Voter Gravity CEO Ned Ryun moderated a panel at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) titled “Social Media 3:0 – the Next Revolution will Start on Your Phone.” Take a look at the POLITICO piece with a write-up of the practical points for campaigns discussed during the panel:

POLITICO: Facebook, Twitter tell GOP how to keep it real

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — #Help. #CPAC2014.

Republicans believe they got crushed in the tech race in 2012, so they called Facebook and Twitter to advise them on how to reboot their efforts for 2014 and 2016.

At a Conservative Political Action Conference panel on Friday, representatives from the two social media giants joined GOP data and online specialists to help advise conservatives how to use data and social media to connect with voters on their phones and tablets.

Read the rest here.

After the polls close and the yard signs come down, what do you have left? You have staff and volunteers. These are people who worked for you and believe in what you stand for. Then there’s the data that you collected on your voters while campaigning.

One of the most time consuming — and necessary — things you will do while campaigning is to build a dedicated volunteer base. For decades, campaigns have been going through this arduous and difficult process of building a brand new volunteer base to help them win votes. They often start from scratch, wasting precious time.

Once the volunteer base is built, there is no reason to let it fall apart. This group of dedicated volunteers could become the volunteer base needed for another campaign in the area. With a little time, money and an objective, these activists can be a core of your skilled campaigners for years to come. Keeping track of volunteers after an election is crucial to future victory.

The other thing that is regularly left to the scrap pile is the hard earned voter data. Quality data is something that every campaign needs. If data were saved from one campaign to the next, the refinement would only continue. The more accurate the data, the more effective the messaging and the more efficient the voter canvassing. Don’t get rid of your data. Building the infrastructure now will help you if you decide to run again. Consider the possibilities of letting other campaigns use your data in the meantime.

This is already being done on a large scale by the Democratic party beginning back in 2012 presidential campaign. Naturally the data pool that the DNC  has access to includes information relevant to politics such as past voting records, political affiliation and political donations, but it also contains vast quantities of public consumer records. For example, if you voted last election, they probably have data on you, and they also know what kind of car you drive, what magazines you read, what kind of housing you live in, etc. This database is capable of recording hundreds of data points per voter. This kind of information gives those in charge of political messaging a good idea of what you want to hear from them as well as where and who you are.

We need to stop thinking about politics in the short term. At Voter Gravity, the question is not only what will help conservatives win this election, but what will make elections more winnable, period. Invest in a group of volunteers. Keep them active. Invest in good, clean data. Keep that data. Every campaign keeps the data points collected on each voter while using Voter Gravity. Take simple steps now to produce long-term victory.

Today we’re releasing our latest piece titled “Social Politics: The Impact of Social Networking on Political Campaigns.” To download the full piece, click here.

A preview:

It is now taken for granted that a strong online presence is indispensable for any “serious” political campaign. This now extends beyond a basic campaign website and includes the use of online social networking sites. Both Republicans and Democrats take social media very seriously, and professional consultants have made great sums managing candidates’ use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

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Those who have been involved with campaigns on any levels know they are organized chaos for the most part, or like herding cats. Those that are winning campaigns are usually the ones that have a plan, stick to it and are as organized as possible, from chain of command to campaign calendars to goals, to what time the pizza arrives at the campaign office. (Note: the last point is not vitally important to a winning campaign, just for making me happy should I be around your campaign HQs.) The organized campaign brings together the various aspects of a campaign into one cohesive whole. I like to call it a fully integrated approach to campaigning. What is the key to running an integrated campaign?

There are three primary things over which each campaign must have complete control at any given time (which is a stretch as no one anywhere at anytime has ever had 100% complete control over every aspect of a campaign, but roll with me here): Message, Manpower and Money.

The first and possibly the most important aspect of the campaign is the message — and now the heavens part, and angelic choirs break into chorus at the arrival of The Message. But in all seriousness, with no message, there is nothing to campaign for or about. It is critical to know how your message resonates with your voters, i.e. is it a winning message? If your campaign’s message is to increase the cat population in your neighborhood, that is a message, just not a winning one. Sorry. A voter contact system like Voter Gravity allows you to discover what impact your message has on each specific demographic in your district and also allows you to test and tailor your message accordingly.

In light of how important it is to manage your messaging, the second aspect of campaigning becomes even more crucial: managing your manpower. Staff and especially volunteers are the lifeblood of a campaign. You can’t live without them. It is important, however, that you make the most of your volunteers’ time and talents. An integrated system like Voter Gravity allows you to tie messages to regions or demographics and create custom walk and phone bank lists to ensure that your people get to the right places with the right message the quickest way possible. No duplicating your efforts. No more wasting time and resources.

Voter Gravity allows you to manage message, manpower and money (Yep, that’s what you call a quadruple alliteration, people) in one place. It allows decision makers to see where they stand on donors, donations, volunteers, goals, message, and survey answers, and gives them the ability to make even better decisions moving forward.

As a note, the need for such integration doesn’t end after the election, and the Voter Gravity team is working on creating a full-fledged CRM software for constituent services after you successfully make it into office. We are dedicated to making your political work easier from the campaign headquarters, to the door of the voter, to post election office and beyond. Integrating your message, manpower and money is key.

In the last several major elections we have seen the rise of a phenomenon in the political process. Early voting greatly affects voter turnout during an election. Nearly a quarter of the votes cast in the 2012 presidential election were cast early or absentee. Here are a few things you need to keep in mind to reach the early voting segment of your base:

The first and most important thing to do as you reach out to early and absentee voters is to avoid breaking the law. Early and absentee voting is one of the most strictly regulated parts of campaigning, and there are significant changes from state to state. Make sure you’re more than familiar with all the state laws regarding this.

Secondly, contact your voters. There are two distinct groups of absentee voters, those who request to vote absentee, and those who will just go vote early (depending on whether this is allowed in the state).

The first group is easier to target. This is the segment of voters that request absentee ballots.  They have to request these ballots from the Supervisor of Elections. You can get the list of ballot requests from either the supervisor of elections or the division of elections. This tells you who has requested the ballots, addresses, and possibly email and phone numbers. It is good practice to carefully time mailings to these people with the mailing of the ballots to them.

There are usually two ballot mailings; one for military requests, and then about a week later, domestic requests. Find out from the supervisor of elections when these ballots are getting mailed, and then send your literature the same day. It is also a good idea to keep your data up to date according to which ballots have been returned and which have not. Follow up with voters who are likely to support you and remind them to return their ballots.

The second group consists of those who will vote early for convenience or schedule conflict reasons. It is impossible to know which of the regular voters that aren’t requesting absentee ballots will vote early, but it is worthwhile to reach out and even encourage as many supporters as you are confident will support you to voter early. Provide forms for absentee ballot requests or information about early polling locations along with your normal material, targeted mailings, and literature drops. Encouraging your supporters to vote early allows you to focus your GOTV efforts more and more effectively as Election Day draws near.

Going door-to-door is both an art and a science. There are many common misconceptions born out of someone’s bad experiences campaigning for a political campaign that just don’t match up with reality most of the time. Let’s set the record straight:

7 Myths About Door-to-Door Canvassing:

1. The closer to the script you stay, the better.

This is what you will be told by most campaigns. That is because they are afraid you will say things that they don’t want you to say. Nothing is worse for a campaign than rogue messaging. The problem is that people don’t respond to scripts. They respond to people. Figure out the main messages of the campaign and be as natural as possible without deviating from those messages. (For top research in this area, check out “In the Trenches: What Republican Operatives Need to Know About Voter Canvassing.”)

2. It is illegal to knock on doors marked no soliciting.

A good friend of mine always asks these questions of volunteers who are wondering about no soliciting signs.  First, “Who made the laws about soliciting?”  The politicians. Second, “Who wants to get re-elected?” The politicians. Finally, “Does it seem likely that politicians would make laws that hamper their ability to get what they want?”…  In short, you are not soliciting. Going to a marked, no-soliciting door with a political campaign is completely legal.

3. Doors marked no soliciting will be less receptive.

This is sometimes accurate, but I have found that if the truth be told, the majority will not respond in any way more negatively than usual. Most of the time they don’t even remember they have the sign, and they basically don’t want average salesman coming up and bugging them. Occasionally you will get some people who will challenge you, and that is fine, you can just apologize and move on. To say this is the average however is a definite myth.

4. It is difficult to canvass territory that has been recently canvassed by another campaign.

I have literally been working opposite sides of the street with another campaigns worker before, going back over some of the exact same doors five minutes later. People actually like to compare and contrast. Any questions that the other campaign brought up to them are fresh on their minds. Rarely is it any more difficult to canvass after someone else. It can actually be very beneficial.

5. Doors with dogs should be skipped.

For reasons I have yet to comprehend, the presence of a dog in a front yard has a very unnerving effect on many first time canvassers. Dogs are pets. If you can see them, they aren’t typically dangerous, or they wouldn’t be out and free. Use caution and intelligence, but don’t be intimidated by that tail wagging lab simply because he happens to be trying to call you over by barking. Nothing facilitates a conversation with a voter like making friends with their dog.

6. It is fine to drop literature on a mailbox.

Every campaign I have been on has made a point to say this, but don’t forget!  Mailboxes are off limits. It isn’t just illegal. It is a federal offense. Don’t do anything to the mailbox. (And just for good measure, leave the post alone, too. Avoid even the appearance of evil.) Nothing like giving a campaign a good name like breaking the law.

7. People don’t like it when you knock on their doors.

Finally, as hard as it is for people to believe, the average person doesn’t mind having a campaign volunteer tell them what they need to know about a candidate to make an informed decision. It saves them time, and effort. They feel like they are getting decent information because it is straight from the source, and if you do your job right, it doesn’t take that long. There will, of course, be exceptions, but as a general rule, the overwhelming majority of your responses will either be neutral or positive, with the occasional cynic and recluse thrown in.

Take a look at Voter Gravity in the news:

The Republican election weapon of 2014 is here

The Daily Caller: “Among Voter Gravity’s core features are the ability to organize election volunteers on the go — compiling universally accessible phone banks to let volunteers call from anywhere, creating tailored walk lists based on household voter data, and deploying those maps to mobile volunteers via the canvassing app.”

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Political campaigns often go big or go home when it comes to fundraising and spending. The 2012 presidential campaigns set records for highest expenditures. The candidates spent approximately $1.8 billion combined. But where did all the money go?

By examining the different campaign spending strategies, we get an excellent idea of each campaign’s priorities. The Huffington Post broke down the “figures from the Obama and Romney campaigns, each candidate’s respective Victory Fund, the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee and their respective independent expenditure and coordinated expenditure arms.” (See numbers below.)

Perhaps the most significant spending difference between Republicans and Democrats in 2012 was the expenditure on payroll. Democrats spent roughly 7% of their entire budget on field personnel. The Republicans spent not quite 4%. Democrat field staffers were paid less than their Republican counterparts, allowing the Obama Campaign to hire field staffers at a ratio of almost 2.5:1. It is quite clear that the Obama Campaign stressed personal voter contact, making the campaign more accessible to the average voter. Equally as obvious is the fact that this strategy paid off. This is a clear example of the importance of running effective grassroots campaigns.

See for yourself: the breakdown of top 2012 campaign expenditures:

Total Expenditure

• Republicans: $885.6 million
• Democrats:  $919.3 million

Payroll

• Republicans: $33.3 million
• Democrats: $63.2 million

Television/Radio Ads (including production and placement costs)

• Republicans: $270 million
• Democrats: $420 million

Online Ads

• Republicans: $100.6 million
• Democrats: $118.1 million

Telemarketing

• Republicans: $74.5 million
• Democrats: $35.2 million

Polling

• Republicans: $19.3 million
• Democrats: $32.1 million

Other important takeaways:

Republicans spent approximately 41% of their funds on creation and placement of multimedia adds (higher according to some estimates). The Democrats spent roughly 58%.

The Republicans relied more heavily on telemarketing than Democrats, spending around 8% as opposed to not quite 4%.

The Democrats however relied more on polling than their opponents, allocating almost 3.5% as opposed to the Republicans just over 2%.