How might we...
- How might we build a left pole of 11-12 State Senators & 27 House of Delegates that shift the balance of decision-making power in the hands of a new majority in Virginia?
- How might we build a sustainable online deep base community using issue campaigns?
- How might we significantly increase our membership base around criminal justice and democracy issues?
- How might we test for the best tactics and tools for recruiting people to join an online community?
Hypothesis
If we recruit people to join an online community as a low barrier to entry for an issue campaign, then we can drive action and grow our deep base simultaneously.
Design
Instead of focusing on pushing for a RTV amendment, this campaign is now centering on pushing the state government to provide resources for those recently released from prison so they can safely integrate back into society.
This experiment is intertwined with Connect 6 Experiment
Set up:
- Create a container Facebook group to recruit people to join (already 60 people in this container).
- Set up application questions to track:
- their source of recruitment as well as if
- how they’ve been directly impacted by mass incarceration?
- Set up application questions to track:
- Create standardized scripts / messaging for each approach.
- Use P2P texting to a defined list of 6K formerly incarcerated individuals with an ask to join the FB group
- Run a FB ad campaign to a roughly equal audience recruiting them to join the group as well.
Actions:
- Create Facebook test, define data tracking system
- Build an audience for FB ads to target
- Prep scripts and messaging for ads and texting
- Prep P2P texting list
- Launch P2P texting and ads simultaneously
- Track sign ups to Facebook group by source (using questionnaire info to let know who you are and easy)
- Facebook group is actively moderated w/ daily actions and engagement. New applications approved and new members welcomed each day.
- Actions prepared on the campaign to share in FB group:
- Petition, Call the governor, Share w/ friends.
Metrics
Core success metrics:
60 people in it now (does include allies + not directly affected folks)!
- New Facebook group members by source
- Conversion rate = Success / attempts (or impressions for ads)
- Facebook group activity
- What % of new members post a comment or take an action
Qualitative Success:
- After 30 days is the Facebook group still active? How active?
- Is it still growing organically?
- Has it been successful in creating leaders for organizing team?
- We can develop best practices and systems to replicate this online recruiting across issue campaigns.
Learnings
- This tech and organizing collaboration worked! Organizing side was surprised by the pool of people who joined.
- In real time we saw that people joined the FB group was overwhelmingly via P2P text. In future we want to make sure we can track that better for those we decline.
- FB Ads was a successful way to bring people into FB page but unclear what percentage of these folks are formerly incarcerated folks and their loved ones.
- Since 100 people did not answer the questionnaire, we had to pivot and make the FB group broader to include allies in addition to those directly impacted. We are keeping the integrity of centering and following leadership of those directly impacted by incarceration and have created a subset for these members.
Across Crowne Royale and Connect 6:
Want to close the binary of digital and organizing, not to make organizing digital but to implement. Organizing vision has to be more informed by digital tools and that takes some learnings. Understanding what is possible. The big difference between vision and execution. We can make a little less abstract in visioning. Starting to clarify the importance of having a one on one socially distant in person is one thing but we’re also doing digital one on one’s. So what does that mean?
We are committed to do to build power in distributed fashion and takes step and surrendering to notion that right now we can’t do that the old way. Face to face stuff. There is no magic tool, if we are doing it then how do we get better at organizing digitally? Are there other tools that might be helpful? (We know organizing). Challenging for our core members and broader community to engage online so what do we do to get them to acclimate and get them used to these tools!