Put E.Politics to Work for your Cause, Company or Campaign
E.politics is about practical results — both as an award-winning website and as a consulting business. Colin Delany, who founded epolitics.com and is its editor and primary author, has worked in the political world since 1991 and has helped clients take advantage of online political communications since 1996. As a website, epolitics.com is devoted to exploring the craft of online advocacy. As a consultant, Delany puts that information to work for progressive advocacy campaigns, nonprofit organizations, corporate clients and electoral campaigns.
Online Advocacy Training
In addition to consulting, Delany frequently speaks to groups about the essentials of online communications, providing an overview of tools from the latest and most-hyped to the more-established standards. He also provides more detailed sessions on best practices in the use of particular applications such as social media, social networking, blogs, online video and email advocacy. Contact e.politics to set up a training session.
Online Communications/Online Advocacy Consulting
- Strategic Online Communications Planning
- Website and Technology Development
- Social Media/Social Networking Strategy and Execution
- Blogs and Blogger Relations
- Email Advocacy
- Online Advertising
Strategic Online Communications Planning
The most basic communications question: how do we get there from here? And once we have a strategy, how do we turn it into concrete results? As a consultant, Delany works with clients to identify the strategies most likely to yield results, based on each client’s unique strengths and resources and on the political realities on the ground.
Often the solution involves an integrated online/offline approach, sometimes an online-only campaign, but every now and then the best thing for an organization to do is to hire a good lobbyist — and Delany won’t hesitate to urge a client NOT to spend money on an online project if it’s not necessary. The goal: help clients make the right decisions about how to use their limited resources most efficiently — and reach their political communications goals.
Website Design and Construction/Technology Development
Once you’ve laid out an online strategy, the next step is to implement it. But what needs to be built, should build it, at what cost and how long should it take? Political communicators can be overwhelmed just by the names of technologies like Drupal, Joomla, Plone, Linux and PHP, much less have experience comparing online advocacy vendors like Convio, EchoDitto, Care2, Grassroots Enterprises and MSHC.
With over a decade in the online political world, Delany can walk you through the technology development process, helping to match you with the correct vendor for a given project and acting as your advocate as your website, database application, social media campaign or other online advocacy tool is being built.
Delany has also worked as a web designer and technologist since 1996, and as part of e.politics is currently building advocacy websites for clients, primarily using the Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress content management systems.
Social Media/Social Networking Strategy and Execution
Delany also helps clients develop specific strategies for particular online tools, including social media. Social media deeply involve an organization’s members or supporters, encouraging them to create words, pictures, video and sometimes even strategy. Examples include online video contests, suggest-a-slogan contests and tell-us-your-story features, all of which can help connect people across the country or around the world with a campaign’s issues in an active rather than a passive way.
Many organizations, companies and campaigns are also taking advantage of social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace as well as more specialized online communities to sell products (or issues) and to raise money. E.politics can help clients create social networking presences and develop strategies to target the crowds at these new online watering holes.
Blogs and Blogger Relations
Should your campaign or organization have a blog? What does it take to create a successful advocacy blog? What risks are involved in blogging, and what policies can help avoid them? How does blogger relations differ from traditional media relations?
Blogs have proven to be powerful tools for many online communicators, but they’re not for every group, and Delany helps clients understand how to use them and when not to. He can craft strategies for outreach to targeted bloggers and assist with comprehensive blogger-relations campaigns.
Email Advocacy
Many marketers have proclaimed the death of email over the years, but for most organizations and campaigns it remains a key advocacy and/or fundraising tool. Delany can help clients with strategies to boost their list response rates while avoiding “list exhaustion,” as well as recommend cost-effective solutions to the eternal problem of finding new members.
Online Advertising
Online advertising provides powerful opportunities for targeting messages at people most likely to respond to them. From blog ads to more-traditional display ads to Google-style pay-per-click contextual ads, Delany can work with clients to create a comprehensive online advertising campaign, involving other online advertising agencies when necessary.
For More Information
Please contact Colin Delany at 202-422-4682 or cpd@epolitics.com.
