The follow is the planned agenda for Aspiration's July 2011 Effective Online Advocacy for Grassroots Organizations .
The agenda will be updated based on feedback and requests from registered participants.
These trainings are designed for the person or persons in social justice organizations who have primary responsibility for their online campaigning strategy and communications. While there will be some technical content, the primary focus will be on strategic use of processes and best practices for online campaigning. The material is modeled to be most relevant to grassroots organizations working in underserved communities.
For questions about the agenda and topics to be covered, please email eadvocacy@aspirationtech.org, or call (415) 839-6456.
Agenda
Day 1
9:30am - Welcome and Agenda Overview:
Participants will introduce themselves and describe what they hope to get out of the training
9:45am - Effective Audience Assessment:
Do you really know who you are talking to? Participants will see how to assess web and other online traffic to learn what content is providing the most value and generating the most traffic. The process of identifying and designing content for audiences will be explained, and optimizing search engine ranking will be discussed.
12 noon - Lunch
1:00pm - Spectrums of Engagement:
How do the main online channels compare to one another? Participants will learn how online communications tools differ and relate to one another in terms of characteristics like tone, frequency and level of control. Stress will be given to thinking of online tools as part of a communications "spectrum" from which your organization can choose.
2:30pm - Break
2:45pm - Establishing a Publishing Matrix:
Do you have a model for when to use what tools in different situations? Participants will see examples of a “publishing matrix” which enumerates the online channels to which a campaign or organization is publishing, and defines appropriate actions in each channel for different content types, including newsletters, action alerts, event announcements, and press releases. The sample matrix will include columns for web, email, blog, Facebook, Twitter and mobile devices. A hands-on exercise will allow participants to create their own draft publishing matrix.
4:30pm - Adjourn
Day 2
9:30am - Welcome and Agenda Overview:
Participants will introduce themselves and describe what they hope to get out of the training
9:45am - Message Calendaring:
Is all of your online campaign and organizational messaging scheduled and tracked on a unified calendar that is visible to all stakeholders? This session will explain the process of creating and maintaining a messaging calendar. In addition, design of “narrative arc” will be described and correlated to calendaring strategies. Participants will be invited to construct their own draft calendars for the campaign or other online communications for which they are currently responsible.
11:15am - Introduction to Social Networks:
Are you taking advantage of social networks for your organization? Participants will be introduced to social networking tools Facebook and Twitter in terms of basic functionality as well as the differences and idiosyncrasies when using them as organizing tools. Emphasis will be put on identifying network hubs, being realistic about organizational capacity and issues around privacy online.
12:30pm - Lunch
1:00pm - Blogging Essentials:
Blog publishing continues to be a high-impact endeavor for many campaigning and advocacy organizations. This session will cover blog basics, explain how to set up and maintain an effective blog, and explore editorial and publicity strategies for blog content. Important concepts including RSS and comment strategies will be explained.
2:30pm - Break
2:45pm - Social Media Dashboarding:
Do you know where you are being mentioned online? As the number of valuable eAdvocacy channels grows, tools are needed for tracking how and where a campaign or organization is being mentioned on web sites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere. This session will explain how to create such a dashboard, enumerate what free and low-cost tools are available, and describe best practices for getting the most value out of such tactical resources.
3:30pm - Adjourn