New Media on the Deval Patrick Campaign

Joshua Gee, COM '07@jgee

Who Am I?

Boston University -- COM/CAS '07

Co-Founder, BU Tonight

President, College Democrats

Press Intern, Deval Patrick Campaign

Press Advance, Obama for America

Deputy Communications Director, Niki Tsongas Campaign

Account Executive, Edelman Public Affairs Practice

New Media Director, Deval Patrick Campaign

The Race

What is New Media?

Well let's Look at my Job Title...

New Media Director How long have you been in IT?

There are all actual things I was called on the campaign

Social Media Guy

New and Social Guy

Internet Guru

In-house Nerd

Josh does our Twitter and Facebook stuff

aPebble Master

Can you set up email on my blackberry

Email Guy

I know this isn't your job, but I can't connect to the internet

Field Finance

Communications

Field Finance

Communications

NewMedia

Team New Media

4 Designers (Part Time)

2 Web Engineers (Part Time)

1 Ad Manager (Part Time)

1 Production Manager (Full Time) 

7 Interns

Many Volunteers

3 Dunkin Donuts Cashiers

...what did I do every day?

Let's get down to brass tacks...

DESIGN

It is Everything...

Starting with a 3-page Style Guide 

Logos/Graphics

Print Materials

Everything...

A consistant brand is something you will need to work at. 

Things move fast and YOU need to serve as

a quality control officer.

 Learn photoshop.

WEB SITE

After 2008, all political sites were like this one:

Seriously. 

So we looked elsewhere for inspiration

And we defined our objectives

Drive compelling messages and display

content. 

Convert donors and volunteers. 

Keep your goals in mind. 

Don't do what everyone else is

doing. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

Our Social Media Strategy

Create Compelling Content 

Engage and Respond

Empower our Staff and Supporters

Message

Content

Facebook

TwitterHashtags are important, but not the be all end all

Twitter

TwitterWe used our staff and supporters to amplify our message

VoteDeval2,110

BakerforGov3,107

dougrubin3,578JohnEWalshDem1,300titojackson1,928

Many, many more

Empowering Supporters is the Future

Other Networks

Other networks are critically important, but we were never able to tap into them

effectively

Create and distribute good content.

Empower and train your supporters. 

Look beyond the big two. 

If you are a brand, Facebook sucks.  

EMAIL

Email is the #1 Internet Application

EmailEverything you need to know about

crafting a compelling and successful blast email:

Which of these was more effective?

Email is #1

Make your emails clean and simple calls

to action. 

Shorter is always better.   

ORGANIZING SOFTWARE

aPebble

aPebble

First organizing software to incorporate social gaming elements

First organizing software to ask our organizers to identify likely voters (crowd-sourcing)

First organizing software to ask our supporters to utilize their own social networks

Traditional Campaign

CAMPAIGN

VOLUNTEERS

VOTERS

Relationships

Relationships

Our Campaign

CAMPAIGN

VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER

VOTER VOTER VOTER VOTER

Relationships

Relationships

Campaigns and grassroots organizing

is moving online

The future is in leveraging social

networks. 

ANALYTICS

Numbers are our friends

Track everything you can. 

Test. Test again. Constantly Improve. 

Numbers win arguments. 

ONLINEADVERTISING

Every campaign I have seen spent more on online advertising than ever before (including us). This is

an area that is only growing.

Some places we advertised

Best results from Youtube, Hulu and

Facebook. 

You can do a lot with a little. 

It will increasingly become part of the

PR toolkit. 

PHOTO & VIDEO

PRODUCTION

Meet Eric

You need to produce multimedia content.

It is easy(er), but still time consuming. Get

Help. 

Make sure the content fits your brand. 

FOUR CONCLUSIONS

New Media is still in flux. It means different things from organization to organization.

That is a challenge and it is an opportunity. 

Design is everything.

The future of social media is empowering and trusting your supporters. 

Every Campaign is a media campaign. Everyone should be producing and distributing media. 

As such, you need to know how to talk to reporters, write press releases, tweet, take and edit photos and

video, advertising online, and understand web analytics. 

ALSO

Obnoxious (and Unsolicited) Advice

Take notes in meetings.

Learn to copy-edit.

Wherever you go, learn to use the phones.

Learn photoshop and final cut, or at least iMovie. Also learn html and CSS (it isn't hard).

Keep in touch.