Digital Strategists

#123: Social Media Influencers and Political Campaigns, with Madeline V. Twomey

Madeline V. Twomey, President at Rufus and Mane, discusses how social media influencers can benefit political campaigns (and vice versa). Madeline forged digital influencer partnerships for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and inauguration. She shares her experiences working with influencer programs and her thoughts on best practices moving forward.

 

We talk about the value that influencers can provide to campaigns, how that working relationship looks like in practice, and how storytelling can help non-political influencers break into political topics. 

 

Here’s Madeline’s Medium post discussing her 10 lessons from the Biden campaign.  

 

Check out the latest newsletter, if you’re curious about what’s coming next on the pod!

#120: Digital Ads for Political Mobilization and Persuasion, with Nick Ahamed

Nick Ahamed, Director of Analytics at Priorities USA, shares his research on the effectiveness of digital ads for increasing voter turnout and support for Democrats. We discuss the field and survey experiments that Priorities USA has been running to find the optimal messaging strategies, targeting approaches, and treatment lengths for political social media ads during elections. 

#118: Audience Development, Online Political Journalism, and Social Media, with Sofia Diogo Mateus

Sofia Diogo Mateus, Audience Development Editor at Politico Europe, discusses the role of social media in online political journalism. We talk about the importance of audience development, the tools used to assist in online publishing and measuring engagement, and the benefits and pitfalls of user generated content (UGC). We also discuss Sofia’s work as Head of Facebook at Deutsche Welle, strategies around content moderation, and the value of reporting political news for international audiences. 

 

Click here to view the Social Media Producer job posting at Politico Europe. 

And here to sign up to Tom Moylan’s newsletter! 

#109: Digital Organizing for Progressive Campaigns and Advocacy, with Ned Howey

Ned Howey, CEO of Tectonica, discusses the international firm’s approach to digital organizing for progressive campaigns. We focus on how Tectonica’s digital solutions integrate with NationBuilder, some key principles of website design, and how to engage supporters with an authentic strategy and tone. 

#104: Online Engagement and Digital Campaigning for Pete Buttigieg, with Stefan Smith

Stefan Smith, former Online Engagement Director at Pete for America, discusses the role of social media in digital organizing and campaigning during the 2020 Democratic Primaries. We break down two of Stefan’s grassroots initiatives — the Digital Captains program and Digital Door Knocking program — and how they contributed to the overall campaign.

 

We also talk about the political viability of Pinterest and Reddit, alongside more traditional platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

#98: Political Mobilization in the 2019 EU Election Campaign, with Stephen Clark

Stephen Clark,
Director for Liaison Offices at the European Parliament, guests to
discuss his role coordinating the Parliament’s election campaign in the
2019 European Elections. We discuss the Parliament’s social media
strategy, its focus on mobilizing citizens through the “ground game,”
and the reaction to the Parliament’s campaign video “Choose your Future.”

Listen to the Steve discuss the Parliament’s strategy before the elections on the EuroPCom podcast!

#91: Data Science Tools for the 2020 Census, with Chris Dick


Chris Dick, Director of Applied Data Science at Civis Analytics, guests to discuss how data science approaches are being used to increase participation in the 2020 US Census.


We talk about some of the political and financial challenges facing the census, what types of data are being used models of hard-to-count communities, and how different types of messaging can either increase or decrease Census response rates.


Learn more about the Civis Census Intelligence Center here!

#90: Tracking Attention on Social Media for the 2020 Democratic Primaries, with Neal Rothschild


Neal Rothschild, Associate Director of Growth at Axios, guests to discuss the Axios-NewsWhip 2020 Attention Tracker. The attention tracker monitors candidate and issue mentions across Facebook and Twitter, and we talk about how the technology is used in Axios’s reporting of the 2020 Democratic Primaries.

#85: Strategic Communication at the Council of the European Union, with Alexandra Ekkelenkamp


Alexandra Ekkelenkamp
, Advisor to the Director of Media and Communications at the Council of the European Union, discusses how the EU Council uses social media for strategic communication.

Alexandra shares her insights about how social media campaigns reflect the Council’s work, how that creates authenticity, and how to incorporate local versus European narratives when communicating to the EU public.

#84: Authentic Campaigns, Social Media, and Politics, with Loren Merchan and Jonathan Barnes


Loren Merchan and Jonathan Barnes guest to discuss the concept of authenticity and authentic campaigns in US elections. We break down the concept of authenticity, and discuss how digital and social media can be leveraged to make a candidate seem more authentic during a campaign.

Read more about Authentic Campaigns here!