The Campaign Workshop Blog

Social pressure, Does it work? We care deeply about social norms. Our desire to be liked and accepted by our peers shapes our behavior more than we’d like to admit. We lie about our bad behaviors and exaggerate our better tendencies to fit in. What’s more, we do things when we think other people are watching that we’d otherwise never bother with. That’s why social pressure is such an effective tactic for campaigns and organizations when it comes to getting folks to turn out and vote. Check out our tips for incorporating social pressure into your GOTV mail program this fall.
 

BallotReady is an online voter guide for local, state and national races. This week, we interviewed Alex Niemczewski to discuss how BallotReady can be used to amp up your GOTV campaign strategy.

In the world of politics, there is an array of confusing and random terms that folks use to describe trends. Voter roll-off is one of them. It is a term that is very important for down-ballot races to understand and fight against. More importantly, voter roll-off can make a difference for your GOTV campaign strategy. Find out how!  

For the longest time you could not call cell phones in an efficient way but now Stones Phones has some exciting new technology to make it easier to call cell phones using volunteers or paid phone banks. We asked Marty Stone 7 questions on calling cell phones for GOTV. 

A good digital GOTV plan, is not your father’s get out the vote effort. It used to be that GOTV was driven by walk lists, yard signs, door hangers, coffee and doughnuts. But as folks start to focus more on digital GOTV, having an actual plan to push turnout digitally is a must in our interconnected world. You still need the doughnuts and door hangers, but digital will add a layer of outreach that you did not have before.

Looking for a winning digital ad campaign? These days every campaign has some kind of digital ad component to it, but how does that result in electoral outcomes? Results vary and really depend on what kind of campaign you’re running. Here are some clear steps to develop a winning digital ad campaign.

When you launch a new campaign, advocacy or nonprofit website make sure you're ready to put in the work. The actual process of transferring the website is not the backbreaking work, it's the diagnostic tests and reports you'll need to run to test your site's functionality.

Digital political targeting can be tricky to navigate, but when done right, it can make digital ads work effectively and efficiently.

On any campaign, having access to good voter file is important. For good reason, the trend on most modern political campaigns has been to be data driven. But there are many pitfalls to avoid when using political data and a lot of ways that political data can go wrong. So it’s important that there’s always a human on the other end of that data asking questions and using reason instead of just taking the data at its face value. Below are a few top tips on how to successfully use political campaign data.

Political internship interviews can be challenging. All political greats start somewhere. a political internship can help teach you important skills necessary for future success in the political field- it will be your first political job. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand interned for former New York Senator Alfonse D’Amato during college, while Virginia Senator Mark Warner interned for three different Connecticut Democrats throughout high school and college. But with other exceptional candidates vying for the same internships as you, securing your first political internship can be difficult. You need to set yourself apart from these candidates to seal the deal and start your journey into the world of politics. One way to differentiate yourself from the sea of wannabe politicos is to master the internship interview. From one political intern to a future one, here are important tips to keep in mind as you get ready for interview season:

Whether you have been a nonprofit executive director in the past or this is your first time as a new executive director, taking over an organization has its challenges. Follow our 10 tips to make your transition into a new executive director job smooth:

After hitting the snooze button, the political intern wakes up. Already having their work clothes packed, they grab a quick breakfast and head off to the gym.

Everyone has a story to tell. For politicians, advocates, and change makers, how you tell your story is essential. A great way to do this is through writing a book about your life. Every major politician of the last few decades has penned an autobiography, telling their story of how they achieved the American Dream. Political advocacy books include how the writer grew to overcome obstacles and persevere to make the world a better place.

I am not a political pollster, and I don’t play one on T.V. But, I am a big consumer of political polling and spend a lot of time working with pollsters to craft political surveys. When it comes to creating a political survey, we often see folks make the same mistakes.

Campaign manuals and eBooks on politics (especially good ones) are hard to come by. So here is a list of our favorite campaign manuals to help progressive candidates win campaigns. These campaign guides come from experts in a range of different fields. They cover everything from debate prep to messaging. Here is a run-down of our favorite eBooks and campaign manuals by Meg Ahern, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and more: