Becker Digital Strategies
Political Social Grab Bag
November 2015
 
 
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What's new to think about?
I apologize in advance, this month’s newsletter is 3 times longer than usual but it was a busy month in the social media space and too much of it was too important to leave out. As usual, to see all of the information that didn’t make the cut for this newsletter check out my Facebook Page where I post everything as I see it if I know it won’t make the newsletter.
I have 3 announcements to share so this month I’ll use this space for that.

First, at the Organise US Digital Intensive in Melbourne our friends at Canva unveiled a new product Canva for Non Profits! If you are a 501(c)3 in the US or non profit in other countries you can now get 10 free licenses for Canva for Work for free!

Second, just hours ago Action Sprout and Facebook announced a new program for non profits in which they are giving away $2 MILLION dollars in ad credits. Use THIS link to apply for up to $1500 in ad credits over 3 months. You must be a 501(c) 3.  Applications are open until November 15 and the ad credits will be for use December-Feruary.  The coolest part of this? Once you apply your credits you can then use Action Sprout's new Smart Ads (see Tools Section) to help you get the most out of your free ads!

Finally a bit of personal news: Last week I accepted a position as a Senior Fellow for Digital with the New Leaders Council, a progressive organization that conducts leadership training institutes all over the country. Applications for the 2016 Institutes are due by the end of the day today so go apply now! I will be helping them to incorporate digital training into all of the training work they do along w/working with their staff nationally and at the local level on their digital strategy as an organization.  I am not giving up consulting or other training work, just doing this in a more formal arrangement than a normal cosulting gig :)

Training & Webinar alert:
I was hoping to have registration links today for 2 January trainings but details are still being finalized. For now if you live out west, Jan 12 & 13 I will be working with some others to offer Intro to the Digital Space in Phoenix, Arizona. Jan 14 & 15 I will be offering Social Media Strategy also in Phoenix. Watch my Facebook page for registration links (scholarships will be available).
Additionally I will be doing 2 trainings in Nashville, Tennessee the week of January 18- dates and details to be finalized this week.

I’m also in the middle of planning a hefty training schedule for next year- if you’d like to see some digital training in YOUR city next year- drop me a line and let’s talk...I am working with NLC and a few other organizations to bring such training all over the country in 2016!
 
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What I'm Reading
The most informative or thought-provoking articles of the month (IMHO)
Social Media Usage: 2005-2015- If you haven’t already pored through the latest from Pew go do so now

#SocialCongress 2015- Likewise if you haven’t already read the Congressional Management Foundation’s report stop reading this newsletter and go read it

Why we should just nationalize Facebook- not that I agree but the author does raise some good things to be thinking about

Velocity, Acceleration, and New Ways of Measuring Marketing Impact- More on metrics next month but some interesting ways to be thinking about how we measure online success

No 3 Trend: Why Episodic Content Is a Must-Have in 2016- Points to ways to be thinking about how we use social media to tell our stories a little at a time
 
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Tools
Make yourself look good with the most interesting and promising tools of the month.

(Note this month there is Tool overload!)

Action Sprout Smart Ads- This is referred to in the announcement at the beginning of today’s email, but you don’t have to be part of the pilot program to use Smart Ads yourself. Just log into ActionSprout and connect your Ads Manager account to your Action Sprout account. Now ActionSprout will monitor your content and when it’s overperforming it will create a promoted post for you based on budgeting and targeting you set when you set it up. Easy to tweak and even turn off an ad if needed.

Spark- Finally- an easy way to do Facebook Ad A/B Testing. I got a demo of this just the other day so haven’t used it yet but will be. Meantime, while this isn’t a free tool they were nice enough to give me a code to share with my email subscribers (YOU) that will give you 40% off of the price for 12 months (thank you Patrick!). Just use Becker_VIP when it asks you for a code when you sign up.

Snip.ly- A new way to layer action over other links you are sending out complete with data (shout out to Cameron Wheatley of Environment Victoria for alerting me to this one!)

Hashtracking: Not free, but a very useful tool for compiling hashtag data all in one place

Exposure- similar to storify but allows more user input for an example check out the one Organise US did to report back on the Digital Intensive last month!

Have you been using some cool new social media tools? Let me know by emailing me at beth@beckerdigitalstrategies.com or tweet em to me!
 
 
Platform Updates
As social media practitioners, one of our biggest challenges is keeping up with changes to the platforms we all use. I’ll try to provide info on the bigger updates to help you keep pace.

Facebook

In case you missed the big announcement..no dislike button but reactions are now being tested in a few countries- they’ll show up in your post insights when someone in one of those countries uses one
Lead Generation ads are now open to everyone...my initial forays into this have yielded some great returns so go experiment & report back! Read more about them here too: Top 3 Reasons to Try Out Facebook's Lead Gen Ads
Be aware that Facebook is currently testing Topic Based News Feeds that look a little easier to track than the current Interest lists
Maybe the most interesting current Facebook test- sponsors on posts ie surrogates can be tagged in your post as a way to increase organic engagement
New to Power Editor Detailed Targeting

Instagram
New stand alone app from Instagram Boomerang which converts a series of photos into video

Twitter

From #Twitterflight we now have polls...native video ads and even more to come soon

 
 
Don't try this at home!
Proving that political social media gaffes aren't limited just to the US
 
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Winning the Internet:
Exxon gave climate activists a chance to have some fun
 
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What a month!  If you've made it all the way down here, thank you for reading!  
Beth
 
 
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