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New Media on the Deval Patrick Campaign Joshua Gee, COM '07 @jgee
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
TwitterHashtags are important, but not the be all end all
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 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.
