Trilogy Interactive is a digital agency that provides strategy, design, development and technology services for non-profits, political campaigns and public affairs organizations. It has worked with several prominent political figures and organizations. Online organizing through social media is an effective way to mobilize supporters due to the large number of social media users and the ease of sharing content. Clear calls to action are important to engage people. Trilogy provides examples of successful online petitions, Facebook applications and email programs it has run for clients.

1. Online Organizing through Social Media
Brent Blackaby
Trilogy Interactive
January 18, 2012
IMPORTANT NOTICE
The enclosed material is proprietary to Trilogy Interactive LLC. This material is
presented for the purpose of evaluating services and may not be disclosed in any manner
to anyone other than the addressee and employees or authorized representatives of
client named here within.

2. Who is Trilogy?
• A leading full-service digital agency for non-profits, political campaigns,
and public affairs with strategy, design & development, and technology
capabilities
• Client portfolio includes five past presidential races, dozens of advocacy
organizations, and more than 20 Democratic Senators
– U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer, Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy, Patty Murray, Chuck
Schumer, Sheldon Whitehouse, and others
– CA Democratic Party, CA Sec. of State Debra Bowen, Rep. Jay Inslee (WA), Rep.
Mazie Hirono (HI), and Elizabeth Warren (MA)
– Cancer Research Foundation, Community Catalyst, PICO National Network, Cal
Alumni Association
• We have raised hundreds of millions of dollars and mobilized millions of
activists for our clients via email, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other new
media channels
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

3. Why Online Organizing through Social
Media?
• Scalable
– 800+ million people on Facebook
– 300+ million people on Twitter
• Shareable
– Most Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube users are
primed to share content with friends & relatives – so
easy to tap into that ethos for activism
• Speedy
– Can respond quickly to breaking news and, with “first
mover” advantage, get significant attention very
quickly… but can’t always predict what will “go viral”

4. Clear call-to-action
People don’t often have a lot of time… so presenting them
with a clear, simple, easy ask is preferable to
bombarding them with many complex asks
Is the goal building your base? Raising money? Building
awareness?
• Sign my petition!
• Share with your friends on Facebook
• “Re-tweet this”
• Contribute
• Upload photos/video

5. End Big Oil Subsidies – McCaskill,
Schumer, Whitehouse
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

6. End Big Oil Subsidies – McCaskill,
Schumer, Whitehouse
• 49k+ total signatures on “End Big Oil Subsidies” petition
@
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

7. Step 1: Launch Email
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

8. Step 2: Petition Page
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

9. Sharing on Social Networks
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Niche sites
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

10. Posting to Blogs
• Political blogs
• News blogs
• Niche sites
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

11. Earned Media
• Coordinate media appearances with press staff
EndBigOilSubsidies.com
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

12. FriendOutTheVote.com
• Innovative Facebook application that encouraged CA Democratic Party
activists to contact likely drop-off voters for GOTV in 2010 midterm
election
• First, we matched the CDP’s target voter universe to Facebook IDs (24%
match rate, ~250,000 IDs)
• Then, through the app, CDP activists could identify which of their own
friends were in the target universe, and post personal GOTV messages
on those specific voters’ Facebook walls
• “Friend Out The Vote” app received 22,000 visitors, who in turn sent
thousands of GOTV messages to likely drop-off voters on their Facebook
walls
• Whereas traditional GOTV efforts on Facebook are scattershot with little
or no targeting, the CA Dem Party’s “Friend out the Vote” app targeted
specific voters and seemed more important and “real” to activists
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

13. FriendOutTheVote.com
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

14. Q&A
Brent Blackaby
Trilogy Interactive
bblackaby@trilogyinteractive.com
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

15. APPENDIX

16. Three Online Myths to Bust
1. Email is dead – FALSE!
– It’s not sexy, but email is still by far the largest driver of online
activity – including fundraising, volunteering & advocacy
1. Mastering Facebook and Twitter will instantly vault
you to online success – FALSE!
– Social networks are increasingly valuable channels, but you
shouldn’t base your entire online campaign on them
1. Running online ads means you have an online
program – FALSE!
– Online ads are important to promoting your issue or candidate,
but successful online programs require much more ongoing
engagement
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

17. An email success story: Barbara Boxer’s
2005-2010 Online Program
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

18. Case Study – Sen. Boxer’s email
program
• Email list grew by more than 1 million members from 2004-2010 –
to more than 1.1 million total
• The Boxer campaign raised $7.5 million online from grassroots
donors for 2010 cycle (plus $2 million more in event/mail
contributions processed online) out of $30 million total raised
• Boxer “money bomb” raised $600,000 online from 12,000
grassroots donors in a single day – on day of Boxer’s first debate
with Carly Fiorina
• Boxer’s out-of-cycle organizing from 2005-2008 was critical:
– Added 400,000 new members during that period (which fueled half of
the 2010 fundraising)
– Raised more than $1 million for other candidates during that period
– Doubled Boxer’s base of online donors heading into the 2010 cycle
• The online campaign never ends: Investing early and often
generates further success over time!
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

19. Case Study – Sen. Boxer’s email
program
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

20. Email: Aspirational Messaging
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

21. Case Study:
Progressives United
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

22. Message Box
Values
Issue & Obstacle
Goal
Bio
Campaign & Supporters
Contrast
Issue
Call to action
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

23. Campaign &
Values
Call to action
Supporters
Contrast
Bio
The name protests this winter in Wisconsin
The of the group communicates that
Progressives United is building its base of
we are about a tight community ofto workers
brought more media attention people
Issue
who share aandthan anything in decades.
supporters specific range of values.
rights issues
its organizational capacity
They showed& Obstacle
Issue how powerful progressives
The name Progressives United is meant to
through Feingold founded Progressives to
Russ membership-driven challenges
Those values include honor, fairness,
United afterand lost his theunited,fourththe
draw a contrast with bid name Citizens
the corporate-political status quo, including
can be whencommunityfor a and term
purity, he they are itself.
GE's low Where CU is a candefending anti-
United. tax bill, legislators As a legislator,
corporate-funded
in the now, Senate in 2010. sign contracts
Right U.S. corporations power of the threat
short-term motivational
heof Supreme Court's decision grassroots
withlosing group, PU is a true in Citizens
Astroturf
Thetransparency government, and useand
the federal positions, and the anti-
something. Russ Feingold the
had championed civil liberties and clean
worker/pro-corporate its unjustified larger
United was driven by agenda on Wisconsin
money from opposed membership.
group just the symptom
elections andthose contracts of ato build a
Progressives United are lookingbehalf of
corruptive then
military
candidatesRepublicans. can that
problem: corporateoffice, who of Iraq. will,
for money and
actions like the invasion corporate
long-term grassroots movement
fighting
Goal
legislate on contracts affecting those
influence coming to necessity,our politics
by psychological dominate have to be
asno intention
Feingold result, ourthey win. Right now,
corporations when public life. This big
and, morefounded Progressivescalling to
a aspirational. We are United
businessofgrassroots counter for the
provide a giving up
when you buyis tainting the egalitarian
progressives to constant from Target
money toothpaste aspirational
action, of youcomehealthyistolike
democracy America wantfounded teeth,
because passing was groups be.
just legislation
Astroturf corporate front
The goallikeProgressives Unitedto institute
to roll
together elect
Citizens codesuse Supreme bought and
Conservativesfor that money to as setting
ethics United thatinfluenceCourt our a
Target can are already
he identified justices
back corporate over
sold, so democratic come
their electingup toattacking everything you
candidate who stands for our democracy.
it's our progressives to
and sites on candidates who will represent
democracy and restore the power of
oppose. We have to rein in this corporate
hide
together and save the fundamentally
our progressive and democratic values.
ordinary citizens.
influence in our politics.
American principles of a citizen democracy.
united
pledge
average
Americans

24. Issue & Obstacle
Call to action
Goal
Contrast

25. Online ads and the engagement
ladder
Volunteer
Email, personal contact, social networks
Donor
Email, direct mail, phone
Supporter
Online ads, website, social networks
Voter
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

26. Why Online Ads?
• Americans spend 13 hours a week watching
television, and 13 online
• A majority of adults went online in 2008 to get
involved or get news about politics
• One-third forwarded something political to a friend
• Two-thirds of young people took political action on a
social network
• More than half of Americans ages 18-to-64 are online
political users
• More than half of the internet users in every major
age cohort took part in the political process in one
way or another during the 2008 campaign
Sources: (1) Understanding The Changing Needs Of The US Online Consumer, 2010; (2-6) Pew: The Internet's Role in Campaign 2008
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

27. Three Types of Online Ads
•List Growth / Acquisitions
– Judge results by return on investment (ROI)
– End goal is to increase net revenue for your
campaign
•Branding / Persuasion
– Judge results by polling improvement and,
ultimately, votes gained
– End goal is to increase support among targeted
groups (e.g. opinion makers) or the general public
•Rapid Response
– Mix of above two types; can be used for damage
control and/or to use news to gain new supporters
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

28. Online Ads 101
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential

29. Three Things to Take Away
1. Email is very much alive and well!
– It is still by far the largest driver of online activity – including
fundraising
1. Facebook and Twitter are important online tools for
communications and organizing, but they’re not the
entire toolkit
– Social networks are increasingly valuable channels, but you shouldn’t
base your entire online campaign on them
1. A successful online program involves much more than
simply running online ads
– Online ads are important to promoting your issue or candidate, but
successful online programs require much more ongoing engagement
through email, social networks, and good old-fashioned personal
contact
Trilogy Interactive — Proprietary & Confidential