The Campaign Workshop Blog

We all love life hacks. I’ll read any article that promises to show me “10 ways to be more productive at the office” or “15 secrets to make your morning better” or “5 ways to pack a healthier lunch.” Even if I just glean a single tip from the list, the sparkling promise of ease and order will hook me every time. That was why I was excited to try out the Hemingway Editor, a website that’s designed to show you simple ways to make your writing “bold and clear.”

When I started on the campaign trail, I was lucky enough to go through the Campaign Management Institute, where I became focused on political campaigns and encountered great mentors like Peter Fenn, Richard Smolka, Bill Sweeney and Peter Lindstrom through college programs and internships. Meeting folks who had made careers out of politics encouraged me to set aside my mom’s vision of me becoming  a professional chef and instead, pursue a career in politics and find a political campaign job.

Sometimes jargon prevents us from learning about useful tools. Recently I had a conversation with a client who asked me what is an API?  An API, or application program interface, is a portal to allow connection between databases, apps, or programs.

As political consultants, it's no secret that here at The Campaign Workshop we love words. We thrive on combining short, powerful phrases with impactful images to make eye-catching online ads. We dig into topics like GOTV, advocacy, and storytelling in our ebooks and guest blog posts. And in our office, we happen to have a tiny library (OK, so it’s really just a shelf in our conference room) where the staff can turn for inspiration, history or other political or consulting books once the crush of the presidential election is over.

By the end of the year folks will be going to conferences again.  Conference ROI is important to understand whether or not certain conferences are worth the investment and time. Every year my employees and I go many conferences Virtual and some day in person for both learning and marketing. I believe every conference  - I learn something. Prior to focusing on return on investment (ROI), we never a had a formal process for retaining knowledge from a conference. So a few months ago we implemented a simple plan to document conference ROI.

If political job hunting at any stage in life is a daunting process, searching for your first ever political job as a young person can be soul-crushing. While you may not be able to avoid all the headaches and meltdowns that accompany your transition into the Real World, these tips for your first political job hunt will at least help you breathe more easily (and maybe even sleep at night) as you navigate.

Since Facebook video launched on newsfeeds, it’s become one of the largest video platforms in the world. Due to the natural social pressure of the environment, it’s also a great place to run ads to promote your branding, persuade voters, and gain support for your advocacy or political campaign. Make sure you’re getting the most out of Facebook video for advocacy and politics with my three can’t-miss tips.

Originally from West Palm Beach, Florida, Donna Victoria holds an undergraduate and master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Florida. She serves on the Board of Advisors for UF’s graduate degree program in Political Campaigning and Lectures on Political Polling and Survey Research to a variety of audiences.

Put Campaign Strategy First. Lessons from a Political Strategy Firm.

As a campaign strategy firm that specializes in political and advocacy advertising, it is a consistent challenge to keep strategy as a primary consideration in a campaign. A variety of political concerns, such as creative and budget, can distract and even overshadow the pursuit of long-term and short-term strategic goals. Campaign tactics should complement good strategy not impede it. Having clearly defined goals can make a big difference.

In our last blog post, Digital Advocacy: Advertising Campaign Goal Setting Part I,  we talked about how to develop digital advocacy strategy, cost per acquisition (CPA) campaigns, email programs and the best ways to utilize ad testing. In today's post, we take a closer look at using tactics like paid digital advertising, social media and analytics for digital advocacy. You can also read more about this in our latest ebook, Guide to Digital Advocacy.

Kevin Simowitz is the National Field Director at Caring Across Generations and an expert on advocacy storytelling. He has worked on political and grassroots organizing campaign across the country. Kevin was nice enough to answer six question about advocacy storytelling. Here are his thoughts on using advocacy to get your story out.