Are you an advanced practitioner of online organizing? Do you want a community of peers to learn from, connect with, and act as a supportive sounding board for what is most challenging in your work? Do you want to learn best practices on advanced topics that aren’t being addressed sufficiently elsewhere?
[Not quite this advanced? SMT’s Digital Campaigning Certificate Training Program may be for you.]
Sessions will run once a month, 60-90 minutes, via video conference.
Topics will be chosen based on participant interest and could include, for example, best practices to:
- develop a strong digital department
- ramp up collaboration and enroll organizational colleagues when you run a department of 1
- bridge the digital communications-organizing silos and ensure that digital is integrated into strategy
- maximize affiliates’ and partners’ digital capacity with limited resources
- define “hub” roles effectively
- manage contractors, determine when contractors vs. internal staffing makes sense, decide between freelancers (and different sources for freelancers) and agencies
- recruit effectively and keep great staff
- practice racial justice in staffing and digital organizing practices
- manage teams and projects efficiently
- maintain a digitally secure operation and best practices to get there
- run effective multi-channel campaigns, including using modest ad buys at pivotal moments
- GOTV – including, for example, integrating field operations with social media/digital, best tech for canvassing, effective online/offline activation during and after canvass operations
- targeted P2P texting and cellular buys combined with volunteer v. paid field operations
- effective list building, practices, cost, results
- online fundraising
- budget effectively
- track metrics and present them to build understanding and support for online organizing across the organization
- one of your biggest challenges missing from this list? Let’s add it!
To participate you must:
- work for a progressive organizing group or network of groups, or a union.
- do digital organizing full-time (though your title can be anything).
- likely guide the work of additional staff, though they may not report to you.
- have 3+ years of experience doing digital organizing across multiple channels.
- be eager to participate actively in a dialogue with peers and colleagues, sharing your experience and curious about theirs.
SMT staff will:
- moderate sessions or co-moderate with members of the group who would like to take leadership on a topic
- identify outstanding practitioners of a particular topic who are willing to share their expertise as guests
- prep a topic to ensure a focused, structured discussion
- ensure that recordings and other materials are sent out (we will pause recording when participants want an off-record discussion).
Cost: TBD
Access to some powerful tools will be available to participants for a small additional fee:
- Meltwater Media Monitoring and Media outreach (full access to searches and downloads of relevant journalist contact info as well as keyword searches of traditional media and social media coverage)
- CrowdTangle Dashboard with the ability to set up daily email notifications of viral Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts based on account lists or keywords and access intelligence about comparative engagement across accounts
- unlimited access to all of SMT’s developed CrowdTangle listening lists.
If you would like to be added to an “interested” list to hear more about this group as it develops, tell us about yourself.