It’s that time of year. Time for long summer nights and beach music? Yes, thankfully, but I’m talking about something much more important.

It’s time for your campaign to start thinking about moving your 3,000 Facebook fans offline and into your nearby precincts knocking on doors, handing out literature, etc.

This year, folks who are new to the political process have become fans of your Facebook Pages and are ready to help with your campaigns, but may not be sure where to begin. For new activists who are unsure about the campaign culture, jumping in head first can be intimidating and many activities (read: knocking on strangers’ doors) will require extra encouragement.

Fortunately, Facebook Pages allow supporters to get an inside look at your campaign and provide you with the opportunity to create an inviting atmosphere for your campaign volunteers.

Take a few steps now to make sure your group or campaign is welcoming and inviting for our newly-engaged citizenry. The tips below will help you create an engaging Facebook Page community that will encourage your activists to join you offline.

Be sure your contact information is easy to find on your Facebook Page. Include an email where interested volunteers can contact you both on your Facebook wall (just under your profile picture) and the info section of the page. Also, be sure to include the person’s name that volunteers will be contacting. People are much more comfortable writing an email to info@nameforcongress.com when they know who to address the email to!

In addition to including an email on the page, I also encourage you to link to the Facebook Profile of a campaign staffer where volunteers can direct questions. Many campaigns have chosen to link their Facebook Pages to the profile of their volunteer coordinator. Of course, if you choose to go this route, be sure your campaign staffer understands and is using the Facebook privacy settings!

Upload Pictures

I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Facebookers love pictures and your fans will feel much better about joining you at events if they have already seen pictures of other fans at similar events. Upload pictures of fans putting together yard signs. Upload pictures of volunteers knocking on doors or handing out literature at local fairs. Upload pictures of your candidate engaging with volunteers. Upload pictures.

Don’t stop here. Once you’ve uploaded pictures to albums on your page, encourage your Facebook fans to tag themselves and their friends in the pictures. You may also want to encourage supporters to upload their own pictures. For example, you could have supporters upload pictures of their yards decked out with the campaign yard signs or their cars in various places around town sporting your campaign bumper stickers. The goal here is to create a community that seems friendly and engaging!

Recognize Offline Work Online

A great way to encourage participation online and offline is to highlight accomplishments by your volunteers or group members on your Facebook Page. Recognizing work done offline online reinforces the idea that your campaign is an actual community working together toward a common goal.

Did a campaign volunteer make an impressive number of phone calls this week or knock on a record number of doors? Be sure to recognize those accomplishments on your Facebook Page and encourage your other fans to try to reach those goals. Pictures of your featured fans doing whatever they do best will go along way toward encouraging the rest of your community! You may also choose to reward your fans with campaign gear such as t-shirts, bumper stickers, tickets to events, etc.

If you’re looking for an example of a great way to honor your fan base, take a look at the Heritage Foundation’s Facebook Page Featured Fan App. It isn’t necessary for you to build an application- a simple shout out will do- but hopefully Heritage’s example will inspire you.

The overall goal here is to acknowledge that volunteers are making a difference and having fun while doing it, so play around with these ideas and find something that works for your community.

I’ve compiled ten tips and observations to help conservative campaigns engage conservative voters in 2010. These important (and perhaps obvious) Twitter tips are based on what I’ve seen campaigns do and not do with their Twitter strategies in the past year.

Take a look, remember that followers are potential voters, and get tweeting!

1. Realize Successful Twitter Accounts Do Not Come Overnight.

Campaigns need to be prepared to invest in this new media tool. Twitter accounts, like all other aspects of your campaign, will require staff time and resources. Start by creating a long term Twitter strategy that focuses on reaching and educating your potential voters. As you continue, remember that successful Twitter accounts are not measured by the amount of followers you have, but the impact your message has on those you are trying to target.

2. Customize Your Twitter Account

Fill in any possible information on the Twitter Profile (name, website, and bio at minimum), including dates for primary or general elections. Create a custom background that corresponds to the branding on your website and Facebook Page or use the background space to list url information for your other social media accounts. There are multiple options for customization, but the point here is to create a Twitter profile that is engaging and informative.

3. Remember You Have a Twitter Account

This seems obvious, but I can’t tell you how many campaigns I have seen start accounts on social networks and then fail to follow through. Twitter should be your second new media priority (after Facebook), but if your campaign hasn’t developed a strategy for using Twitter, don’t launch an account yet. It does you no favors for potential voters to see a campaign Twitter account that hasn’t been updated in months. (Of course, if you are itching to start using Twitter and just can’t seem to come up with a strategy, let’s talk).

4. Know Who Is Tweeting

For most organizations, parties, groups, and online grassroots movements, I recommend keeping personal and business accounts completely separate. However, for campaigns it’s effective for candidates to show a personal side. The trick here is to make sure it’s clear who is tweeting. If campaign staff will tweet sometimes and the candidate others, create an easy way for followers to distinguish the tweets.

5. Hashtags. Use them.

Hashtags are my favorite part of Twitter because they allow you to reach new people and categorize your tweets.  I am continually amazed that there are candidates running for any office, especially Congress or Senate, who are still not using hashtags. Look around and find out which hashtags your potential followers are using and use them constantly. You could also create your own hashtag and feed it to your campaign website (warning: don’t forget that anyone can tweet anything with any hashtag). Either way, encourage your supporters to retweet or tweet about you using the hashtags your campaign is using.

6. Stop Expecting People to Come to You.

Many savvy political tweeters will seek out your Twitter account, but many, many more potential supporters will not. The best way to increase your base is to follow the people you hope will follow you. My tip for finding your followers is to pick influential tweeters in your district and follow the tweeters who are following them. You might even ask those same influential tweeters to recommend people for you to follow.

7. See Follower, Think Voter

When you see the word follower, think “potential voter” and engage tweeters in every way possible. For example, thank followers for retweeting important links and encourage them to do so in the future. Consider encouraging followers to ask questions and use the Twitter account to respond to those questions. However you go about engaging your followers, remember that followers are potential voters and you need them come Election Day.

8. Use Twitter Lists

Engage and recognize your supporters by grouping them in specific Twitter lists. Consider sending the people on these lists your press releases and links to your latest blogs first. It’s likely they will appreciate the recognition and start spreading your content. Twitter lists are an easy and quick way to see what your supporters are tweeting about.

9. Know What People Are Tweeting About Your Campaign

Don’t rely on Google alerts and the Twitter @ reply function (which is unreliable at best) for Twitter reputation management. It’s important to take time to use the Twitter search function to search for your name, district, your opponent’s name, and other relevant keywords. Follow the people who are supporting you and address any questions that have been raised by other Tweeters.

10.  Don’t Stop Tweeting Once You Win

Change your account name from @nameforcongress to @RepName and tweet more than ever. You will be glad you did when the next election cycle rolls around.

As I mentioned in the introduction to this series, activists often tell me that they are having trouble keeping their supporters hanging around, but at the same time they don’t need a Facebook account. I think this mostly stems from not understanding how the platform can be helpful or not knowing how to use the Page they have.  A successfully-integrated new media campaign leverages social networking sites to engage your supporters and expand your activist base. Facebook is the best opportunity your conservative group has for reaching new fans and continually engaging your existing base, regardless of the size and scope of your organization. If you still aren’t sure, think of your Facebook Page as a frequent reminder to your supporters that your organization is out there and needs your help.

Note that I refer to your Facebook Page- not Group or Profile. It is really important that you are using a Facebook Page as the central account for your group’s Facebook presence. If you are unclear about the differences, visit “Facebook: Groups, Pages, and Profiles” for more information.  If you jumped into Facebook and started with a Profile or a Group, all is not lost, but you should go ahead and switch to a Page now.  If you are unclear about how to switch over and get your friends/members to follow, contact me for a few tips.

There are 3 main functions of a Facebook Page:
•    Information Distribution
•    Engaging Existing Fans
•    Reaching New Fans

Information Distribution

Your Facebook Page should serve as a tool for your activists to stay updated and involved, not a method by which you distribute press releases.  In the previous section, I discussed websites and recommended that organizations look at using a blog. Facebook provides the perfect outlet for you to bring traffic back to your site by posting the title, a short excerpt, a picture, and a link to the blog on your site.  With this strategy, you will be using Facebook to alert your fans that there are updates and give them a brief description and using your blog to provide detailed information. As you begin to do this with some frequency, you will begin to understand what information your fans are most interested in and which types of articles will really engage them.

As we are discussing information distribution, we also need to discuss the method you are using to update your Facebook Pages.  It is my very strong opinion that RSS feeds (especially the Note upload function) that automatically upload your blog posts into a preset format on your Facebook wall are robbing every Facebook Page administrator of any opportunity to share unique information and engage fans. You should be tailoring your message to your fans’ interests, not simply relying on an RSS application to pull in a title and the first sentence or so!  If you have time to write an article and you think it is worthy of your Facebook Page, do yourself and your fans a favor and take the time to manually enter the information. Your Page will be more aesthetically pleasing and you will have the opportunity to tailor your message, resulting in higher participation (I promise!).

Engaging Existing Supporters

I have described Facebook as an avenue to and from your website, but it’s also important to think of it as its own platform. There are many fans that will rarely leave your Facebook Page to visit your website, and because of this it’s important to engage them directly on the site. Use your Facebook updates to encourage your fans to respond to action alerts and to keep them updated on current bills or campaigns your group is working on.  You can also post pictures from events and videos that you might not post on your website or ask fans to answer questions or leave their opinions about the information posted.  Finally, encourage fans to click through links to read more on your website where they will be directly engaged with becoming members, signing up for email alerts, and donating.

Engaging your existing supporters is important because these are the people who will spread the word about your organization.  After you have managed your Facebook Page for a while, you will get a feel for what your fans are interested in and what keeps bringing them back. To keep fans engaged and stress the importance of participation, think of ways to acknowledge fans that contribute often to your Page and are strong activists.

Reaching New Fans

I have learned of countless conservative organizations simply because my Facebook friends either became a fan or suggested that I become one.  There is no real art to this. You can reach new fans by having a “fan-raising” campaign where existing fans are encouraged to suggest the page to their friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter.  Targeted Facebook ads are also a great way to bring in new traffic.

However, word of mouth and viral marketing are not everything here. It’s also important that when I come to your Facebook Page, I see that there is active participation, the Page is frequently updated, and the information provided is of some benefit to me.  In the last installment of this series, we will outline more ways for you to encourage your activists to help you reach new supporters.

A Few Final Notes

Understand that building a strong following on Facebook will not happen overnight- especially if your organization is smaller, just starting, or issue-specific. Rather than getting caught up in the number of fans, think about the quality of your fan base. For example, if you have 250 Facebook fans, but only 10 of them can vote in your upcoming election, how much good do they really do you?  Focus on the quality of your Facebook Page and overtime your Page will grow.

There is no formula for building a successful and effective Facebook Page.  Mostly it takes time, persistence, and your own blend of whatever it is that makes your organization tick. Just keep in mind that if I become a fan of your Page it’s because at some level I’m interested in your topic. Now, your task is to create a Facebook plan that will translate my surface interest into action.

For more ideas, visit a few Facebook Pages I manage:
FAIR
Majority Connections
ConservativeNC

For more information about the ins and outs of good Facebook Pages, read “8 Tips for Building Effective Facebook Pages.”

Stay tuned for more, and, as always, please share this series with your conservative friends and other activists!

As you begin to assess your own website, it’s important to keep in mind the two goals we set in the introduction:

1. Goal 1: Provide good and timely information
2. Goal 2: Create easy methods for engagement

I mentioned in the introduction to this series that it is important to think of your website as your central information portal and your social networking accounts as the avenues leading people to and from your website. The above goals are for your overall media strategy, but key to a successful online presence is making sure your website realizes both. Put simply, it does not matter how many fans your Facebook Page has if fans coming to your website are not immediately engaged and encouraged to become more than just your Facebook fan.

We have been conditioned by Google to be able to find information readily and spoiled by Twitter’s never-ending stream of information. Because of this, when I come to your website, I expect to be able to find the exact information I am looking for fairly easily.  This is especially true if the information pertains to a recent event, ongoing policy debate, or a campaign schedule. You can rest assured that, in general, supporters won’t spend a lot of time on your website looking for the information you think is important. This isn’t because they don’t support what you are doing or even because they don’t want to help, but because our internet attention spans are very, very short.

There are three main questions that I ask myself when I review websites for clients. Begin assessing your website with these questions in mind.

(1) From the main page, how easily can visitors learn your major positions, your short and long term policy or political goals, what your group is working on currently, and, most importantly, how they can help you reach your goal?

Achieving this goal for your website could be as simple as incorporating a blog or rethinking your site navigation. Many smaller organizations shy away from blogs because they feel they don’t have enough information to sustain a blog.  If your group is in this position, stop and think about all the political and policy-related discussions you are having behind the scenes of your static site. If you are trying to get your supporters more involved, then this is the exact type of information you should be providing.  The purpose of your website’s blog is to inform in a timely manner, whether that means weekly, monthly, or just when something happens.

Blogs could also provide an important opportunity for activist engagement. Many small organizations are volunteer-based, meaning committing to a weekly or even monthly blog may not be feasible. Want to transition your supporters into activists? Get them involved by asking them to write a guest article for your site. Not only will this take the responsibility off the shoulders of your core group, but it will give your supporters ownership in the group.

It is important to note that while some sites may have a lack of information, there are also sites where the front page is information overload. I want to be clear that I am not advocating you put all your information on the front page (please don’t).  This is where rethinking your site’s navigation could also come in handy. Find a happy medium that makes navigating your site both easy and informative.

(2) Is your website dynamic? This is to say, does your website provide updates about the information mentioned in question 1?

This question seems a little like the first in that it asks about information on the site, but here the difference is updates. If I was on the site a few months ago and learned you were watching a bill in the state legislature, can I come back to your site today to learn more about that bill and what’s happened over the last few months?  The point of your website is not to provide yourself information, but to provide your supporters with information. In your quest to turn your supporters into activists, updating your information and providing new goals is key to engagement. This is where a blog for your site will be useful. Supporters who feel they are in the loop are much more likely to stick with the organization.

(3) How easily can site visitors act on the information you’ve provided and encourage their friends to act?

Key to grassroots activism is eliminating as many barriers as possible for your activists, and this is just as true for online activism. There are two components to successfully engaging supporters online: (1) Encouraging supporters to share your information on their accounts and (2) Encouraging supporters to share your information by joining your social networking accounts.

To encourage your supporters to share your information, make sharing as convenient as possible. Is it hard to shorten a link then paste it into Twitter? No, but it becomes that much easier when you use a ReTweet application, Facebook Connect, and a share bar. I use ReTweet and Share Any on my accounts because using both reinforces the sharing message and helps to eliminate the barriers for sharing.

As for encouraging supporters to share by joining your accounts, it is my recommendation that you completely incorporate social networks into your overall website plan rather than adding links to your sites as an after-thought. I encourage you to use the Facebook Connect widget that you see on my site and a Twitter application that uploads your tweet stream.  The icons linking to your social network accounts are great, but everyone has them now, which has really decreased their effectiveness. Providing a glimpse of your Facebook Page content and your Twitter stream both stands out and gives your supporters more of a reason to act because they already know what they are getting into. This goes back to removing all barriers to acting.

A Final Note.

Remember that the goal of this series is to help you turn your casual supporters into engaged activists. Embracing Web 2.0 does not mean that you need to pay thousands of dollars for a fancy new website, though it may mean it’s time for an upgrade.  If you are in a position to upgrade your website, I recommend Wordpress.org. Wordpress offers a multitude of options and the best part is it will cost you next to nothing. If you want more information about how Wordpress can help you achieve these goals, please contact me.  If you aren’t looking to change your website up, I still encourage you to incorporate a blog, Facebook, and Twitter into your site.

In the next part of the series, we will discuss Facebook and how it can help take your member engagement to the next level.  Thanks for sticking with me and, as always, if you have any questions, just ask!

Help me get the word out about this series- practice using the ReTweet button and the Share Any bar!

One of the most frequent comments I hear from activists is that they don’t understand why they need Facebook, Twitter, Ning, or any other social networking site and yet they can’t seem to get their groups off the ground. A similar lament is that while finding supporters isn’t a problem, getting them to stick around and become part of the organization is. When the success of your group depends on member engagement, fundraising, and spreading a certain message, it’s important that your internet presence give members and potential activists as many avenues for acting as possible.

If you find that your organization has plenty of support, but you’re having trouble transforming your support into action, there’s a good chance your group hasn’t fully embraced Web 2.0. Embracing Web 2.0 means not just creating dynamic websites where information is readily available, but creating campaigns where your activist base can easily interact with the provided information.

You should approach your new media strategy with two overall goals in mind:

• Goal 1: Provide good and timely information
• Goal 2: Create easy methods for engagement

To reach your broad goals of providing good information and making it easy to share that information, your web strategy has to begin with your website and branch out from there. Think of your website as your central information portal and each of your social network accounts as the avenues that get people to and from your site (and your message). This series will begin with websites and go on to discuss keys for social networks, reputation management, and specific ways to engage your activists. The purpose of this series is not to give you the mechanics for installing Wordpress themes or creating custom Facebook tabs, but to explain why you might do these things and how they will benefit your movement.

Before we can truly realize a conservative revolution in this country, conservatives will have to learn to make the internet work for them. We’ve already made great strides in this area as a movement, but as with most great teams, we are only as strong as our weakest link. I hope you’ll stick around for the entire series and possibly share this information with other conservatives or your own groups. My goal with Majority Connections is to help conservatives learn to embrace new media and understand that with a good plan, a little bit of work, and very little money, a strong new media strategy will pave the way to success. At the end of this series, I will be launching a new consulting service specifically for groups looking to assess their existing sites and move forward with a new strategy. Stay tuned for more information!

Part 1:  Websites

Part 2:  Facebook

Part 3:  Twitter

Part 4:  Rethinking Social Networks

Part 5:  Reputation Management

Part 6:  Helping Them Help You

MC is committed to helping conservative groups of all sizes and scopes create their own, unique social networking and new media strategies in a cost-effective manner.  MC will work with your group to assess your best options for a successful online community, establish your social media presence, maintain your accounts, and provide monthly reviews of your campaigns.  After you’ve implemented your new social networking strategy, a New Media Training Session is a great way to teach your activists about your new social networking efforts and get them engaged in your online communities.

Consulting Services Include:

• Social Network Account Creation and Maintenance (ex. Facebook, Ning, Wordpress, Twitter, etc.)
• Community Moderation
• Monthly Review of Social Network Campaigns
• Reputation Management
• Branding and Campaign Management
• 24/7 Support

New Media Training Sessions Answer Questions Like:

• What is “Social Media”?
• Do I need a Facebook Page or Profile?
• How do I get more followers on Twitter?
• What is #TCOT?
• Should our group Tweet in first person?
• I want to start my own blog- where do I begin?
• How are other conservative groups using Twitter and Facebook?
• Can we fundraise on Twitter?

Learn more about Consulting and Training services and contact Majority Connections about your social networking needs today!

Building a quality account and a strong Twitter following takes some time and effort, but with these five (often-overlooked) steps you are guaranteed to be on the right track:

1. Fill in the following information: name, location, time zone, website, and a bio. Each of these things makes you easier to find and subsequently more enticing to follow.
2. Upload a picture. Preferably a picture incorporating your campaign, group logo, or, at the very least, your group name. (NOTE: For your individual Twitter account, upload a picture of yourself).
3. Change the design. Choose colors that represent your group.
4. Change the background. Upload your group’s logo for the background (select ‘tile background’ for a full background). If you aren’t happy with the look your logo provides, try a site like twitterbackground.com or twitbacks.com where you can create a custom Twitter background.
5. Tweet with hashtags. The best way to add quality followers and reach your target audience is through hashtags (search terms that begin with ‘#’). For a general conservative audience, try #TCOT (Top Conservatives on Twitter). For a more specific topic, follow the #tcot updates to see which hashtags are popular for other topics. Finally, create your own hashtag for your specific group. For example, #NRA for the National Rifle Association or #RS for RedState.com.

(NOTE: Steps 1-4 can be found under the ‘Settings’ tab in the top left corner of your Twitter screen.)

These tips seem simple (and are), but they are also really important steps for creating a quality Twitter account that people will want to follow. Even if you’ve already had your Twitter account for a while and you haven’t done some of the basics (like filling out your bio or uploading your organization’s logo), take a few seconds to do it now. I promise you will see a difference!

Do you have other Quick Twitter Tips to add? Leave them in the comments. And, as always, if you have any questions or want more advice about using Twitter, leave a comment or email Jessica.

Profiles: These are intended for individuals and their personal relationships, friends, contacts, etc. Everyone who is on Facebook has a profile and profiles are needed to set up all other accounts on Facebook.

Groups: Groups are informal and can be set up by anyone about any topic. These are best for ideas, opposition to certain bills, informal functions, etc.

Pages: Pages work best for public figures, organizations, websites, etc. Pages are more formal than profiles in the sense that they are run by the organization and function much like an extension of the group’s website. These are hands-down the best choice for most formal conservative entities (politicians, GOP groups, Conservative websites, advocacy groups, etc). For more information on pages, see “6 Tips for Building Effective Facebook Pages.”

Here’s an example of how Sen. Richard Burr could use each of the different platforms:

• Profile: Sen. Burr could set up his own profile where he could connect and interact with his friends, family members, staff, etc. Profiles are intended to be personal and work best when they are run by the person they represent.
• Page: This would be for his public presence. Ideally, Sen. Burr’s staff would treat his Facebook page as a media outlet where they could update fans on his voting record, publicize campaign stops, discuss his opposition or support for certain legislation, etc. Successful pages are frequently updated and experience a high level of fan engagement.
• Groups: A group for Sen. Burr would be set up by a staffer, friend, or supporter and would ideally be more specific. Here supporters could talk about a specific goal for Senator Burr (i.e. reelection) or their agreement of his position on a certain bill.

If the difference between Profiles and Pages is still confusing, note the different terms used for connecting with others through the two functions. On a profile, a personal connection is listed as a “friend” whereas a person who is connected to a page is termed a “fan.”  Profiles are personal. Pages are public.

There’s a lot more that goes in to deciding the best approach, but the general rule of thumb is that if you are looking to set up an official Facebook presence for your candidate or group, you need to be setting up a Facebook Page.

If you have more questions about setting up an account on Facebook, leave a comment on this post or e-mail Jessica.