Today we’re interviewing Kate Stayman-London, who’ll be leading Why Screenwriters Make the Best Organizers: Using Storytelling to Build Empathy.

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Why Screenwriters Make the Best Organizers: Using Storytelling to Build Empathy
When you watch that six-minute silent montage at the beginning of Pixar’s UP, you probably start sobbing like a small child. But why? Great storytellers know how to build empathy between a character and an audience, and they know how to do it quickly. This training will break down storytelling technique used by screenwriters and teach you how to apply that same technique for more effective organizing, from email to fundraising to video. Instead of using boilerplate messaging like, “Demand blank now,” this training will teach you to tell riveting stories with clear stakes that will move your audience to action.

Interview

Q: Tell us about your storytelling experience.

A: I live a dual life as a screenwriter and political consultant, and storytelling plays a huge role in both of those arenas. I got my Master’s in Screenwriting at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and since then I’ve written videos for folks like Cher and the cast of The West Wing. I never imagined my screenwriting experience would be so relevant to my work in politics, but I’ve found that applying the principles of screenwriting to creating content for political groups has completely changed the way I work.

Q: Why is storytelling an important part of organizing?

A: I believe that the core concept behind effective organizing is empathy — the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, imagine that her life is your life, take action to help her as if she were you or someone very close to you. You’ve probably read a progressive email that says something like, “Imagine if this were happening to your grandma.” With great storytelling, you don’t have to force that comparison, because your audience is already feeling that connection.

Think about your favorite movie — you probably really care what happens to the main character. No one had to convince you to care about that person, because the screenwriter used storytelling technique to get you feeling empathy for the characters. People have so much capacity for empathy and compassion, and storytelling is how you can tap into those emotions and help your audience understand why the issues that are important to you should also be important to them.

Q: What are two of the most important things to consider when telling stories?

A: There are two core concepts behind any story — structure and character. The structure is about setting up an attainable goal with clear stakes, and character is about enabling your audience to connect to the person who’s trying to achieve that goal. Creating structure and character is easier than you might think — there are very simple rules you can follow, and that’s a big part of what I’ll be covering in my training. First I’ll show you how some of the best storytellers in the world (the folks at Pixar) follow these rules, and then I’ll teach you how to apply them to your campaigns.

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

A: I hope folks will attend my training because it’s going to be really fun — I’m actually not exaggerating when I say you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll have a great time. But more than that, I hope people will attend because I think we in the progressive movement need to be committed to great storytelling. Conservatives hope people will focus on their own needs, but progressives know our strength comes from caring about each other.

If you want to get in touch with me, you can find me on Twitter @_ksl, or you can learn more about me and my work at katestaymanlondon.com. Hope to see you in San Jose!

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2013 in San Jose, register now.

Today we’re interviewing Lindsey Franklin, who’ll be leading Startup 101: Tips, Tools and Resources for Launching a Progressive Startup.

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Startup 101: Tips, Tools and Resources for Launching a Progressive Startup
There has been a lot of talk about the importance of innovation within the progressive movement. As organizers identify innovative solutions to problems they uncover on the campaign trail, many see opportunities to launch new startups. The process of launching a startup is similar to organizing—building out a community of people working together to solve one problem—so organizers tend to make great entrepreneurs. However, too many organizers don’t know where to start regarding the essential tools for building a business—everything from financing to legal structure to customer development. This training goes in-depth with key resources and tools culled from the worlds of social entrepreneurship, technology startups and online organizing to provide concrete support for people starting their own progressive ventures.

Interview

Q: Tell us about your experience with progressive startups.

A: After working as an organizer on the Obama camping in 2008, I moved to San Francisco and started ecoVC, a platform to help investors and companies track and share sustainability practices. We had a great run, and while it ultimately didn’t succeed, those two years taught me a ton about launching a mission driven startup.

When I eventually met up with Christie George and learned more about the work New Media Ventures was doing– investing in startups driving progressive change– it seemed like the perfect blend of social entrepreneurship and politics that I had been looking for.

I’ve now seen hundreds of startups, advised a few, and learned a lot about what works and doesn’t work in social change startups. And I continue to be passionate about sharing what I’m learning to help other entrepreneurs succeed.

Q: In your opinion, why are organizers often well positioned to launch startups?

A: An organizer has the potential to make a great entrepreneur.

Think about it– both are working to build a community of people working together to solve a problem, where timing is critical and funds are tight. Both are looking to get that team to reach thousands (or millions) of people– either as citizens or as customers– and get them to take action. Both entrepreneurship and organizing require the ability to listen to those people. And, entrepreneurs and organizers must have exorbitant amount of passion, dedication, persistence, and a fervent belief that they are changing the world.

When starting ecoVC, I leaned heavily on my organizing experience.

While the style was different– networking events, meetings and pitches instead of door knocks, phone calls and one-on-ones– my goal was the same when starting ecoVC: get people to believe in you, in your mission, and inspire them to get on board to help you make it happen in whatever way they can.

So, even if the language changes, the core skills are remarkably similar.

Q: What is the most important thing for organizers to keep in mind when launching a startup?

A: The key thing that a lot of people need to remember is to continuously learn from your customer. Once you come up with the idea about a product or service, it is easy to build it without making sure that you are building something that people want and will use. Startup teams can get caught in an echo chamber of their own ideas about what customers want, without actually testing the assumptions that those ideas are based on.

One of the key things that we look for at New Media Ventures when we are evaluating startups is traction– how many people are using your product or service? Is that a big number or a small number, and how will it grow? If it’s new, how will you find your early adopters? How will you build a sustainable revenue model off that growth?

The good news is that you can test assumptions in a way that results in a smarter products, and make you more compelling to investors and donors if you need to secure outside financing. The training will give you a sense of how best to do that.

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

A: Anyone who has ever thought about launching their own organization or company with a social mission should come to this session. I’ve found that trainings work best when there is a diversity of experience in the room — so don’t be shy if you are not currently a startup entrepreneur.

Get ready for an engaging, participatory session– it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Lindsey Franklin
lfranklin@newmediaventures.org
@lfrankli
@newmediaventure

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2013 in San Jose, register now.

Today we’re interviewing Brandon Silverman, who’ll be leading We Spent a Year Monitoring 10,000 Facebook Pages: Here’s What You Should Know.

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We Spent a Year Monitoring 10,000 Facebook Pages: Here’s What You Should Know
A handful of progressive organizers have built a new tool for finding the absolute best social posts on the web. We’ll both talk about how to use the tool to improve your own feeds but also share all the best practices we’ve learned from monitoring nearly 10,000 Facebook Pages for the last year. Hint: There’s a secret from Ebony’s Facebook Page that you should be using every single day.

Interview

Q: Tell us about yourself and your experience with Facebook.

A: In 2012, I left my position at the Center for Progressive Leadership in order to start a new project that designed to help progressive organizations leverage Facebook’s massive reach more effectively. We had a number of ideas when we first got started and in the process of exploring them, we ended up spending over a year buried in the Facebook API, playing around with different ways to use it and having some close partners test out each idea we came up with. In January of this year, though, we started inviting groups to use what we were calling our Discovery App. It was designed to make it much easier to find the best content being posted by Pages around specific issue area. Since our soft-launch of the app, over 50 groups are using it now and we’re tracking over 15,000 total Facebook Pages and regularly seeing what content works the best inside of the Facebook ecosphere (in dozens of industries).

And in the process, we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t on Facebook.

Q: In your opinion, why is the most common mistake that organizations make when posting on Facebook?

A: Most organizations treat Facebook as a platform for delivering a really narrow set of content.

That means exclusively sending people to their website for announcements, calls to action or donation requests. But in doing so, they end up failing to really take advantage of the potential of Facebook as a platform for their causes. For a lot of progressive groups, more often than not, this just a matter of time and resources. They don’t have time to create original images or in some cases, even just spend the time it takes to regularly find and post shareable content in their sector (which is completely understandable). But it means that the overall engagement numbers are low and as a result, their EdgeRank score stays unnecessarily low, keeping a lot of their fans from seeing any of their posts. It ends up being a vicious feedback loop that keeps Facebook from being a powerful social platform for organizations. The key is mixing up both mission-specific content with softer, more shareable content that can drive up your overall engagement numbers. And ideally a mechanism for easily finding good content.

Q: What are the two most important things to keep in mind when posting on Facebook?

A: I’ll talk about two things we’ve seen but to hear the rest you need to come to the session. First, Facebook success has an enormous amount to do with tapping into the social zeitgeist at any given moment. At the end of the day, it’s just a very topical environment and finding a way to shape your content & messaging in a way that captures some of the most relevant conversations already is one of the easiest and most reliable ways to increase your overall reach. And second, I’d say that most organizations simply don’t post enough. Again, for progressives, that’s largely an issue of resources and capacity. But thankfully, we have a solution to fix that. In fact, we think it can increase your reach and actually save the overall time you spend on it at the same time. Seriously.

Q: Why should folks attend your session at Netroots Nation?

A: In the process of building this tool, we’ve been watching over 10,000 Pages for just over a year. We’ve seen far, far too many Facebook posts. But it’s meant that we’ve picked up a lot of tricks on how to generate viral posts and keep your overall engagement numbers up. And most importantly, we want to share everything we’ve seen.

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2013 in San Jose, register now.

Today we’re interviewing Daren Garshelis, who’ll be leading Influencing Public Policy in the Digital Age: Legal Rules and Regulations for Social Media.

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Influencing Public Policy in the Digital Age: Legal Rules and Regulations for Social Media
Nonprofits are built on a foundation of relationships, and tools like Facebook and Twitter allow nonprofits to expand our relationships and our worlds. But new tools come with a tangled web of rules and regulations, and many nonprofits are hesitant about engaging in online advocacy. Can a c3 lose its tax status over a careless Tweet? What happens when a politician “likes” your organization’s Facebook page? This training will clarify the rules for using social media, blogs and email as part of your advocacy toolkit. Trainers will give concrete examples and invite the audience to discuss hypothetical situations to develop a deeper understanding of the rules that apply to online advocacy.

Interview

Q: Tell us about yourself.

A: I work as Counsel with the Alliance for Justice Bolder Advocacy initiative, where I assist nonprofit organizations and foundations throughout the country on compliance issues related to nonprofit advocacy. I work to expand the capacity of nonprofits to influence public policy, and of foundations to support nonprofit advocacy, by – among other things – training groups through workshops and private consultations on legal rules affecting nonprofit advocacy work, including laws regarding lobbying and election-related activity. I principally work with nonprofits and foundations promoting immigrant, labor, LGBTQ, and reproductive rights, health care, education, economic justice and environmental protection.

Q: In your opinion, why is it important for organizations to be aware of rules and regulations when engaging in online advocacy?

A: Social media presents an amazing vehicle for advocacy, but it’s important that nonprofit advocates understand the legal rules to be mindful of when expressing their messages to hundreds or thousands of people at a time, especially when records of those messages will forever be accessible to others.

Q: What are the two most important things for an organization to keep in mind when engaging in online advocacy?

A: From a legal standpoint, I think the first question nonprofit advocates need to ask when they are commenting online is whether they are doing so on behalf of their organization, or whether they are doing so in an individual capacity. There’s a tendency to conflate the two, which might usually be unproblematic, but can create legal questions when it comes to partisan political commentary. Additional questions arise when c3 organizations link to content posted by others, who may not have the same rules applying to their communications.

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

A: I’d like for attendees of this session to be able to leave confident that they can impact policy through digital advocacy, but to recognize where the potential legal risks lie for 501(c)(3) public charities.

I’m active on Twitter and encourage people to connect (@DarenAFJ).

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2013 in San Jose, register now.

As we gear up for Netroots Nation 2013, we’re interviewing some leading practitioners and innovators in the field, and taking you inside some of online activism’s exciting new developments.

Today we’re interviewing Jim Pugh democratic analytics expert who has developed ShareProgress, an optimized social sharing tool.

Q: What is ShareProgress and how does it work?

A: ShareProgress is an online platform that helps organizations get their online community to share, and their community’s friends to click. We do this by providing the following:

• Data-driven designs. Share pages and share buttons that drive more users to share with their friends.
• Easy testing tools. Easy-to-use tools to test the message that appears when users share your content, and see what language best drives traffic back to your website — no technical expertise needed.
• Real-time analytics. Live data on your community’s sharing behavior and the return on investment of social sharing to help you make better decisions.

In other words, ShareProgress helps you use your existing community as a springboard to new audiences for your campaign, or any other content you’re putting out. We bring analytics and best practices into social media sharing.

Q: What inspired you to develop it?

A: In 2010, I was the head of Analytics at Organizing for America and managed the creation of the “Commit to Vote Challenge” Facebook app. The app simply asked people to commit to vote in the 2010 election and then to recruit their friends to commit as well. But what made it work was that we tested it rigorously and dug into all our results, and then used those insights to make the app easier to use and more viral. In the end, more than 500,000 of the 600,000 committers signed up because they were recruited by a friend.

It made me ask myself, what if all progressives were able to bring analytics into social sharing like this?

Sharing on social networks is driving huge amounts of web traffic. More and more, it shapes what we read and what we get involved in. But there’s a risk that progressives won’t be able to tap into this force, simply because they don’t have the capacity or know-how to build something like we did at OFA. That’s a problem.

ShareProgress is an attempt to make social testing and analytics accessible to all. We’ve created a platform that provides the necessary tools and resources for you to get the most out of social sharing, without needing to have data scientists and web developers on staff who spend tons of time on it.

Q: Why are share pages important – and how can nonprofits benefit?

A: Traffic. Growth. More people viewing, signing, taking action, or donating.

You always want to reach as many people as possible. But historically, you’re limited to the people in your own networks — your email list, or people who like your Facebook page. If you want to extend your reach beyond that, you would need to turn to expensive and uncertain paid online advertising. Now, that’s no longer true. We can help you turn your supporters into social ambassadors and arm them with messages that get their friends involved.

The share page is important because that audience is already excited about your content. They’ve signed a petition or donated, and now what? Now you want to do everything possible to get them to share with their friends. It turns out, how that page is designed, how you make that ask, and what you’re saying is hugely important for getting people to share. And then you want the language of the share content — the message that appears on Facebook or in an email — optimized as well, so it gets people to click.

Q: What kinds of organizations and/or companies can sign up for it and what’s the fee structure?

A: We don’t allow Republican political campaigns or committees to use ShareProgress, but all other organizations and companies are able to sign up. You pay a small monthly subscription cost to have access to all our services. We’ll have different subscription plans for organizations of different sizes: a tiny nonprofit with around 1,000 shares per month could sign up for a Basic Plan at just $50/month. A big organization with millions of people on their email list might use a Deluxe Plan at $1,000/month or more, and still save money versus what they are spending now to recruit new supporters.  You’ll be able to see all of our pricing when we launch the platform in the next couple of weeks.

Also, maintaining a progressive ethos within the company is a big priority for everyone on the team. In order to make sure that this happens, 1% of all revenue will be donated to politically-progressive nonprofits to support their work.

Q: Do you have any real world examples of how it’s worked to date?

A: In late May, Elijah Zarlin at CREDO Action launched a petition to repeal the Monsanto Protection Act, a law that that unjustly exempts Monsanto from court orders to halt sales of their products. After activists signed the petition, they landed on a ShareProgress share page. In previous tests, we found that the ShareProgress page generated more than 50% more shares than the old CREDO page.

Elijah also tested the language that sharers posted to Facebook. He tried out a few different titles, including “Monsanto shouldn’t be above the law” and “Sign the petition: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act.” It turns out that with the latter, the number of people who clicked from Facebook and signed the petition was 63% higher!

When most organizations run online petitions, it’s common to see only 1-2% of signatures come from social sharing. In this case, more than 13% of the signers came from social sharing. They increased the signature count by over 34,000, and brought more than 24,000 new people onto the CREDO email list.

Jim will have a booth at Netroots Nation, in San Jose June 20-23. Stop by to see a demo! He and his colleagues can show you how it works.

Today we’re interviewing Adam Mordecai, who’ll be leading 10 Secret Ways To Make Your Stuff Maybe Go Viral If You Are Really Lucky.

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10 Secret Ways To Make Your Stuff Maybe Go Viral If You Are Really Lucky
You can’t make everything go viral. We both know that. You’re boss doesn’t though. Let the hacks from Upworthy teach you how to win on the social web, thereby growing traffic on your own site and making your bosses understand that what you do matters, and that while you aren’t a magician, you got the skills to pay the bills.

Interview

Q: Tell us about yourself.

A: We know some stuff about how to make things go viral. We got a million people to watch a senate bank committee hearing. We got almost 4 million people to watch a spoken word animated short video about bullying, and we got almost 2 million people to watch a 6 minute bar graph video about income inequality. And, frankly, we’re not that amazing at it, we just constantly test everything. We are just less bad at it than you.

Q: In your opinion, is it possible to intentionally make something go viral, or is it usually a fluke occurrence?

A: It is only possible to make something go viral if it’s actually good enough to actually go viral, AND you get incredibly lucky. If It sucks, you will not make it really viral, no matter how hard you try. (Unless it’s so bad bad that it’s awfulness is what makes it viral. ) We can increase the speed and likelihood of something truly wonderful to go viral, but we are still at the mercy of the timing and luck gods and content quality. There are definitely things that can help, but honestly, only .3% of our stuff breaks that million view threshold.

Q: What are the two most important things to keep in mind when developing (hopefully viral) content for the social web?

A: 1) It better be really good and set the right mood. If you can keep people angry enough to fight, but entertained enough to laugh a little, you’ll have a better chance. Don’t over sexualize, don’t be shrill, connect with a wide audience. Don’t leave them depressed without making an ask for action they can realistically take, or they’ll be too bummed to share.

2) It better be framed to reach way beyond your base. Anyone can make their own audience share and like something. It’s a whole other ball game to get your friends’ friends, and your friends’ friends’ friends to do the same. If you can get your friends’ Moms to share, you’ve hit pay dirt. We track that generational traffic, because if we see that Frank shared with Bob who shared with Maria who shared with Janet who shared with Lisa, then we know that it’s got way more potential than if just our core audience shares it.

Q: Why should folks attend your session at Netroots Nation?

A: Only come if you want to learn all our secrets, and get way more traffic for your organization. We promise, we don’t bite, and we’ll give you practical solutions that you can take back to even the smallest organizations, with no budgets. We’re cool like that.

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2013 in San Jose, register now.

Today we’re interviewing Sarah Baker, who’ll be leading Graphic Design Hacks for Non-Designers.

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Graphic Design Hacks for Non-Designers

Do you wish you could make that killer graphic you envisioned? Are you jealous of your friends who are proficient with Adobe Creative Suite? Do you feel like the internet is a giant pool of visually appealing content, but you’re stuck on deck because you don’t know the tools? If you answered “yes” to one of these questions, this session is for you. This training is designed for anyone who is looking to gain basic design skills to enhance their (or their organization’s) online presence. We’ll cover some bare-bones basics of design, then spend the bulk of the time showing you different ways you can use software already on your computer (or available for free) to make shareable graphics, content headers, infographics and more.

A laptop is helpful, but not necessary to have for this session.

Interview

Q: Tell us about your experience with graphic design.

A: I graduated from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art where painting was my concentration, but student government & politics were my passion. After college, I moved to Brooklyn where, strangely enough, the painting factory wasn’t hiring [insert laughter here]. So I honed my design skills and eventually became a sort of modern seasonal worker – working on NYC democratic primaries in the spring/summer/fall, and doing freelance graphic design in the off season.

As a freelancer, my clients ranged from the Writers Guild of America East to the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau to local candidates and more. These days, I use my design skills on a daily basis as the Creative Director for the New Organizing Institute.

Q: In your opinion, why do many people shy away from creating graphics?

A: I think a lot of people are under the mistaken impression that you need a ton of special training in order to create presentable graphics. While it’s true that professionally trained designers are well equipped to knock your socks off on big and small projects, almost anyone with an interest in design can learn some basic skills that will allow you to start producing simple graphics. If you’re curious (or incredulous) I would encourage you to come to my Netroots session — you might surprise yourself with what you can pick up in a short amount of time!

Q: What is the most important thing for non-designers to keep in mind when designing a graphic?


A: The idea of gestalt – A good design has a sense of unity with individual elements working together to create an organized whole. Another way of thinking about this idea is that you want the design elements to look like they live in the same universe. But that doesn’t mean sameness & boredom.

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

A: Visual content is an increasingly large and important part of the online landscape (think about how Facebook showcases more images than text status updates, or how Upworthy gets millions of shares from simple graphics), and progressives – especially those in the trenches of grassroots fights – can’t all rely on professional designers to create the visuals that will give life to their online campaigns. We need more people in the movement who can do basic graphic design, and you should be one of those people! 

Also, I’m pretty fun both in life and at trainings. For proof, follow me on instagram, tumblr or my unfortunately uncensored twitter account, @bakerbk.

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2013 in San Jose, register now.

Today we’re interviewing Nate Thames and Salim Zymet, who’ll be leading Up Up, Down Down: Cheat Codes for the Internet.

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Up Up, Down Down: Cheat Codes for the Internet
Did you know there are cheat codes that can help you win the internet? In this session you’ll learn how to game the two big bad bosses of the internet—Google and Facebook—and position your content to win. You’ll learn the basics of Google-Fu, the offensive and defensive martial art of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well as guidelines for staying ethical in experiments. Topics include page layout, URL structure, linking strategies, coalition building and tricks for quick ranking boosts. You’ll also learn what Facebook really thinks about your content and how you can make the algorithm love you with some easy content tricks and tips.

Interview

Q: Tell us about yourselves.

Nate: My day job is serving as an interface between the large organizations that use the ActBlue software for fundraising and the amazing team of developers that builds the product. On the side I’ve always been interested in using the asymmetrical power of the internet to wage guerrilla war on opposing campaigns and committees. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a major part.

Salim: I spent the better part of the last two years obsessing over Facebook, Twitter, and blogging as a member of the digital team for OFA and Deputy Digital Director in Ohio. I now work as the Digital Director of Business Forward. I’m a writer by trade, and know how important it is to get our work in front of as many eyes as possible. Upping your Facebook game can make that happen.

Q: In your opinion, why is it important to consider Google and Facebook when developing content for the web?

Nate: You can write the most persuasive and amazing blog post (or other piece of content) but if no one reads it then what good have you done? If you are writing about a candidate or corporation, you want your work to show up when a voter or consumer searches for your subject. People use search to make decisions. We want to influence that decision making for good!

Salim: Facebook boasts over 1billion users, over 600 million of which are active. From web traffic to brand development, votes to volunteer shifts, if you’re ignoring Facebook, you’re ignoring millions of potential content consumers. Creating content most likely to appear and re-appear in people’s News Feed’s is the most important component of reaching those content consumers.

Q: What are the two most important things to keep in mind when developing content for Facebook or your website?

Nate: For Google discoverability you must remember that Google isn’t a person and doesn’t think like a person. You must learn to write content and structure your website in a way that makes sense for Google… and your human readers!

Salim: 1) There are rules, (when and how often to post, using photos and share graphics, good copy with a strong call to action, etc). 2) Those rules can be broken to great effect, especially during heated national campaigns that garner a lot of natural attention.

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

Nate: Google “santorum” and try to tell me that SEO isn’t important in politics. While that’s a hilarious example – and one that will be covered in the session – that sort of Google manipulation can work wonders on a much smaller scale. This session will have specific techniques to help you pull off effective search engine ranking campaigns.

Salim: If you’re trying to take your organization’s facebook page to the next level, get your content in front of more eyes, reach a new audience, and want to see what the digital team at OFA did to conquer Facebook in 2012, come to this session. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter beforehand: @SalimZymet.

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2013 in San Jose, register now.

Today we’re interviewing Dheeraj Chand and Tim Anderegg, who’ll be leading Make It Pop: Using Data Visualisation To Understand What You’ve Done, are Doing and Should Do.

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Make It Pop: Using Data Visualisation To Understand What You’ve Done, are Doing and Should Do
We understand the importance of data-driven work in organizing, but how do we properly understand the data to be driven by them? This training will show you techniques for visualizing and tabling your data so you can properly understand what you’ve done, what you’re doing and where to go, as well as to show you open source software that can do it all.

Interview

Q: How did you get involved in data visualization?

Dheeraj: Since I was a kid in math classes, I have always been really fascinated by the relationship between equations and pictures. Think about something as simple as the equation for the slope of a line, y = mx+b. On its own, it describes a line by showing where on the y-axis the line intercepts when x = 0, as well as how many units up and to the right, or down and to the left, it moves when x varies.

This is simple example, but it shows you how equations that describe certain realities can be shown in pictures. When you get further along in math, and you start seeing beautiful geometries, topologies, etc. And it’s everywhere! You see it in maps, charts, cooking instructions – hell, even in ancient Hindu manuscripts describing the theoretical basis of yoga.

As I started moving up through political work, I started to realise that all these complex realities that we were talking about in these huge, beautiful cross-tabulated reports could sometimes be expressed with more clarity if we started using simple graphics to supplement the tables. So I started introducing 3D bar charts, heatmaps, line chart representations of regression analysis, etc. in reports, and people went nuts for them. Since then, I’ve spent time learning about the theoretical underpinnings of how to best show certain kinds of meanings through certain kinds of pictures.

Tim: Data visualization was a necessary skill that I developed while working on campaigns and for non-profits. Generally, as a data manager, I quickly realized that I spoke a language that few people understand, and in order to communicate effectively I had to rely on report writing and visualization. I created charts and graphs in excel to demonstrate our progress to goals in VR and voter contact, and worked with mapping software to allow our partner orgs to visualize the state of their turf and to make geographic based decisions informed by the data they collected. I was also involved in writing annual reports and political targeting memos, all of which are greatly bolstered by effective visualizations.

Q: In your opinion, why is visualizing and tabling data such an important part of organizing?

Tim: Organizing is largely about telling stories that move people to action, whether it be volunteers you’re trying to recruit or elected officials who need to be convinced about the validity of our arguments. Data visualization is a natural extension of that: you’re trying to tell a visual story about the data of interest. Of course, more and more campaigns are working with heaps of data these days so properly organizing and presenting data is become more than a bonus; it’s a necessary skill.

Q: What is the most important thing to keep in mind when displaying data visually?

Dheeraj: The single most important thing to consider when displaying data visually is that whatever you are doing must answer the question, “What am I trying to understand?” If you want to see a simple summary of what’s going on in hard, concrete terms, you should go with a table. But sometimes, with that level of specificity, certain things can be obscured, so you abstract that out and make it into a graphic. It’s utterly fascinating to me that something that is more abstract, i.e., the graphic, can allow you to to see something more precise. The way that the human mind works is fascinating thing, no?

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

Dheeraj: Well, first, my email is dchand@clarityandrigour.com and you can also hit me on Twitter, @dheerajchand. I’m the hardest guy in the world to find, right?  You can reach Tim at @tanderegg.

This training is really exciting to me. It’s been developed in conjunction with The New Organizing Institute, so we’ll have both a theoretical walkthrough and a practical demonstration of what you can do when you think like a data scientist. Well give you datasets, the code used to develop the visualisations and the code for the application we’re going to give you.

Come hang out with us if you want to learn to think rigorously to bring clarity to the problems you’re working on. Come hang out with us if you’ve always been interested in understanding the meanings and significance of things. Come hang out with us if you want to learn to make tables and graphics that will make your colleagues exclaim, “OH S***!” with delight.

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2013 in San Jose, register now.

Jarrett Fein

Andrea Hong

As we gear up for Netroots Nation 2013, we’re taking a closer look at some of the convention’s hottest 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 Andrea Hong and Jarrett Fein, who’ll be leading Winning the Facebooks: Leveraging the Voter File and Offline Data, Content, and Facebook’s Tools to Microtarget Without Breaking the Bank.

NN13 Training Session

Winning the Facebooks: Leveraging the Voter File and Offline Data, Content, and Facebook’s Tools to Microtarget Without Breaking the Bank
“Micro” and “nano” targeting were all the rage in 2012 as campaigns learned to use data to target messages to high-value audiences more effectively than ever before. Come learn from leading practitioners about how you can effectively and efficiently reach and move those audiences online without breaking the bank. We’ll help you learn how to develop high-impact Facebook content and use Facebook’s tools to target and deliver the content to the people your organization needs to succeed.

Interview

Q: Tell us about your experience with microtargeting.

A: As digital campaign strategists at Trilogy Interactive, we do (among other things) a lot of ad work that requires getting our content in front of the right people. That’s where microtargeting — an increasingly important tool — comes in.

One of the best examples is what we did with Washington United for Marriage in the 2012 election cycle. Before 2012, marriage equality had been defeated at the ballot box 32 times in a row, so we knew that we HAD to run a nearly perfect campaign and reach every potential supporter possible if we were going to end this losing streak.

Every last vote would count — so we took advantage of new Facebook targeting abilities, including the new “custom audiences” targeting, to upload a file of targeted voters who were then matched to a “custom audience” of individual Facebook users. This unique and innovative use of Facebook enabled the campaign to serve GOTV ads with absolute precision to a highly targeted list of known supporters.

This is just one of our favorites; the list of microtargeting options and the clients we’ve worked with is long.

Q: In your opinion, why is microtargeting important?

A: Every campaign wants to use each dollar in smart and effective ways — and microtargeting through Facebook, thanks to its logged-in users, means we can serve ads directly and specifically to our targets with no bleed.

Given limited budgets with campaigns like the aforementioned Washington United for Marriage, we forewent the common voter-file targeted display campaign strategy of using vendors’ commercial cookie-matched voter targeting. These methods, while more targeted than traditional site-targeted online ad buys, still have significant bleed and limited reach.

Our unique and innovative use of Facebook “custom audience” targeting delivered 500,000 impressions to the 10,000 matched voters in Washington United’s targeted GOTV universe, with almost no bleed into non-targeted users — ensuring that every last possible ballot was mailed in. The campaign succeeded in mobilizing its supporters, becoming the first state in the history of the country to successfully defend marriage equality at the ballot box.

Q: What is the most important thing for folks to keep in mind when developing content for Facebook?

A: You’re competing with a lot of content on Facebook, so people don’t have the patience to digest something that’s overly complicated. You have to balance visual appeal with an intriguing, short message. It’s a hard balance. There are ways to achieve it, and we’ll show you some examples and tactics during our training!

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

A: Facebook is an increasingly important tool in digital campaigning, and it’s important to know how to leverage it to its fullest potential. Our session will help you learn how to develop high-impact Facebook content and use Facebook’s tools to target and deliver the content to help your organization succeed. Facebook is constantly changing or updating its offerings, so even if you think you’re familiar with best practices, we think our session will be helpful.

You can reach us on that other social network, Twitter: Jarrett Fein (@jarrettfein) and Andrea Hong (@andreayhong).

To attend this training, or one of the 39 others at Netroots Nation 2013 in San Jose, register now.