the long haul, mobilizing constituencies and shining the light on the opposition (and in this case, their ties to the telecom industry.)

Next up: our session on “How to Win the Internet” presented the New Media Mentors “method” which includes mastering leadership, knowledge, collaboration and budgeting.

After lunch at Henry’s Hunan in San Francisco, we reconvened to talk about building effective campaigns and what it takes to win over time.

We heard about fighting for immigrants’ rights in Maine, where refugees come to escape terrorist regimes.  Many of these refugees find themselves in the United States with no place to live and nowhere to work. Maine People’s Alliance has fought to protect them.

We heard from both Maine People’s Alliance and Missouri Jobs with Justice about their campaigns to raise the minimum wage in their states and what’s ahead.

Finally, we talked about culture change – and the components that need to be in place to shift organizational culture to support robust online work.

Our role at New Media Mentors is to support and mentor groups in any and all ways that are useful to them. For some, that will mean mastering testing and analytics, and for others that will mean integrating on and offline work. There are many different possibilities depending on what the groups need. We tailor all of our mentorships to address just that.

So here’s what I love. I love to work with people who spend their hours and days fighting for the rights of others. I love the reminder (at a time when the whole planet feels at war) that there are smart, tireless, hard working people who dedicate their lives to make the country a more livable, fair and just place to live. And I love that we get to make a difference – helping them in any and all small and big ways to win their campaigns over the long haul.

You inspire me.

Thank you.

• 7 Legal Rules for Online Advocacy That Everyone Should Know
• 12 Ways to Get Field Organizers to Love Digital
• Beating Back Burnout Culture in the Progressive Movement
• Best Practices in Digital Analytics: Using Website and Social Media Testing to Optimize for Virality
• Creative for All: The Keys to Creating Compelling Content
• Email Campaigns that Engage Activists, Raise Money and Move Your Mission
• Face It: Design to Hack Peoples’ Minds
• Guerillarized Grassroots Advocacy
• How a Gender Lens Can Help You Win
• How to Get Coverage in Spanish Language Media
• Making it Rain: Donor Research and Baller Asks
• No Jedi Mind Tricks Needed: Harnessing the Power of Narrative
• Nonprofit Productivity: How to Get Sh*t Done While Wearing Many Hats
• Saving Millions with Earned Media: How to Organize Kick-Ass Press Events and Get Your Campaign Covered
• ¡Se habla Español! Creating a Successful Bilingual Campaign
• Start-up Bootcamp: How to Get Your Big Idea Funded
• Turbo-charging Your Campaigns via Online Influencers
• We’re Not Upworthy: Social Media for Organizations With No Money, Time or Resources

Also check out this post from guest blogger Laura Packard about her training: How To Not Ruin Your Website.

How do you get a beautiful new site that meets your needs, on time and on budget? One of the first things we recommend people do is read up on the latest web design trends. See Frogloop and Mashable articles for what’s hot in 2014 and 99 Designs for what’s hot in 2015.

Specifically, I’ll call out some bad-idea-yet-prevalent website design elements. First, the research shows that carousels or sliders don’t get much traffic at all past the first slide. Worse yet, they can confuse or annoy your audience and make it really hard to use on mobile devices. Should I use a carousel? NO. It may seem like an easy way to appease multiple stakeholders, but it just doesn’t work in practice.

That leads me into talking more about mobile. In 2014, Internet usage on mobile devices exceeded that of PCs for the first time. You’ll want to make sure viewers on cell phones and tablets still have a great experience using your site. Don’t forget to make sure your donate pages and action/signup pages are all mobile optimized too, or you’re leaving money on the table! You may need to do some tweaking to the templates in your CRM for this part.

Finally, sites loaded with everything and the kitchen sink not only look terrible, but they are hard to use. Consider using dropdown menus and/or simplifying down the structure and navigation of your site so it is clear where everything belongs, and the site is easy for people to use. This will help for people using mobile devices too. Do not let your site become a camel (horse designed by committee). Throwing a search button onto a poorly designed site is not a good solution. Neither is loading up the front page of your site with every single item of content on your site — when everything is the focus, then nothing is the focus.

Before you start on design for the new site, think about what the goals are for your website. For most nonprofits, it’s usually primarily to collect email addresses and secondarily, donations. All else flows from that — online actions etc. But if you try to have the website front page be all things to all people, you’ll wind up losing on the goals you really care about at the end of the day.

Think about your audiences. For activist nonprofits or unions, people who go to the trouble of googling your organization or going to your website are probably already likeminded (or hate-surfing), unless you’re running ad campaigns or have seo optimized on some issues. So I suggest focusing more on bringing supporters into your boat than convincing them to be on the water in the first place, unless you’re working around a poorly understood issue where people might be googling to educate themselves.

Once you’ve got your goals identified and your audiences in mind, you can start thinking about what the site content should be. To figure out what should be on your new website, take a look at your existing site and figure out what’s important/unimportant/missing. Look at similar organizations and your opponents too, that can help clue you in to what you haven’t thought about. This is a good time to make a list of sites you like, sites you don’t, and WHY. That will be invaluable to your site designer later.

Also you’ll need to identify the stakeholders of this project, and how your approval process is going to work. Who needs to see designs and give feedback? If there’s more than one decision-maker, who has the final say when they don’t agree? If you can get the politics worked out before you begin, then you’re much less likely to get caught in an unforeseen bind.

Figure out your budget, and key deadlines. This ties into one of the previous steps — when you figure out what other sites you like, go ahead and ask them how much they spent, and who built it (+ whether they’d recommend them). Many nonprofit websites will have a site credit at the bottom (or in source view if you’re looking at the HTML). Especially if you’re not sure how much your site should or will cost, getting numbers from other nonprofits can give you an idea of what a Ford versus a Cadillac might cost. Try to compare apples to apples – if you are or will use NationBuilder, look at other NationBuilder sites. Salsa, Convio, NGP, BSD, same thing.

One more thing to consider in terms of budget: there’s a tradeoff between speed, quality, and cost. Pick only two (or sometimes just 1!). Understand what you’re getting and what you’re giving up.

Sort out your technical requirements. CRM and CMS are two terms you’ll hear a lot. CRM = customer/constituent relationship manager software. This is the software that will handle email signups and sending mass emails, donation processing, online actions like petitions etc. Think ActionKit, BSD, Convio, NationBuilder, NGP, Salsa. CMS = content management system, which is a package like WordPress or Drupal or Joomla or NationBuilder that lets you more easily manage your website as a whole, rather than hand editing every single page when you change a menu item or something. Note that NationBuilder is designed to be both a CRM and a CMS, but in most other instances you’ll want to use a dedicated CMS like WordPress or Drupal with your CRM in order to have the best experience and control.

What are you using now for your CRM and CMS? The pain of switching may or may not be worth the additional features and/or lower price dangled before you. Also, sticking with your current CMS means you don’t need to deal with the headache of how to handle older content/whether it can be moved to the new system or not. If you like your existing CMS (assuming it’s a reasonably modern and robust one like WordPress or Drupal or Joomla), look for developers that have experience with that particular CMS. If this will be your first CMS, look for something that will be easy to use for you, is open source and has a large developer community (so you aren’t locked in to your existing vendor). A custom CMS (or CRM for that matter) will make it harder to switch or change things later.

Also whatever your CRM is now, ask your CRM vendor for recommendations on website developers that work well with their system and nonprofits like yours. If you’re using something like Constant Contact + PayPal, consider whether now is the time to make the leap to a true CRM.

Once you’re ready to start talking to vendors, go back to the list of website developers you built by researching sites you liked, and talking to your CRM vendor for recommendations. I recommend reaching out to up to 3-4 of them directly, having narrowed down your list from the millions of developers out there by getting pre-recommended choices. A formal RFP process can cost way more in your time and theirs, and you could wind up with a worse result by missing out on popular vendors that don’t bother with mass RFPs, and only hearing from firms large enough/with the cost structure to support dedicated business development staff to deal with RFPs.

When you’re talking to developers, ask for examples of their work and style (if you haven’t already seen it). This is why choosing based on sites you like is such a good idea. Web development is as much art as science, and if you’re a Monet fan you don’t want to wind up with Jackson Pollock.

In terms of price, make sure you understand what is included in the project and what is not. Will the site be responsively designed, or are they building a separate mobile site? Will they do email templates and other customizations to your CRM to match? Is that a part of the project? What about custom graphics for social media, search engine optimization of your new site, etc.? Are domain names, stock photos & other graphics, website hosting included in the price or not? What about ongoing support? Also is their project budget a firm number or estimate — if it’s an estimate, what happens if they go over hours?

Ask for a timeline in addition to the budget — so you can get a sense of how long their process will take, and whether it lines up with your key deadlines. If you need something immediately and their process takes time (understandable), ask for a splash that can be rolled out very quickly while they continue work.

In terms of hitting deadlines, one of the best things you can do is to have your prep work done before the project begins. Sort out what content you want on the website and what you don’t, gather up all your (high resolution) photos and make sure you have rights to use them, high res versions of your logo and branding materials, collect up all the logins they will need. Gather up your design ideas, your list of sites you like and sites you don’t. You can work on developing missing content pieces as they work on designing and implementing the site, make sure they are not waiting on you for content. Also, be prompt on design feedback throughout the process, as it’s usually an iterative give-and-take. But they will be stalled out at several points if they do not hear back from you.

What happens after the site is launched? Make sure the site is easily updatable by your team, and any appropriate level of training needed is built into the project. You do not want to be at the mercy of somebody else’s schedule when you need to update your website quickly, even if you do have an ongoing support relationship with the vendor. Did they build search engine optimization into their process, so that search engines will quickly crawl your site and deliver traffic? Consider paid advertising as appropriate to deliver an audience to your site as well.

Also sort out what you need to protect your website — regular backups, security precautions etc. What happens if/when the site goes down in the middle of the night, or it gets hacked? Was ongoing or emergency support included in the project, or is it an extra?

Finally, if you love your new site and your vendor, spread the word! The progressive community does better when all of us use best practices and have awesome sites that get the word out and DON’T cost an arm and a leg. If you want your vendor to be around in a couple years when you’re ready to redo your site, help ’em stay in business by referring them to other non-profits.

A version of this post was originally published on the PowerThru blog: Want a winning website? Project management guide for non-profits and campaigns

Julie Menter

As we get ready for Netroots Nation 2015, we’re taking a closer look at some of the convention’s most exciting training sessions. We’re interviewing the trainers and taking you inside some of online activism’s most popular and elusive topics.

Today we’re interviewing Julie Menter of New Media Ventures, who’ll be leading Start-up Bootcamp: How to Get Your Big Idea Funded.

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Start-up Bootcamp: How to Get Your Big Idea Funded
Have a world-changing idea but need a bit of funding to get it off the ground? This session is for you. In this training, we will take you behind the curtain and shed light on what investors look for in entrepreneurs. We will use these practical lessons to help you develop the right proof points and hone your pitch. We will also discuss how to find and reach the right investors. The training will include a short presentation and lots of time for practice and questions.

Interview

Q: Tell us about yourself and your experience with fundraising for start-ups.

A: New Media Ventures invests in early-stage, for profit and nonprofit startups. In that position, I meet with and assess dozens of startups every month. In addition, I advise the entrepreneurs in our portfolio on how to pitch the angel investors in our network. Previously, I helped sustainability executives get support and funding for their work and developed a training workshop to help them do so. I’ve refined and tailored this training material to help startup founders get their ideas funded.

Q: In your opinion, what is the most common mistake folks make when trying to secure funding for their start-ups?

A: Too often, entrepreneurs view fundraising as a single transaction. They prepare a fantastic pitch and expect money to flow automatically after that. Instead, entrepreneurs should view fundraising as a relationship-building exercise. It can take a long time, and requires careful cultivation. Investors will be in your life for a long time if you do get funding, so establishing a great relationship upfront is important (and will increase your odds of getting funding in the first place).

Q: What are the two most important things to keep in mind when trying to secure this kind of funding and get a start-up off the ground?

A: The best entrepreneurs are incredibly persistent and great at learning. These are 2 qualities that the fundraising process will thoroughly test. Make sure you lay the groundwork before starting to fundraise (develop proof points, research what potential investors care about, get warm introductions, etc.), make the most of the feedback you get and persist! It’s a relationship-building exercise so don’t let an initial “no” discourage you.

Q: Why should folks attend your session at Netroots Nation, and how can they connect with you?

A: This will be a highly interactive session. I’ll share my perspective but also invite participants to share their personal experiences and practice pitching each other. I hope this session gives you the tools and confidence to get your big idea funded.
You can keep-up with New Media Ventures on our blog (www.newmediaventures.org) and on Twitter (@newmediaventure). My personal Twitter handle is @Juliepouic.

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2015 in Phoenix, register now.

Emilie Aries

As we get ready for Netroots Nation 2015, we’re taking a closer look at some of the convention’s most exciting training sessions. We’re interviewing the trainers and taking you inside some of online activism’s most popular and elusive topics.

Today we’re interviewing Emilie Aries of Bossed Up, LLC, who’ll be leading Beating Back Burnout Culture in the Progressive Movement.

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Beating Back Burnout Culture in the Progressive Movement
While committing one’s life to the service of others is valiant, doing so at the cost of one’s personal sustainability is counter-productive. The path to a sustainable progressive movement begins with investing in our own personal health, happiness and long-term vision for our careers. In this training, Emilie Aries, founder of personal and professional development training organization, Bossed Up, will review the latest research on burnout, its root causes, and how we all can do more to foster a climate of sustainable success—for ourselves and our movement.

Interview

Q: Tell us about yourself and your experience with professional development and preventing burnout.

A: I started Bossed Up after my own battle with burnout. After working for years in politics, fighting for causes and candidates I believed in, I realized I was never going to be able to sustain this pace over the long haul if I didn’t show myself the same commitment.

My over-achieving sprint-through-the-semester habits that served me well in college left me spinning my wheels, exhausted and over-extended in the working world. It took a near-crisis in my personal life to force me to re-evaluate everything – including the kind of success I was striving towards.

Off cycle and out of a job after our grueling battle for health reform, I was stuck in an unhealthy relationship and faced with a seemingly impossible series of choices. That’s when I first I decided to invest in myself and put my personal sustainability, health, and happiness first, after years of forsaking my own needs.

Over the course of two years I dove back into cognitive science and gender studies research that I had spent so much time researching and writing about in college. I realized that my story is not unique and brought together experts to create a safe space where more women like me could stop and get the support they needed to invest in their long-term personal and professional success.

Since our very first Bossed Up Bootcamp in 2013, we’ve brought together hundreds of women navigating career transition with expert trainers and a research-based curriculum that helps women take ownership of their life across work, love, and wellness.

Q: In your opinion, why is it so important that we take steps to prevent burnout?

A: A movement is only as strong as the people moving it.

I worry about our community’s reliance on unpaid interns, volunteers, and the idealism of the young and hungry. That doesn’t mean we all should be millionaire fat cats, but I do believe in bringing sanity back into our workplace culture benefits the individual and the organizations in which they work.

The good news, however, is that despite the systemic realities of our workplaces, there are many steps we can take as individuals to prevent the harmful effects of burnout culture from dictating our lives. It starts with recognizing our own personal agency – and putting it to use in advocating for ourselves in the same way we advocate for the causes and the campaigns we believe in.

Q: What are the two most important things to keep in mind when trying to keep oneself or employees from burning out?

A: Happier, healthier people are more productive.
Working more hours doesn’t mean you’re working harder. Especially with the advances in digital communication technology, we can and must to optimize our workplaces for efficiency – including efficiently managing our own energy. We must work smarter, not harder.

Leaders say no to make room for yes.
The tone for an office culture is set at the top. One of the hardest things a leader must do is decide what not to do. Without saying no, we have no priorities, no focus, and a team that’s not all pulling in the same direction. It is imperative that our leaders learn to say no instead of exhausting ourselves and our team’s energy in pleasing every and all stakeholders (I’m looking at you, coalition people!). By modeling that behavior at the top, our leaders implicitly give permission to others on the team to exercise the same key skill without fearing negative repercussions.

Q: Why should folks attend your session at Netroots Nation, and how can they connect with you?

A: You should come to my session if you’re down for the cause but hate the personal costs of fighting it. If you daydream about ditching the progressive scene to “sell out” in corporate culture. And join us if you’re feeling like the powerless leading the powerless. We’re going to have a very real discussion of how we can create more power for all by taking our power back first.

Chat with me on twitter at @BossedUpOrg and @EmilieAries. Follow us on Instagram (@BossedUpOrg) for inspiration to keep bossin and join our email list at www.bossedup.org for the real good stuff.

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2015 in Phoenix, register now.

Hilary Woodward

Beth Becker

As we get ready for Netroots Nation 2015, we’re taking a closer look at some of the convention’s most exciting training sessions. We’re interviewing the trainers and taking you inside some of online activism’s most popular and elusive topics.

Today we’re interviewing Hilary Woodward of Jobs With Justice and Beth Becker, who’ll be leading We’re Not Upworthy: Social Media for Organizations With No Money, Time or Resources.

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We’re Not Upworthy: Social Media for Organizations With No Money, Time or Resources
Social media can be a fickle and frustrating beast, especially for organizations that don’t have a lot (or any) money, staff or time to put into mastering its constantly changing best practices. And yet, when it works, it can be one of the most cost-effective ways for small organizations to reach new audiences and expand their base. We’ll teach you how to optimize the time you spend on your organization’s Facebook page and Twitter account so your reach is growing and your content is designed to get in front of as many of your followers as possible.

Interview

Q: Tell us about yourselves and your social media experience.

Beth: I’ve been working in the digital political space for almost six years now where I focus on helping nonprofits, advocacy groups, unions, electoral campaigns and elected officials get the most out of their social media efforts while respecting their capacity and resources. My favorite part of what I do is training, and I’m lucky enough to do a lot of it including sessions at Netroots Nation, two-day intensive social media trainings for New Organizing Institute and for a variety of clients and conferences throughout the year.

Hilary: I work at Jobs With Justice, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting for workers’ rights and economic justice. I’ve also worked in print and digital communications in D.C. at organizations of every size over the last 13 years. While my current job covers a lot of ground, I manage our digital work, and social media in particular, where we’re trying to reach those who don’t understand the role bargaining plays in ending inequality. We’ve had a lot of success in building our Facebook page just through posting engaging content (instead of buying ads).

Q: In your opinion, what is the most common mistake folks make when using social media for a nonprofit or cause?

Beth: I think the most common mistake cause/nonprofits make in social media is not to step back first and create a strategic plan that integrates with the organization’s larger strategy as a whole. They don’t know or forget that social media doesn’t exist in a vacuum. All other mistakes I see can easily be traced back to this initial mistake.

Hilary: Beth’s definitely right! And in addition to not defining their goals, I see a lot of organizations assuming that just posting on Twitter or Facebook is enough to reach their target audiences, an “if you build it, they will come” mentality. But the space is too crowded for that to work. You have to optimize your content to both reach what your audience wants to read AND to meet your organizational goals. Happily, it’s not that hard to do that. But you can’t just throw up links and expect to get results.

Q: What are the two most important things to keep in mind when using Facebook and Twitter?

Beth: I think the most important thing to keep in mind when using Facebook and Twitter is to know why you are using them in the first place. If you don’t have a specific goal in mind, it shows in a chaotic approach to content that easily turn off your community. The second most important thing is to remember that the metrics are important, but they need to be the right metrics and it’s not enough to just look at the metrics, you have to learn from them.

Hilary: I think it’s important to know that while there are best practices for both platforms, they a) will keep changing and b) won’t work equally well for each organization, because we’re not all trying to do the same thing. If your goal is to find activists to join you at protests, then you need to post different content from a group trying to get the media to cover their issues. So it’s really helpful to keep your eyes open and stay connected to the platforms. That means keeping up with news about changes, looking at what’s performing well for other groups and most significantly what’s happening when you post to your organization’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. Just pay attention to what’s working and what’s not. It doesn’t take a ton of data or even a lot of time to suss out the “rules” that will work for your organization on social media.

Q: Why should folks attend your session at Netroots Nation, and how can they connect with you?

Beth: Folks should attend our session if they are struggling to manage a social media presence while also doing other job requirements like traditional comms or field, etc. We recognize that social media is probably only a percentage of people’s daily tasks and hope to offer tips and best practices to get the most out of social media while respecting the time and capacity you have to devote to it. Folks can reach me via Twitter @Spedwybabs or on my Facebook page, Becker Digital Strategies.

Hilary: People should come to our session because we get it. Social media can be really annoying, especially when it isn’t your only job. And I know how frustrating it is to be told you can win all of your campaigns online and build a big audience, but first you need to have a huge ad budget, two new staffers and all of the time in the world. Instead, we’ll make sure that you leave our training with resources for executing good social media work and a plan to make it happen. And totally reach out!  I’m on Twitter at @hcwoodward or email: hilary(at)jwj(dot)org.

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2015 in Phoenix, register now.

Bridgett Colling

As we get ready for Netroots Nation 2015, we’re taking a closer look at some of the convention’s most exciting training sessions. We’re interviewing the trainers and taking you inside some of online activism’s most popular and elusive topics.

Today we’re interviewing Bridgett Colling of See3 Communications, who’ll be leading Nonprofit Productivity: How to Get Sh*t Done While Wearing Many Hats.

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Nonprofit Productivity: How to Get Sh*t Done While Wearing Many Hats
Chances are you wear a lot of hats. Many of us have to manage competing responsibilities on a daily basis, while continuing to move our missions forward. How can you measure the impact you make when you need to be making an impact in so many places? This training session will teach you how to prioritize your goals so you make real progress, instead of checking off things on a to-do list that doesn’t get you anywhere. You’ll learn how to clarify and prioritize what you need to get done so you can feel awesome about the work you do, make a bigger impact in your field, and make time for important things like rest and play.

Interview

Q: Tell us about yourself and your expertise in the area of nonprofit productivity.

A: I’m the Director of Content Marketing at See3, a digital agency for nonprofits and social causes. I spend about half my time marketing See3 through our blog, email newsletters, white papers, webinars and social media, and the other half as a marketing consultant for our clients.

I love the work I do, but as anyone who works in digital marketing knows, it is so easy to get pulled into a notification gratification cycle, where you are constantly feeling the need to respond to new information. I wanted to curb this cycle, so I started researching productivity tips relentlessly and tested out the ones that resonated with me (which I wrote about here). After applying productivity strategies and tactics to my own life for the past 12 months, I have a system that really works for me, and I’m excited to share it with other people.

Q: In your opinion, what is the most common mistake people make when trying to be more productive?

A: So many people don’t invest time in evaluating what work is really important and thinking about when they actually have time to do it. People continually fail to put energy into organizing their own time so that they are doing things that make an impact, not just crossing things off a to-do list or putting out fires. That’s setting yourself up for failure, and causing a lot of unnecessary stress that makes it hard to continue to do great work.

Q: What are the two most important things someone can do to be as productive as possible?

A: The two trustiest tools I use are 1) a colorful weekly to-do list and 2) a time-blocking sheet that allows me to figure out when I will actually have time to work what’s on my to do list. I wrote about my process of creating these documents each week on my personal blog.

Q: Why should folks attend your session at Netroots Nation, and how can they connect with you?

A: I turned to productivity strategies and tactics as a way to help me get the most important stuff done during the work day so I could make more time for rest and play. I think most people attending Netroots could probably use less stress and more down time in their lives, and this session should give you some tools to make that happen.

People can connect with me on Twitter @BridgettColling. They can hear more about what I and my fellow See3ples are thinking, doing and reading in the realm of digital media, video and social good by subscribing to the DoGooder Dispatches, our weekly email.

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2015 in Phoenix, register now.

Jim Pugh

As we get ready for Netroots Nation 2015, we’re taking a closer look at some of the convention’s most exciting training sessions. We’re interviewing the trainers and taking you inside some of online activism’s most popular and elusive topics.

Today we’re interviewing Jim Pugh of ShareProgress, who’ll be leading Best Practices in Digital Analytics: Using Website and Social Media Testing to Optimize for Virality, with Angelica Morales.

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Best Practices in Digital Analytics: Using Website and Social Media Testing to Optimize for Virality
In recent years, using A/B testing to drive more actions from email campaigns has become a common best practice amongst digital campaigners. But most people haven’t yet cracked the nut on how to use A/B testing to increase a campaign’s virality and reach a wider audience beyond their existing email list.

In this training, we’ll explain what virality actually is, show you how you can use website and social media A/B testing to increase it, and go over some real examples of how organizations have done this. We’ll conclude with a workshop where you’ll have a chance to optimize your own simulated campaign and make it go viral.

Interview

Q: Tell us about yourself and your experience with digital analytics.

A: I got started with digital analytics in 2008, where I took a break from doing my PhD in distributed robotics and volunteered on the Obama campaign in Chicago. I helped out the team there with A/B testing and data analysis leading up to Election Day. After the campaign ended, I was inspired to do more, and decided to move out to Washington DC, where I ended up running the Digital Analytics team for Organizing for America.

Analytics has remained a big part of my work since then. My company ShareProgress offers tools that let organizations run A/B testing on the social media sharing by their supporters, and we provide consulting services to help progressive organizations use analytics more effectively in their programs.

Q: What kind of things can digital activists A/B test besides email campaigns?

A: You can A/B test just about anything, provided you’re able to measure how people are engaging with your program. But the two big ones besides email are webpages and social sharing. Making fairly minor changes to your webpage appearance can sometimes lead to 15%+ increases in action rates. And in an analysis of Facebook A/B testing done by different organizations, we found that the average difference in performance when testing Facebook headlines was 33%.

Q: What are the two most important things to keep in mind when using A/B testing to increase virality?

A: First, you want to keep a close eye on your “virality ratio.” The virality ratio is the average number of new people recruited by every person who takes action on your campaign, and it measures how much growth you can expect to see. If you can reach a virality ratio that’s more than 1.0, it means you have a truly viral campaign, and you’ll get explosive growth online.

Second, the best moments to use A/B testing are on campaigns that are already doing really well. A lot of people think that if a lot of people are engaging with their campaign, they’ve already achieve success, and there’s no point spending time doing further testing. But that’s actually the most important moment to be A/B testing, because increasing your engagement even a little bit more can mean reaching a far larger audience online when your campaign performance is already really strong.

Q: Why should folks attend your session at Netroots Nation, and how can they connect with you?

A: If you’re ready to go beyond the basics of A/B testing, this training will help get you started on more advanced forms of testing and optimization. Folks are welcome to reach out to me on Twitter if they have questions — I’m @dr_pugh.

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2015 in Phoenix, register now.

Lacey Connelly

Adam Green

As we get ready for Netroots Nation 2015, we’re taking a closer look at some of the convention’s most exciting training sessions. We’re interviewing the trainers and taking you inside some of online activism’s most popular and elusive topics.

Today we’re interviewing Lacey Connelly and Adam Green of Progressive Change Campaign Committee, who’ll be leading Saving Millions with Earned Media: How to Organize Kick-Ass Press Events and Get Your Campaign Covered.

NN15 Training Session

Saving Millions with Earned Media: How to Organize Kick-Ass Press Events and Get Your Campaign Covered
Earned media can be one of the most important (free) resources on your campaign, especially when you are strapped for cash. Our exercise-based curriculum will help you learn hands-on how to plan and execute a great press event—and generate thousands of dollars in media for your campaign.

Interview

Q: Tell us about yourselves and your experience working with the media.

Adam: In 2009, my co-founder and I started the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, an organization with nearly a million members nationwide that focuses on fighting for bold progressive change. Before that, I worked as Director of Strategic Campaigns and Civic Communications Director for MoveOn.org for four years. I also served as the Democratic National Committee’s press secretary in Oregon for the 2004 presidential campaign, communications director for the New Jersey Democratic Party in 2003, and press secretary for the top winning Democratic U.S. Senate race of 2002.

Lacey: I worked on campaigns for ten years, from campaign management to fieldwork to finance reports, before joining the Progressive Change Campaign Committee as their Training Director in 2013. I have always been a “training junkie,” and now I’m excited every day to be able to strengthen the progressive movement by making sure progressives have the skills they need to win. I also currently serve as the Vice President of Communications for the West Virginia Young Democrats.

Q: In your opinion, what is the biggest mistake people make when trying to get earned media? Why do you think organizations sometimes shy away from this?

Lacey: Oftentimes on campaigns, the press is viewed as an adversary, to be avoided at all costs. But if you know how to work with reporters and give them positive stories to cover about your candidate or cause, the free coverage can be priceless.

Q: What are the two most important things to keep in mind when organizing press events?

Adam: You can use the media to raise awareness about your cause or candidate and to make sure that your message is heard, but you have to start with the message itself. The best way to create news coverage is to do things that are newsworthy. The second part is execution. We’re holding this training to teach you the nuts-and-bolts of how to build relationships with reporters, find and prepare speakers, gather a crowd for your events, pitch events to the media, and give reporters something newsworthy.

Q: Why should folks attend your session at Netroots Nation, and how can they connect with you?

Lacey: Our P100 Training Program trained over 600 people last cycle in field, finance, issue advocacy, and press. We teach through guided exercises that take you through the fundamentals, step-by-step, making sure that people not only learn, but can do. Sign up for updates at BoldProgressives.org, follow us on Twitter @BoldProgressive, and follow me personally @ChasingOm and Adam personally @AdamGreen. You can also reach me at LaceyC(at)BoldProgressives(dot)org.

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2015 in Phoenix, register now.