Alan Rosenblatt, Executive Director of the IAC, runs a phenomenally informative Internet Round Table each month. I attended yesterday's round table and it's amazing how much I learned in two hours. Incidentally, the round table is a bargain and Alan serves up some knockout food and desserts!
This month's topic was, "Message Strategy for a New Democratic Congress.” The speakers included Chris Burley of Defenders of Wildlife, Clark Stevens of Campaign to Defend the Constitution, and Joshua Ulibarri of Lake Research. The speakers each gave a short presentation, then spent the last hour in an intense Q&A.
What’s the best timing for messaging after the election? What kind of new technologies can help spread the message? What kind of semantics are going to be critical? How broadly should we cast our net? How do we craft a message that reaches our audience without alienating the middle? These were just some of the really interesting questions the panelists addressed.
Here my notes from this months meeting:
- Logistics: most new members of congress don't even get their e-mail set up in the first three months.
- Stick to the issues, don’t let you message get diluted by the mechanics of politics
- Stress bipartisanship. Don’t alienate people. Republicans support conservation too!
- Don’t get carried away. Just because progressives won doesn’t mean its going to be easy.
- Continue to hold everyone accountable...Democrats and Republicans.
- Continue to educate. Don’t stop.
- Name identification is still important. Few people recognized the name Richard Pombo before the Defender’s of Wildlife Campaign.
- Get local. Build communities to around the issues.
- Support citizen co-sponsored initiatives.
- Make secondary calls to action. They are not as effective as the first round, but they’re an important part of your campaign nevertheless.
- Build on the success of the elections so you can tailor your message. Remember that the elections meant that the American people spoke in favor of a change--so build on that. Change your message to reflect this the new audience.
- The messaging is now going to be more focused. It’s OK to say what you couldn’t say before. Be proactive and get your message out.
- You’ve got to make the message hit home. Show how your issue effects the daily realities of the people in your target audience: how it effects either the pocketbook or their home or family or community or children.
- Don’t cast your net too narrowly. Casting a broader net tends to produce better results. For example, it’s good to geo-target, but not helpful to dig deeper into geographically restrictive industries or zip codes for example.
- Take your online community to task: a personalized message to congress is far more effective than a form message (by about a factor of 10).
You won’t want to miss the Internet Round Table in the new year. Alan announced some hot topics:
January: cutting edge fundraising tools.
February: video content. new platforms resembling YouTube but exclusively focused on political video and a representative from Witness.
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