Many organizations fail to take advantage of their data from email campaigns. Too often those who are in charge of these campaigns only look at each of their email’s statistics in isolation if at all and in doing so waste an opportunity to improve their email tactics by looking at their output as a whole.

Most of the major mass email tools provide important statistics for every email that is sent out. Unfortunately many of these tools fall short of providing easy ways to look at data over time the way that web analytics software (ie. Google Analytics) does.

I suggest using a spreadsheet to keep track of the results of each email blast. Below is a sample spreadsheet (click for larger view):

This particular spreadsheet contains the following data:

• Date - The date that the email was sent.
• ID - This is an internal reference name for the mailing.
• Type - What category of email was it? Action alert, fundraising ask, event invitation, etc.
• Action - What action do you want the recipients of the email to take? Sign an online petition, RSVP for an event, donate, write a letter to an elected official or newspaper, etc.
• Subject Line - The actual subject line from the email blast.
• From - The text used for who the email is from. It may be just a person’s name, a name and then the organization, etc.
• Universe Parameters - What was the targeting for the blast? Full list, distance from zip code, previous donors, county, etc.
• Number of Recipients - The size of the blast universe.
• Day of Week - The day of the week the blast was sent: Sun.–Sat.
• Time of Day - The time that the email blast was sent. I prefer to use 24-hour military over the 12-hour clock.
• Open Rate (24) - The open rate after 24 hours. The time frame can be whatever you prefer, but it is important to choose a time and stick with it in order to accurately compare blasts.
• Click Rate (24) - The clickthrough rate after 24 hours. What percentage of people clicked your action links?
• Action Rate (24) - The percentage of recipients that took the desired action.
• Unsubscribe Rate (24) - The percentage of unsubcribes from the email link.
• New Sign-Ups (24) - The number of new email subscriptions within 24 hours. Your mailing service may or may not track new subscriptions from forwards, etc., but you can measure list growth during that period generally to see if there are spikes in sign-ups following certain actions.

Your spreadsheet can include any fields for data that you are able to track on each email. For example, you may want a field to enter what issue an action alert covers.

As you send more mailings and input more data you will be able to use it to see the strengths and weakness of your email program and use it to improve. For example, you may find that mailings sent on Fridays have a much lower open rate than Wednesdays, or that the response is higher when the mailing comes from a different name.

If you do a lot of fundraising mailings, you may also want to create a second sheet that includes total dollars raised, number of donations, and average donation amount.

In addition to the spreadsheet, it is a good idea to keep a copy of every email that is sent out in an organized folder. If you are serious about improving your email results, I would include a page with each email with some statistics and notes. For example, the information that was put into the spreadsheet as well as more specific information particular to that email: comparative clickthrough rates for each link and/or clickable graphic, unsubscribe comments, etc.

Finally, with your compiled data you should be able to come up with some good A/B tests to further improve your data about your email campaign and increase the response rates on future mailings.

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The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory

“Technology played a key role in our success. Reaching an audience involves more than just figuring out who your audience is; it also means knowing how to find them. Part of the reason our campaign was so successful is that we were able to identify early that many of the people we wanted to reach were spending more of their time on the Internet. We realized that a smart, and large, Internet presence was the best way to provide people with the opportunity and the tools to get involved in the campaign–they were already immersed in the world of technology and would be more likely to encounter us there. We met people where they lived, instead of forcing them to deviate from their habits or lifestyle to seek us out. Our early commitment to a digitally based platform paid huge dividends.” – David Plouffe

The Obama campaign utilized technology and the internet more effectively than any campaign in history. Throughout The Audacity to Win David Plouffe reveals how and why they were so successful.

Online Advertising

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about the role of young voters in the campaign, they used specifically targeted online advertising to reach young voters and other underrepresented demographics to promote information about how to caucus or vote early.

There was a strong long-tail effect with the efficacy of their online ad spending:

Our return on Internet advertising was unbelievable. Each dollar invested in list growth returned several times that–immediately. Over time, as these new recruits game more money (and time), the return grew even greater. This result was highly unusual. Customarily, organizations are paying several dollars just to get someone to sign up on their list, only to see many people decline to take the next step of involvement, like contributing.

The ability to micro-target ads for certain demographics or specific online searches, combined with a pay-per-click structure, made online advertising a much higher return on investment than traditional pay-per-spot blanket advertising. In addition, the online advertising was trackable and provided valuable metrics.

Text Messaging

The most impressive decision in terms of mobile that the campaign made was to announce Biden as the Vice-Presidential candidate via text to build their list of mobile numbers:

The idea appealed to me on two levels. First, it was consistent with other key junctures in the campaign–reporting fund-raising numbers, the decision to limit our primary debates, opting out of the public funding system–where we had communicated first directly to our supporters. This was their campaign as much as ours, and they deserved to get a heads-up from us about important decisions. Those previous announcements had all been made by e-mail or Web postings; this would be our first large-scale text-only notification. Second, this was a great way to grow our text-messaging list. Rospars was right about the increasing gap in our contact figures: our e-mail list was now over 6 million, but our list of mobile numbers was in the low six figures. Making a big announcement by text would ignite a spark and juice the latter number.

It sure did. By August 22, the night before we announced Biden, over 2 million people had signed up to receive the VP announcement by text. Our first communication announcing the ‘Be the First to Know’ campaign had happened on August 10. In less than two weeks, we had grown our list over fifteen-fold.

Mobile is often under-utilized or ignored by campaigns. The commitment to the platform that led to the Biden announcement decision paid off. With 2 million people on the mobile list the campaign could send rapid response texts, vote reminders, and event invitations through a medium with an extremely high open rate.

Online Fundraising

The Obama campaign made history with their online fundraising success. One reason they were so successful is that they showed a genuine appreciation and respect for low-dollar online fundraisers:

In our campaign, grassroots supporters started to raise money. Generally, they brought in relatively small amounts–$100, $500, $1,000–using a tool on our social-networking site to keep track of the money they raised and to ask others to contribute.

Over time this grew into a powerful force. We treated these citizen fundraisers as no less important than our larger raisers. They were asked to join conference calls with Barack, me, and other senior staff so we could thank them for what they were doing and give them updates on the campaign. They believed their effort was valued–and it was–so they dug deeper and kept raising. This was not a tactical relationship. It was authentic. And that authenticity became a very powerful driver in the connection between Barack Obama and his supporters.

The campaign also realized that these initial low-dollar donors were in for the long haul. They “believed that making a financial contribution would lead people to feel more invested in the campaign and could result in higher degrees of activism” and if they could ensure these donors “felt part of and connected to the whole campaign, they might be more generous over time.”

E-mail

The Obama campaign had a massive e-mail operation, and because of this and their commitment to metrics and research they were able to learn a lot about their techniques and what supporters wanted.

We also learned a lot about the regular e-mail messages we were sending out. People wanted information, and a lot of it. We could send more e-mail than we originally thought advisable, which spoke to the heightened interest in the race and the commitment of our supporters. To keep things fresh, we varied the length and tone of the messages–some were long and informative, others quite short and informal. Perhaps most important, we learned that people responded very well to e-mails from Michelle Obama and that we needed to use Barack somewhat sparingly–when he signed an e-mail it always produced by far the biggest response, but we did not want this to become a stale event. So many of the e-mails came from me, though when we needed a big response to an ask–for money, volunteer time, or to watch an event–we made sure the e-mails came from the Obamas.

It is important to note how many variables the campaign looked at when making decisions about e-mail. They consciously saved their big guns for the most important messages as opposed to having every e-mail come from the Obamas. The variety of the messages help decrease the feeling that supporters are receiving standard list blasts. They also made an effort “to include a lot more videos in our e-mail communications–the data suggested that supporters spent more time with these e-mails than with the text-only versions.” By constantly tracking what was and wasn’t working in their e-mail messaging they were able to keep improving their game over the long campaign.

The campaign also learned that using e-mail to share campaign strategy with supporters helped strengthen the sense of purpose and discipline with supporters:

What we found when we researched things a bit more was that we were not doing enough internal communication to ensure that our supporters, and even staff, knew exactly what our strategy was and how their efforts fit into the puzzle.

This internal communication allowed everyone that was involved in the campaign to be on message and as effective as possible when talking to friends, neighbors, and other potential voters:

Through e-mailed talking points, postings on the website, and conversations with local field organizers, our volunteers were stressing the same arguments Obama, Biden, Ax, and Gibbs were delivering on any given day. Our philosophy was that John from Durango needed to be as current on the campaign as the candidate was. We wanted to build a message-delivery army in perfect harmony from top to bottom.

Online Video and Live-Streaming

Online video has become a game-changer in politics, and the Obama campaign’s understanding of the importance of the medium and willingness to experiment allowed them to consistently bypass the media filter and go directly to supporters.

As was the case throughout the campaign, most people did not watch the speech on TV. It was delivered on a Tuesday morning, when just about everyone was at work. Instead, people watched it online, most of them on YouTube, either as it was happening or at their leisure later that day or in the days to come. Eventually, tens of millions of voters saw the speech through various outlets.

This marked a fundamental change in political coverage and message consumption, and one that will only continue as technology rolls forward: big moments, political or otherwise, will no longer be remembered by people as times when everyone gathered around TVs to watch a speech, press conference, or other event. Increasingly, most of us will recall firing up the computer, searching for a video, and watching it at home or at the office–or even on cell phones.

The campaign used live-streaming both to give supporters the opportunity to see events live from across the country and to turn the campaign website into a “real ‘home’ for our supporters and a one-stop shopping place for anything campaign related.”

An interesting lesson the campaign learned was the importance of authenticity in online video. After putting out a video with webcam picture quality, they “tried the next one with better lighting and an actual high-definition camera. The results looked much more produced. Our supporters hated it. They thought it seemed inauthentic, staged, and less personal.” By being authentic, transparent, and honest with supporters in their videos, they were able to get great results:

This was not a mere tactic to get more money or volunteer time. It was what we believed. This video message was one of the most effective ones we sent; the response factors we could measure–contributions, spike in volunteer hours–unmistakably bore this out, but we also received a lot of anecdotal feedback from our staff in the states and in conversations our supporters were having with Chris Hughes’s online organizing team. People felt like they were being leveled with, that we were explaining clearly how their time and money was being utilized. And they felt that we valued and needed them.

List-Building and Events

The Obama campaign viewed every event as a list-building opportunity. This gave the campaign a huge advantage because of the size of the crowds that Obama was able to draw. By having people RSVP for events ahead of time and checking in at the event they built their list and were able to trace people back to the voter file. Of course, this opportunity only presented itself at their own events:

So while candidates were thrilled to have a big audience to speak to at an existing event, we were more interested in building events that would feed into our specific voter targets and that included trying to attract a lot of people who do not like to pay to go to a political event.

The campaign chose to put the additional work in to create their own events instead of taking the easy way out by attending existing fundraising dinners and state party events. By holding events in areas where a lot of unactivated potential Obama supporters could attend, many times in locations that were not used to seeing candidates personally, the campaign was able to sign up new voters and further expand the electorate.

Supporters were told “that nothing was more important than getting additional people signed up on the site so we could communicate with them and try to convert them to donors and volunteers.” The list was able to grow organically as supporters, through peer-to-peer contact, recruited new supporters who then did the same.

The Role of Technology in Staff

Plouffe’s view of the role of ‘new media’ within the campaign structure really resonated with me:

The new media group (online communications, Web-page development and maintenance, texting) in most campaigns reports to the communications department, and its department head is not considered an equal of other senior staff. But I saw how important the burgeoning online world was to our overall success; new media would touch just about every aspect of our campaign. So I had that department report directly to me.

Having been the person in that role in the past, his take on it is 100% accurate. I also agree with his following prediction: “I assume in future campaigns this department will be called digital strategy, not new media–it’s not new anymore and it’s not just media.”

As we have seen technology played a integral role in the campaign at every level of organization and strategy. Both internal and external communication, list-building, field and voter contact, GOTV, finance; all these areas were bolstered by the effective use of technology.

Also check out Learning from Obama: Lessons for Online Communicators in 2009 and Beyond by Colin Delany.

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On Saturday, December 5th 2009, online organizers and activists gathered for a conference called Organizing 2.0 about online organizing and using new media.

For more coverage of Organizing 2.0, visit http://www.SumofChange.com/org2.0.

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At the Young Democrats of America Fall Conference in Orlando last month attendees had the chance to break off into discussion circles for various topics. One of these topics was free online tools.

Using Google Wave, Colin Curtis, Sarah Burris, and I came up with this list of free online tools that are useful for organizing, communications, and productivity with political organizations in mind.

Free website/blog hosting/software

WordPress – WordPress is currently the most popular blogging platform around today. With a huge library of free themes and plugins, it is easy to customize to your own specific needs. Free site hosting is available from wordpress.com, but you are required to have .wordpress.com in your domain name and there are limits to customization and the types of things you may embed. You can host your own installation of WordPress with the free software from wordpress.org (which is what I do for KevinBondelli.com), and be able to use your own domain name with no limits to customization or content, but you will need to pay for site hosting from another company.

Tumblr – Tumblr was originally created for what used to be called micro-blogging before Twitter redefined it by 140 characters. Today Tumblr is a full-featured free hosting platform with a built-in network of other users. For an example of an A-list site on Tumblr, check out Gary Vaynerchuk. Tumblr has many customization options, is extremely easy to use, has a bookmarklet for sharing, and best of all allows you to use your own domain name without any additional cost.

Blogger – Blogger, which is now owned by Google, is another popular free service for hosting blogs and websites. I used Blogger for my first blog (if you don’t count LiveJournal) years ago and it has improved quite a bit since then. Similar to wordpress.com, hosted sites have .blogspot.com in the url. Since it is a Google service, it integrates very well with other Google tools. Some big sites that use Blogger are Google’s blog (obviously) and PostSecret.

TypePad – TypePad isn’t as popular as it once was, but still provides a good free hosting service. Site urls include .typepad.com in the name. TypePad has added a number of social networking features to the service (check out Zachary Quinto’s site for an example) and offers additional services, such as using your own domain name and full site control for a monthly fee.

Ning – Ning is more a free hosted social network than it is a traditional website. I have mixed feelings about the service. I used it a few years ago for the YDA Southwest Region with only lackluster results (It has since been abandoned). I’ve talked about my issues with creating your own social network before, and some of those arguments hold for Ning as well. However, there are some groups who are able to use the service effectively. The YDA Women’s Caucus has done a pretty good job with it.

Drupal, Joomla, and MovableType – Behind WordPress, these three pieces of free software are the most popular content management systems for self-hosted sites and blogs (Future Majority is built on Drupal).

Online Video

YouTube – The service that everybody already knows about. Has the benefit of being the first place people go to look for online videos as well as a strong user community.

Viddler – My personal favorite. I like Viddler because it allows you to include your own branding in the video player (check out a video from my profile for an example).

Vimeo – Vimeo’s big thing is video quality and high-definition. They offer a ton of additional features for an annual fee, including player customization.

Seesmic – The original Twitter for video. Seesmic has a strong online community with threaded video discussions and the ability to embed entire discussions onto a website. They have great support and a ton of tools to make the service even more useful.

12 Seconds – If Seesmic is the original Twitter for Video, 12 Seconds is the most similar: swap 140 characters for 12 seconds of video. Unlike Seesmic, where there is not a strict limit to video length, you only have 12 seconds per video.

Ustream – Ustream allows you to live broadcast video online and gives viewers the ability to chat alongside. It is perfect for conferences, question and answer sessions, as well as interviews.

TubeMogul – TubeMogul allows you to upload videos to a number of platforms concurrently, as well as providing detailed analytics. Horizontal segmentation is important, and not just across different media but also across different platforms within a media type, and TubeMogul makes it easy for online video.

Qik – Qik lets you share live video taken from your mobile phone. Think of it as a mobile Ustream.

CNN iReport – This may seem outside the box, but not uploading videos to CNN iReport is a missed opportunity. Both Sarah and I have had our videos played on CNN (Sarah multiple times) after uploading them. For example, students in the University of California system could definitely get traction by posting videos of the tuition protests, statements from students who may have to leave school, etc.

For a huge list of online video resources, check out Mashable’s Video Toolbox.

Productivity

Google Calendar – Not only can you keep track of your own schedule with Google Calendar, but you can share and coordinate with your friends, create event calendars for your organization and publish them, as well as embed them onto websites.

Evernote – Evernote is a combination online/offline note-taking tool. With a desktop application, browser plugins and bookmarklets, and iPhone application (opens iTunes), and the ability to access your notes anywhere, Evernote is a great tool for keeping your thoughts and organizational notes in order. The free service will be sufficient for most users, but there is a robust premium version available for an annual fee.

Bubbl.us – Bubbl.us is a collaborative mind-mapping tool that allows multiple users to work on outlines, charts, and more. One of the best features is the ability to embed your mind-maps onto a website.

Google Wave – As invites are becoming easier to find, more people are on the Google Wave preview. While most people are still figuring out how to use it and what it should be used for, it has the potential to be a strong collaboration tool. As I mentioned earlier, we used Google Wave to come up with the tools for this post.

HassleMe – If you are the type of person that needs to be reminded of things often, HassleMe is probably a good tool for you. You are able to set up the service to periodically remind you to do things via email. While it is not so great for strict deadlines since they send their emails at “semi-unpredictable intervals,” it is good for other recurring tasks with rough deadlines. For example, if there is a general info email account for your organization that you are always forgetting to check, you can have HassleMe email you a reminder every couple of days.

Online Storage and File Sharing/Management

Scribd – My personal favorite file sharing service. I use it primarily for my paper length work or manuals, but you can post any PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel file. You can embed the documents onto websites, people can rate and comment on them, and you can link your account to Facebook and Twitter. You can also choose to allow people to download your files, making it a great way to post organizing manuals, bylaws, etc.

Dropbox – Dropbox enables you to create a virtual shared drive in the cloud. Files in your dropbox are available online and will also sync with selected users that also have the desktop application. It also features an excellent iPhone application (opens iTunes) that lets you view your files from your phone. The service is free for up to 2 GB of storage, and monthly premium options are available for 50 GB or 100 GB.

SlideShare – SlideShare was originally designed for sharing and embedding PowerPoint presentations, but now also works with PDF and Word documents. The embeddable presentation player is excellent and it is easy to post your presentations to websites and social networks. Check out an example of the White House using SlideShare.

Issuu – Issuu is a file sharing service that focuses primarily on online editions of magazines and reports. The interface of the player gives your document the feel of a magazine, with the viewer able to flip through the pages. There is also a premium version available.

Keep and Share – Keep and Share lets you share documents and photos, provides an online calendar, to do list, and address book, as well as discussion boards. The main negative of Keep and Share is that it is extremely ad heavy, and we are talking ugly Adsense all over the place.

Zamzar – Zamzar is an online file conversion tool. You can change the file formats of image, document, music, and video files without downloading desktop software and a ton of codecs.

4shared – 4shared is another file sharing tool with 10 GB of free storage. It functions as an online virtual drive and offers premium options for additional space and bandwidth.

RSS, Tracking, and Dashboard Tools

Google Reader – Probably the best RSS feed reader available. Adding new feeds is extremely easy, and the ability to organize, tag, share, like, and comment on stories sets it above other readers.

Netvibes – Netvibes allows you to create a home page dashboard. For example, if you are a statewide Young Democrats chapter, you can have a box with the RSS feeds of your local chapters’ websites, your organization’s Facebook activity, Google and Twitter search results for your chapter, etc. It enables you to get a birds-eye view of what is happening online in your organization as well as what other people are saying about you.

Google Alerts – It is important to know when people are mentioning you or your organization online. Google Alerts email you when certain keywords are mentioned or sites are linked.

Topikality – Topikality is similar to Google Alerts but with easier targeting and a back-end. It will also suggest articles based on your preferences, serving also as a discovery engine.

SocialMedian – I was an early Alpha tester for SocialMedian back at the start of 2008, and the service has really come a long way since then. You can become a part of different topical news networks, clip stories to share or read later, and subscribe to people to be your “newsmakers.” I head up the news networks for Technology in Politics, Democratic Party, and Youth in Politics. You can create your own news network, choose the sources that you want to populate it, and clip stories to the network as you see them.

Check out Mashable’s RSS Toolbox.

VOIP/Phone

Skype – Skype is a great tool for people to talk for free within the United States via their internet connection. Skype has built-in conferencing functionality and many people use it to record podcasts when not all the participants are in the same place.

Google Voice – While Google Voice is more of an individual tool, I see opportunities to use it for an organization. An example would be to set up a Google Voice number for the organization. You could have the number forward to multiple different people’s mobile or home phones.

Website Tools

Google Analytics – Google Analytics is the most popular web analytics tool available. It provides detailed information about the visitors to your website, allows you to set and track goals, and will give you the information you need to improve.

Woopra – Woopra is a live web analytics tool that enables you to see your site traffic in real time. Woopra has a WordPress plugin and a desktop AIR application, allows you to chat with site visitors, and see how many visitors are on your site at any given time. Woopra is free up to a certain number of pageviews.

Feedburner – Feedburner, now owned by Google, is the best RSS feed tool for site owners. Upon setting up an account you use your Feedburner link instead of your standard RSS feed link for your site, enabling you to track the number of subscribers, what they click, and how they accessed your feed. Feedburner also allows people to subscribe to your site’s feed via email.

Disqus – Disqus is a popular blog commenting system that operates in the cloud as opposed to natively on your web server. The good thing about this is that Disqus users do not need to create a separate account to comment on your site. The bad thing is that you technically don’t have your comments on your server. Disqus allows for threaded comments, comment rating, and video comments.

Photos

Flickr – Flickr is the biggest player in the online photo business. There have been a lot of great tools built from the Flickr API that let you embed photo slideshows from your photostream and other applications. There is a limit to the number of photos you can have in your stream with a free account, but the pro account is available for a ridiculously low annual fee.

PhotoBucket – The strongest alternative to Flickr. It has similar features but a weaker community.

Check out Mashable’s photography toolbox for a lot of resources.

Online Office Tools

Google Docs – Google Docs offers word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and form tools. It is by far the most popular collaborative online document tool available. The form tool is especially useful in creating surveys, collecting sign-ups, and signatures for online petitions.

Adobe Buzzword – The best thing about Adobe Buzzword, now a full Acrobat productivity suite, is that it is pretty. It features a word processor, presentations, tables, PDF export, and with ConnectNow an online meeting function (though the free version only allows 2 additional people in the meeting).

Social Networking

Facebook – Pretty much everyone knows what Facebook is, so in lieu of a description I am going to include a couple of links to posts about how to use it as an organization.

• Facebook’s Phonebook Feature
• Facebook Group Membership Building
• Facebook Page Best Practices
• Increasing Membership of the YDA Facebook Page

MySpace – MySpace might not be the king of the hill like it once was, and trust me I sure hate it, but it is still the best place online to reach out to non-college youth.

LinkedIn – Ever since LinkedIn added more social functions to what was originally just an online resume, there have been more opportunities for organizing with it. You can create groups and discussions as well as answer people’s questions, which builds up your profile as well as your organization’s.

FriendFeed – Friendfeed is a life-streaming social network that has yet to really hit the mainstream. Friendfeed allows you to consolidate your online presence from multiple sites into a single stream, where other users can like, comment on, and share your content. I created an account a while back for the Young Democrats of America.

Microblogging

Twitter – While Twitter is also a social network, I primarily view it as a microblogging platform (though the name microblogging kind of sucks). Here are some resources I put together in the past about Twitter.

• Using Twitter for Your Organization
• Creating Pre-Populated Twitter Links

Twitter Search – While it is now technically a part of Twitter, Twitter Search is important enough to be included on its own. You can use it to see what people are saying about your organization or issues in real time, as well as subscribe to RSS feeds of searches. For example, I had subscribed to the RSS feeds for “YDA” and “Young Democrat,” and on occasion someone would ask a question about how to find their local chapter. Since I was tracking the search I was able to respond and direct people to the right place.

Twitterfeed – Twitterfeed lets you automatically tweet your recent blog posts as they are published using its RSS feed.

act.ly – act.ly is a Twitter petition tool that lets users ‘sign’ the petition by retweeting.

Ping.fm – Post to nearly all of your accounts at the same time. Works with mobile phones as well.

Plurk, identi.ca, and Jaiku – While none of these platforms have anywhere near the userbase of Twitter, they do have dedicated followings. By using the previously mentioned Ping.fm you can hit these networks as well.

URL Shorteners

bit.ly – bit.ly is one of the most popular shorteners right now because of its integration into Tweetdeck and the fact that you can get statistics on your links to see how often they were clicked.

TinyURL – The original. Allows custom URLs which is extremely convenient.

Podcasting –

PodBean – PodBean is a free podcast hosting tool with a good feature set. I used to use this when I had my brief 2 episode podcast, but when I tried to log back in to my account today it said it was locked. I guess use it at your own risk.

PodOmatic – PodOmatic is a very full-featured podcast hosting tool, though the paid version is significantly better.

For a ton of podcasting resources check out Mashable’s Podcasting Toolbox.

Though this list may seem long it is nowhere near comprehensive. That’s where you come in. Is there a free online tool that you love that we didn’t include on the list? Is there one on the list that you absolutely hate? Share in the comments!

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The Consequence Campaign has launched a new video and online organizing challenge where top organizers can win a trip to D.C. as representatives to leaders in Washington.

When you sign up for the campaign, you begin by sending an email to your Senators. After that first action, you can earn points by recruiting more people to sign, organizing a phone drive, collecting and mailing handwritten letters, uploading videos, getting a letter to the editor published, or by organizing a local event and getting earned media.

The campaign website also has an organizing toolkit which will help you successfully take the previously mentioned actions.

The contests will run from Thursday, October 29, 2009, to December 2, 2009, and though anyone may participate, you must be 18 years of age or older to win a trip to D.C.

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This week 60 progressives participated in the New Organizing Institute’s Bootcamp, in Washington, DC. Together we learned how to build a website, update it, create a new media campaign via social networks, and tweet.

Trainings prepared participants each night for their campaign activities, which center on a mock election for Mayor of DC. The candidates comprise of DC Comic superheroes, who create and execute an effective online and offline strategy.

Campaigns like Team Atom (www.atomfordc.com) launched their online campaign while learning techniques to efficiently translate online activity into votes, donations, and field volunteers. Today begins their election which takes place online at: VOTE Polls open at 7am ET and will close at 6pm ET.

The purpose of the mock election, that is supersizing DC politics and leaving Mayor Fenty shaking in his boots, is to provide participants a realistic learning environment to reinforce the concepts learned in the trainings.

As a participant and member of The Atom’s Campaign Team, I urge you to check out the cutting-edge skills young progressives are picking up at www.neworganizing.com/superherovote. (Side plug: Vote for The Atom)

By Katie Naranjo

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Bill Maher’s recent comment that “Twitter didn’t save Iran. Iran saved Twitter” has sparked some debate about the use of social media and its relevance to important issues and events.

Personally, I don’t think Maher’s comment hits the mark. Twitter wasn’t a service that needed saving, nor is it alone responsible for helping promote Iranian protests. It would be more accurate to say that Iran helped the general public realize Twitter’s potential, and that Twitter is one component of a new media toolset that is enabling activists in oppressive regimes to communicate where state-run media dominates.

The situation in Iran shows the world that the communications game has changed. It isn’t Twitter or Facebook specifically, but the general principle of online and mobile communication.

Mashable created a social media timeline of the Iran Election crisis. It shows how a wide range of online tools have played a role in getting the stories of Iranian protesters to the outside world. These tools range from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to Flickr and even Wikipedia.

The essence of the matter is that previously if a country expelled all foreign journalists and had a state-run media, the world would have no way of knowing what was happening within its borders. The emergence of online and mobile technology has turned every person with a camera, cell phone, or computer into an amateur journalist; on location and with unfiltered access journalists have never truly enjoyed.

While it may be a while before these new media tools can change the game everywhere (Africa is still largely left behind, and they could use it the most), the Iran election protests have shown the world what online organizers have known for some time now: social media has fundamentally advanced the way we communicate and coordinate.

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The Obama campaign sent out an email today from David Plouffe in an effort to bring the movement for change into action:

Please take a few minutes and help shape the future of this movement.

Share your campaign experience and your thoughts on the best way to keep supporting our agenda for change.

The inauguration is just 63 days away, and as President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden prepare to take office, they’ll need your support more than ever.

You’ve built an organization in your community and across the country that will continue to work for change — whether it’s by building grassroots support for legislation, backing state and local candidates, or sharing organizing techniques to effect change in your neighborhood.

Your hard work built this movement. Now it’s up to you to decide how we move forward.

Take this short survey and share your ideas:

http://my.barackobama.com/whatsnext

Thanks to you, this country has an historic opportunity. Electing Barack was the first big step, but there’s a lot of challenging and important work ahead.

Together, we can keep making history,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

The survey functions as a comprehensive debriefing of the Obama field operation, allowing you to rate your experience with your local field office and staff, how often you used MyBO, and what resources were most useful.

The second part of the survey asks if you are interested in continuing to volunteer to support Obama’s agenda of change, asking about the issues that matter most to you and how you are willing to help.

An interesting touch is asking if you are interested in running for elected office yourself. It will be interesting to see how they use this information. The concept of them recruiting a local candidate farm team seems like a great idea.

Finally it allows you to provide extensive feedback about your thoughts on the campaign and the steps forward and then leads you to a donation page to support the Obama agenda.

Did any of you fill out the survey? What are your thoughts about it? Share in the comments.

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Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations highlights the role that the internet has played in enabling people to self-organize for a purpose. We have seen this in practice during the Obama campaign and most recently Join the Impact, created in response to the passage of California’s Proposition 8.

Join the Impact illustrates how online technology can bring people together across geographical boundaries, in this case to advocate for equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans and protest the passage of discrimination laws like Prop. 8. The website is built on WetPaint, a free website/wiki service. It allows supporters to create or find events in their local area, removing the need for a central organizer to plan and coordinate events themselves. Join the Impact is an example of the difference between planning events and advertising them versus giving anyone who visits the site the tools they need to create their own.

Everyone working with non-profits and political campaigns should take note of this new trend. There is a lot of power in the potential of self-organization. Organizations should think about creating websites that provide as many resources as possible for interested supporters to take the initiative on their own. One thing I would like to suggest, however, is that there is a person or people that are designated as something similar to an ombudsperson to answer questions and provide support. In a way that person would act as a community manager for the program. They don’t need to micromanage, or in some cases manage at all, but should be available and accessible for those that need a little help.

The internet has put a lot of power back in the people’s hands, it is important for us to acknowledge that and enable them.

What are your thoughts about self-organization and the role of the internet? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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I have a new post up on Future Majority reviewing Democracy for America’s Facebook GOTV strategy. Go check it out.

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