A discussion on how influence and actions could help improve involvement in politics and social action

1. Future of Advocacy
Management
Sanford Dickert
Rawlings Atlantic

2. “Hi. I am the Internet guy.”
The “guy who does the Internet” for campaigns
CTO, John Kerry for President
Dir of Internet Strategy, Deutsch for US Senate
Internet Consultant, Rod Smith for FL Governor
Campaign Manager, Eric Massa for Congress

3. “Hi. I am the Internet guy.”
Extended the concepts from politics to business
Director of Contagious Conversations – focusing on
social media marketing
• 16Bars – hip-hop mobile marketing and contests
• Goodnight Burbank – successful comedy podcast
• Greg Warren Comedy – increasing name reach
• tripSync – increasing awareness through blogs and SEO

4. Current State of Online Advocacy
Presidential Campaigns
All about the mailing list –
direct mail model
• blog – press releases in
lieu of conversation
• social networking –
Facebook, myspace,
YouTube
• email – money and issue
identification
• house parties – money and
emails
Politics thinks of advocacy
as flypaper
how can we capture them
how can we get them to
donate

5. Engagement without memory
Seen more “systems” and vendors than I wish
iStandFor, NGP Software, Democracy in Action,
WhatCounts, GetActive, Convio, Kintera, EZFax,
CivicSpace, Drupal, Joombla, Mambo, etc.
Every vendor has NO recollection of what I (or
my customers) have done before
In politics – vendors are often chosen by the General
Consultant and/or Managing Director of the NGO
In business – vendors are often entrenched or quickly
migrated from one to another by decision makers or
product managers
The history of prior performance is often lost or locked
away in some CRM database that is lost or forgotten

6. Two tracks – google and VRM
A little history about google:
Started as a search engine algorithm that could
• Targeted searches by learning your preferences
Moved into search engine advertising and AdSense
• Better click performance if ads fit what you are looking for
• Need to understand page to match appropriate ads
google needs more up-to date information to
understand your current interests/intents
google captures information when you
• use the search engine (on google, on IE, on Firefox, etc)
• read pages with AdSense (served from google)
• use gmail, google Docs, google Calendar
• search using google Desktop (indexes your files)

7. Two tracks – google and VRM
A little history about google:
Today, google knows more
Started as a search engine algorithm that could
• Targeted searches by learning your preferences
about search and your interests
Moved into
you engine advertising and AdSense
than the
• Better click performance if ads fit what you are looking for
• Need to understand page to match appropriate ads
CIA
google needs more up-to date information to
FBI
understand your current interests/intents
NSA
google captures information when you
• use the search engine (on google, on IE, on Firefox, etc)
or even your mother
• read pages with AdSense (served from google)
• use gmail, google Docs, google Calendar
• search using google Desktop (indexes your files)

8. Attraction in a search engine world
google’s PageRank dailykos.com
Validity is based on the nytimes.com
blogger.com
number of backlinks a page
has pointing to it
Age of links and age of
content also impact the
attractiveness stanford.edu geocities.com
Reputation of source site also has serious impact on
johnkerry.com
validity (stanford.edu much higher than blogger.com)
Social media is both a time-sensitive and link-
sensitive property (e.g. how quick, how many)

9. Attraction in a search engine world
How are we to do it?
Search is about relevant content
– in a familiar location
e.g. Finding a auto mechanic in
the Yellow Pages
In making the decision to act, we:
Read the advert (is this what I want?)
Cold call the provider (do they share my
viewpoint?)
Ask friends or references (do they have good
reputation?)

10. Blogging empowers the consumer
By blogging about the content that is relevant to
you – and engaging with the blogging
community – you address the customer’s
needs
Read the Advert – snippet in the search engine
Cold Calling – follow along other posts/comments
Asking for References – how high does the post rank in
google? who ranks them? who comments?
Through blogging, you identify the product – the
customer finds to you, because you offer what
they need at the time they are looking for it

11. Building the attraction…
Understanding the rules of the search
engines defines “attractiveness”
Original, frequently updated content
Links between relevant sites
Frequent references to ideas/concepts
Which explains “social media”…
Blogging in inherently a “social act” – you must engage
the community (both readers and other sites) to share
the conversation and traffic (read: links)

12. Does blogging really deliver?
Backbone Media conducted an extensive survey with
corporate bloggers, and summarized:
'Another way to publish content and ideas', 'Thought
leadership', and 'Build a community' top three reasons for
blogging
Bloggers received results more quickly on the search engine
marketing factors 'Increase link popularity' and 'Boost search
engine positions' than bloggers received on 'Increasing sales'.
Within one month – search engine ranking and link popularity
increased
83% saw traffic increase due to blog traffic to the site
Search engine keyword traffic increased with posts relevant to
the keywords
http://www.backbonemedia.com

13. Rod Smith for Governor Study
Campaign needed a change
of online direction:
Increase awareness
Focus on “Democrat”
Increase membership
Increase involvement
Site redesign hid other
strategies:
Search engine optimization
Blog engagement

14. Rod Smith for Governor Study
Campaign needed a change
of online direction:
Increase awareness
Focus on “Democrat”
Increase membership
Increase involvement
Site redesign hid other
strategies:
Search engine optimization
Blog engagement
Blog recruitment

15. Results?
Search engine placement:
google: from 19th to 3rd
Yahoo!: from 10th to 3rd
MSN: already at 1st
Site traffic:
Tripled average traffic
Signups doubled
Keyword cost:
Reduced paid click thrus
due to higher SE
placement
All within 30 days…
Launch was Nov 9th, 2005

16. google NEEDS to know YOU
“I want to be able to see into the mind of G-d”
-Sergey Brin, interview in Red Herring, 2000
Why does this story matter?
google has shown that technology and being the center
of the information hub is where the power lies
- Infrastructure is a commodity (google fiber, <$50/Mbps)
- Content is cheaper than ever (UGC, YouTube)
- Software is becoming easier to create
Aggregation of user data is where the magic is
Give the user what they want,
when they want it!

17. Vendor Relationship Management
Doc Searls, tech visionary
Frustrated with the way vendors treat him
and everyone else the same
• More databases and technology than
someone can throw at him, and he STILL
gets treated as a generic customer
Wants the ability to set his vendor
“preferences” and bring it under his control
• Be able to tell Dell that he is a tech-savvy customer and
bypass the first level of support
• Be able to have LL Bean know that he recently purchased
a set of Chinos and, if calling within a day of receiving
them, be prepared for his questions
Give the user what they want,
when they want it!

18. Competing Constraints
Management Press
Deliver performance at low Have something interesting
or reduced cost to write about
Achieve goals quickly and Inform as soon as possible
effectively from “real parties”
Community/ Technology
Supporters Vendors
Give me actions that are Reuse my platform so I can
simple and effective make my margins
Give me recognition and Spend only to increase my
connection market

19. AMP: the Future of Advocacy

20. What?
Okay – so the illustration is kind of technical…
…but it addresses the competing needs
Management needs flexibility for vendor selection
• Avoid lock-in to any one vendor, campaigns migrate
Staff needs power with simplicity for campaigns
• Choose campaign method without needing to be a techie
• Achieve goals using smarts of datamining and interface
Supporters need ease of action and flexibility to act and
be a part of the effort, not simply being an ATM
• Say “thank you” for any/all actions
• Track performance to throttle marketing communication
messages
• Give options to act when THEY want, not just when we
want

21. Is this idea new?
No. Customer Web Interface
Drafted this system in 2001
for the largest European Inventory
CRM
SFA & Trouble Billing
telecoms provider Ticketing
Why now?
Costs of software and
Policy Mediation
hardware are cheap Manager Workflow/Middleware Bus
Supporters more familiar
with Internet channels Policy
Library QoS
Staff and campaigns need Fault Perform. Service App Level
Mgt Mgt Activation
to succeed with an easy Data
Collect
and powerful interface
IP Network

22. A proposal for fladems.com (2005)
leaders
FDP champions
Press
Faces & Voices
Simple storylines focused FDP Blog supporters candidates
on FDP message
Ongoing conversation with supporters
Authentic voices, not press releases
Supporters comments
FDP Channel Fundraising
Email RSS
FDP Database Provide feedback on
Grounding relationships online and offline media
Sign up box prominent plumbing4politics campaigns
Invitations to engage TV and radio
Come to DEC meetings Direct mail
Join the Party Events and House
events Parties
List segmented over time media center fundraising
Give super donors, DEC
Action Center and supporters bundling
membership voter contact power

23. What is plumbing4politics?
Affiliate & local Website
Petitions
databases
Events
Contribution
FDP Database
System
Web-enabled
Community
Email & RSS are
RSS Bulk Email low-cost mediums
System System for narrow-casting,
Integrated supporter relationship-building
relationship management: and viral growth
reporting, learning, and
lifecycle Reporting
Supporter System Management
Management Information

24. Advocacy Management Platform
AMP gives:
Management flexibility through “plug-ins” and strong
reporting
Staff power through simplicity using intuitive interfaces
and consistent business processes
Supporters get control over their information
AMP Owner gets repository of actions and information
that can be resold as premium services
• Basic – hosted solution
• Advanced – general/trending datamining services
• Premium – targeted datamining services

25. Power is in the DATA

26. Power is in the FLEXIBILITY
Can use multiple channels to impact supporters
Fax – designed to look “human”, not automated
Click2Dial – using web and POTS to connect supporters
with electeds and/or other supporters – with tracking
SMS – designed to engage with mini-messages at point
of action (flashmobs – tmobile Supermarket Races)
Blogging – tracking who posts where for what effect
(pro/con/non)
Microblogging – using comments and
twitter/Jaiku/facebook for posting and tracking feeds
Email – track open/actions for future analysis for
communications

27. “But <XXX> does this!”, you cry.
You can name a number of platforms
Kintera, Convio, GetActive, DIA
...and you are locked into their solutions
You can name a number of channel providers
EZLink, WhatCounts, SubscriberMail, PoliTxt
…and you can not share data/knowledge
No one offers data integration for advocacy
campaigns
Connecting online actions with fundraising performance
…what is it that really brings home the “bacon”

28. Power is in the “KISS”
Keep it simple stupid
Most solutions are driven by the engineer, not the user
Design of the interface is often an after-thought
AMP focused on making it incredibly simple for the
techphobic – the typical political operative who hates
forms and “databases”
• “I have no idea what is wrong with this – can you fix it?”

29. AMP Slideware Presentation

30. Conclusion
AMP has:
Flexibility – use any vendor relationship for management
KISS – ease of use for regular folks to make campaigns
Data – where we grow the information over time
Portable – will be installable behind the firewall
Where do we go from here?

31. Thank you for your time!
Sanford Dickert
sanford@rawlingsatlantic.com
www.rawlingsatlantic.com