Like a fine wine, it's a combination of elements that make a
successful grassroots campaign. Take one ingredient away, and your
fine wine turns into cheap grape juice. In online grassroots
campaigns, the wining combination is the right technology, good
strategy, persuasive messaging, and spot-on timing. The first four
ingredients you can control, but timing often is a matter of
luck.
Timing
In April 2003, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) had a list
of about 80,000 online supporters, which was about the same number
it had in April 2002.
In May 2003, I helped HRC's staff launch a new online action
center (http://www.hrc.org/takeaction)
that was designed to promote more viral recruiting among existing
members. By September 2003, the list had grown to 140,000
supporters, mainly through members recruiting their friends and
family -- pretty good results but nothing as to compared to what
was to come.
In October, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that same-sex
marriages were legal; in January 2004, President Bush said he
wanted to amend the Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.
By March 1, 2004, HRC had grown its online supporter list size
to more than 500,000 activists, and it raised about $1 million
online. While the technology and hard work of the HRC staff helped,
timing was key to the success of its online grassroots program.
Lesson learned: Be prepared for what might happen and then hope it
does.
Messaging
Issues that normally might not fly in the real world -- stories
that only would resonate with a finite audience -- can make it
online because of the Internet's unique ability to find and
communicate the right message with targeted groups.
For example, a consumer coalition called Keep USF Fair
(http://www.keepusffair.org) is
opposed to a potential change in the collection method for the
Universal Service Fund (USF) the Federal Communications
Commission is considering -- Yawnsville to most Americans.
But while this issue is relatively unexciting to most of us,
those folks who use prepaid wireless services are directly affected
-- potentially in a very negative way by the proposed change.
The Keep USF Coalition has been able to build a list of more
than 65,000 Americans in less than a year -- no purchased or rented
names here -- and it has sent e-mails and faxes via the coalition
Web site to their members of Congress and the FCC.
The key was the ability to have a message that resonated with
the target audience and then delivering that message in a
cost-effective manner.
Online Activists Influence Others
The Internet is not only cheap and fast, but it may actually be
where the best kinds of activists reside. Recent studies have shown
that people who use the Internet for political communications and
news are more likely to be "influentials" who like to vote, who
take action and who shape the opinion of those around them
(http://www.nopworld.com/news.asp?go=news_item&key=41
& http://www.ipdi.org/UploadedFiles/political%20influentials.pdf).
Cyber Roots Is Not Just E-Mails To Congress
The goal of your grassroots campaign should be to mobilize
supporters to take real action. E-mails sent to Congress do not
impact staffers on the Hill.
They make your supporters feel good and that may be worth
something, but the goal should be to get your supporters to take
action that has real impact, e.g., a personal visit, a phone call,
a personalized fax, a handwritten letter or a donation to the
campaign.
Make Supporters Feel Important
It's crucial to constantly interact with your supporters, such
as sharing results with your activists and asking them what they
got back from the elected officials when they took action
And it's amazing how far a few simple "thank you" notes will go
to generating goodwill for the next campaign.
Contact: Mark Reilly is senior director/professional
services in the Washington, D.C., office of GetActive Software. He
can be reached at 202.659.8585 x 5028 or at [email protected].