This is the third installment in a series titled, How to Get Your Client on the Front Page of the New York Times, explaining how PureDriven helped vault the GoogleTwinPorts initiative (focused on Duluth, MN and Superior Wis.) to national prominence in its effort to win Google’s attention and become one of the few sites where Google will build an ultra-high speed network. I’ve written this series in hopes of sharing with businesses, politicians and grassroots organizers how to best gain offline and online attention for your cause, event or organization.
Credit: Jason Gulledge
Lesson 3: When it comes to running a grassroots campaigns, stick with what everyone is already familiar with.
Initially we used a couple fantastic workflow products from 37Signals.com called Basecamp and Highrise. Highrise was our database for all volunteers and supporters and where they fit in the big picture, which we immediately began forming upon launching the project. Basecamp tracked all the various tasks and committees everyone was a part of. Trouble was, even though the bulk of those volunteering on the project were tech-savvy, the tools were too unfamiliar, which might as well have been synonymous with being too complex.
It’s not that people didn’t know the essentials of how to use them. It’s that too many people didn’t have or take the time to really get to know the program intimately. So even though project management leaders formerly pushed the core volunteer group (about eight people) to use the programs, by the end of the initiative, everyone defaulted to shared Google documents and spreadsheets. Why? It was easy, intuitive, and familiar territory.
So Remember: Stick with what’s easy, especially when you’re short on time, and whenever you’re dealing with lots of people. No matter how much easier a new program promises to be, unless the group has had time to really grow comfortable with the new program, they’ll default to what works most easily.
To read the first post in this series, visit “Google called, so we vaulted our client to Page 1 of the New York Times”
To read the second, visit “In Campaigns, Little or No Money Sometimes An Advantage”
Photo Credit: Jason Gulledge
Tags: Campaigns, Googletwinports, NewYorkTimes, Tools
