Blog
The latest opinion and analysis on technology, public affairs, and advocacy.
4 Things You Need To Know About NationBuilder
In the political tech space, NationBuilder is a very popular platform for building around online mobilization. I have used NationBuilder on campaigns and have completed the “Certified Expert” course. So I have had a chance to explore tool and its capabilities. Because NationBuilder seems to be the “go to” platform for political and advocacy campaigns
Traditional Campaigning Needs Scrutiny
In many ways, traditional campaigns haven’t changed in 30 years or more. Anyone who has ever run any kind of political campaign know that there are fairly consistent pillars of contemporary campaigns: brochures, signs, print/TV/radio ads, phone banks, canvassing and (more recently) digital. As an individual who advocates for a robust digital presence, I am
How Not To Defend Yourself Online
Long-time Mayor of Brampton Susan Fennell is in a tough campaign to be reelected. According to a poll conducted in the spring, Fennell is polling at around 18%, putting her in third place. One of the key reasons for this, observers say, is an expense controversy that has dogged Fennell for quite some time. In
Rethinking Hashtag Campaigns
If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I approach hashtag campaigns very cautiously, as I have talked about here and here. But recently I have started to rethink the utility of hashtag campaigns, primarily in the area of raising awareness. There is plenty of data to support
Get Hijacked Or Have Conversations
As we get closer to municipal elections, I see more and more candidates jumping on Twitter to start conversations – and that’s awesome. I think it’s great that candidates are finally recognizing that they need to have those conversations online and reach a broader base of voters. What’s not so awesome is when candidates create
Crowdfunding For Political Campaigns
Everyone in the political space knows how hard it is to raise money. This week, I read an interesting article in TechVibes about how more and more non-profits are turning towards crowdfunding, as more traditional donation campaigns see declining results: “Internet-facilitated fundraising methods, such as crowdsourcing, allow people to raise money for niche causes that
Influence Over Reach
I was interested to read a case study from social media monitoring giant HootSuite which details their work with The Rockefeller Foundation, a non-profit organization whose focus is “to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world…[by] advancing inclusive economies that expand opportunities for more broadly shared prosperity.” Hootsuite worked with them on promoting their
Be Like McDonald’s
Twitter makes it easy to communicate with others. When someone mentions you in a tweet, with a click of one button, you can reply to that individual right from your phone. Unfortunately, many elected officials and other representatives in the online political space do not take advantage of this simple feature. A perfect example of