Live blogging. Be warned: typos in text...

Natalie Foster, DNC
Rebecca Moore, Google Earth Outread
Laura Quinn, Idealware
Moderator: Amy Sample Ward, NetSquared

INTRODUCTIONS
Natalie Foster
Director of New Media, DNC
www.democrats.org
Worked at moveon.org -- where learned power of tech
Came to DNC 1.5 months ago
Building up a team

Rebecca Moore
Google Earth
Bkgr in computer science
Started in 2005 at Google -- designed job wanted -- raging environmentalist
Gave a talk to Google and hired her
In her one day a week, did GE Outreach
Wants to make world better place with GE
Now have small team

Laura Quinn
Director, Idealware
Nonprofit software
idealware.org
Helping people to choose

Amy Sample Ward
Global Community Builder, NetSquared

WEBSITE, EMAIL, CONSTITUENT MANAGEMENT
Laura Quinn
For many online friends, your website if your organization. It's critically important.
Think through what does it say you about you? Show you as compelling org?
Tools that help with sites:
Main one: CMS -- very simple to complex (e.g. SquareSpace & Homestead up food chain to Joomla and Drupal)
Thinks wordpress is more complex. hmmm...
Email is a channel that's not talked about enough. Chatter is around newer tools.
Email is a critical channel. Reach out to your constituents to let them know what you're doing.
Or ask them to take action.
Not as effective as direct mail, but more than other online tools.
Details are critical in email.
- Who is the email from
- Subject line?
- Graphics
- etc.
Broadcast email tools -- two standalone tools
(1) VerticalResponse
www.verticalresponse.com
Free up to 10,000.
(2) Network for Good
www.networkforgood.org
Both more sophisticated than Constant Contact
Don't forget your constituent database
What are the types on constituents -- how do you combine.
All online communications revolve around knowing your constituents.
Idealware.org has huge amount of info on these topics.

SOCIAL NETWORKING AND TWITTER
Natalie Foster, DNC
In a perfect world, have someone on all social media. But... to choose.
(1) Know what you want to get out of if. Recruit? Fund raise?
(2) Prioritize tools with biggest ROI. Dollars raised, eyeballs seen.
Online social networking -- networks of trust, relationships, important to tap into when organizing.
Facebook and MySpace biggest. Twitter close behind them.
Mybarackobama.com -- hugely important -- finding other Obama supporters.
But most want to use existing social networks.
Tip: pay attention who is doing good FB organizing and watch how they use it. E.g. most folks on FB at night.
Twitter.
Microblogging. Often integrated with other social media -- very flexible.
New, generating big buzz.
Organizing starting to happen on it.
Still very small compared to who is on web and email.
Politicians and reporters often on it -- plus other early adopters.
Can be used for real time transparency.

GOOGLE'S GEO TOOLS
Rebecca Moore
(Mapping Tools)
Might think more obscure than email, but new generation of mapping tools -- "neo-geography".
Fully interactive. Can create stories within GE. Can use it to present info about your organization.
Can present GE within your website.
How she got into it.
Live in Santa Cruz mountains. Received obscure map - no one could understood. Studied and remapped in GE.
Showed how close to day cares and schools logging would be, where helicopters would be flying in.
Allowed a lot of complex issues to be understood. Even Al Gore got involved. Impact: stopped the plan.
Mountain top removing and coal mining in Appalachia
5 people and a dog work. Can only appreciate overhead. Couldn't afford to fly politicians over.
Showed on GE. Like scene out of Armageddon. Helped how to tell story of mountain top removing.
Used to present information to congress. NJ congressman wrote blog post, then Huffington Post.
Online petition. Only had two signatures. Two days later over 13,000 signatures. Written up in WSJ.
EPA just halted all new permits and ordered a review of the practice.
Genocide in Darfur
50% increase in traffic to site since launch
Hits to "What Can I Do?" page went from 2,000 per month to 40,000 per month.
Fair Trade
Where are these organizations? Organization uses
Goldman Environmental Prize uses GE to take everyone on a tour
Woman who created it is not a programmer. If can use Excel, can use this tool.
How to help non-profits?
- Show what is at stake -- don't just tell people.
- Raise awareness
- Reach a broader audience
- Plan and visualize your projects and results
- Educate, inform and move people emotionally - inspire action
- Influence decision-makers; impact public policy
Get started -- go to.
earth.google.com/outreach
Has all kind of resources.
Give to free for non-profits.

Q&A
Can we get by with just social media instead of website?

Laura -- site has to have reasonable amount what you are and what you do.
Think through what are goals of site and can we meet it with a tool?

Natalie -- let numbers decide. Many more folks aren't on Facebook.

Rebecca -- Not social expert... May be generational thing. Depends on age range of people you want to attract.
Traditional website might be important -- stature and authority. If costing is issue, lots of free hosting.

Q&A
How do we measure how use these tools and make a real world impact?

Laura -- Know your goals -- then link to things can measured.
E.g. analytics and talk to people. Email is very quantifiable. Who opens, clicks, conversion.
What is impact you want to achieve and what can translate in metrics. Not trivial.

Natalie -- these things are tactics. What is your ultimate goal?
Having lots of friends of Facebook probably isn't a real benchmark.

Rebecca -- Lots of metrics in what presented. Need to be careful about these things, especially
in inherently sexy technologies. First thing she asks -- what are you trying to accomplish?
What can this tool offer you? What does it cost? What are maintenance aspects?
Think through strategy and assess tools.

Q&A
Laura -- is there a service that manages everything? Really the question is is there a tool that meets
all of your needs? Chances are will take a lot of setup time.

Natalie -- is there a tool you'd recommend for measuring Twitter, etc? Pew and Techcrunch links in her sideshow.

Rebecca -- is set up with GE API out-of-box or do you need to hire someone? Lot you can do very easily.
Tutorials walk through making a map, etc. Worked hard to demystify -- and indicate when need programmer.