Archives for February 2017

This Week in Digital & Public Affairs: Facebook Video Ads and Data Driven Campaigns

February 20, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Below is a roundup of key stories in digital and public affairs for this week:

Content, Digital and Social Media

In an effort to give advertisers more control over their video ad buys, Facebook is allowing the media industry’s independent measurement monitor, Media Rating Council (MRC) to audit the measurements it provides advertisers. Facebook will sell video ads based on the MRC’s viewability standard, allow more granularity in performance measurement and introduce an option for paying for ads only when users watch the video with the sound on.

With the release of Chrome 56, Google has started tagging http payment and login pages as “not secure”. HTTP Pages that collect login details or credit card numbers will be marked as non-secure pages, and the warning will eventually be used for all http pages. With over 1 billion users of Chrome, Google’s efforts will pressure website operators to at least consider enabling site-wide HTTPS.

Gov 2.0 and Public Affairs

On Hootsuite’s blog, Jylian Russell offers the benefits that social media in government can achieve such as its role in raising awareness, citizen engagement and crisis communications. Russell also weighs some of the challenges of using social media in government and offers some solutions for mitigating those risks.

CNN reports on the decision by the White House to expand its social media team with several new hires to assist current White House social media director Dan Scavino. Since the Inaguration, President Trump and Scavino have primarily handled social media communications, posting on President Trump’s personal and official White House social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook.

In Associations Now, social media journalist Ernie Smith offers suggestions to associations for improving their email marketing in 2017. Smith recommends new tools for consideration for sending emails on the cheap, making design less painful, and acquiring better data.

Campaigns and Elections

In Politico Magazine, Democratic direct mail consultant Dave Gold laments how data driven campaigns by Democrats have resulted in 4 straight election cycle losses for his party. Gold argues that Democrats should pay less attention to quantitative political science and focus more on creating message driven campaigns that utilize storytelling that connects with voters’ emotions.

These are some of the reads that matter to us for the week in digital and public affairs. Want to get in depth analysis, news, and how to tips in digital and public affairs? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter here.

This Week in Digital and Public Affairs – Cyborgs and a Congressional Digital Service

February 13, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Below is a roundup of key stories in digital and public affairs for this week:

Content, Digital and Social Media

Facebook and Google announced that they would be joining forces with eight French news organizations to launch fact checking tools to root out fake news in France ahead of the country’s presidential election. Facebook is also taking steps against fake news in Germany, where government officials have expressed concerns that false stories could influence a federal election in September.

The Washington Post reports on the growing popularity of a variation of Twitter “bots” called “cyborgs”. Cyborgs mix human creativity and initiative with a computer’s speed, allowing their views to gain audience while sidestepping the traditional gatekeepers of news and commentary. For example, one conservative twitter cyborg user tweets more than 1,000 times a day using “schedulers” that work through stacks of his own pre-written posts in repetitive loops. With retweets and other forms of sharing, these posts reach the feeds of millions of other accounts. One research team at Elon University in North Carolina found that “highly automated accounts” supporting President Trump — a category that includes both bots and cyborgs — out-tweeted those supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton by a ratio of 5 to 1 in the final days before the Election 2016 vote.

Gov 2.0 and Public Affairs

Wired reports that while the prevalence of apps like Countable and Democracy.io make it easier than ever to send electronic communication to members of Congress, not much has changed in how Congressional staff respond to these messages. Despite the dramatic increase in email communication by constituents over the years, research by Zogby found that a third of people who email Congress receive no response, and nearly half of those who did receive a response found it lacking, usually because they believed it failed to actually address their issue. According to Seamus Kraft of the OpenGov Foundation, software used by staffers to respond to email messages remains antiquated. To solve the software and technology problem, the OpenGov Foundation has proposed a “Congressional Digital Service” not unlike the White House’s United States Digital Service (USDS), which works to modernize government agency websites and technology.

Associations Now reports on how the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) service (now owned by Amazon) has decided to end its online message boards due to trolls and the consistent negative tenor of comments provided to the site. Associations Now attributes the lack of an investment by IMDb to modernize the commenting system to allow for self-moderation as one of the reasons that the quality of the message boards deteriorated. The IMDb website has over 250 million monthly users.

Campaigns and Elections

Motherboard goes into an in-depth analysis of Cambridge Analytica and its data analytics efforts in helping to elect President Trump. The article explores whether analysts for Cambridge Analytica utilized newly developed methods to derive peoples’ personality traits from their activity on Facebook and then crafted messages to persuade them to vote or not to vote in the 2016 general election.

These are some of the reads that matter to us for the week in digital and public affairs. Want to get in depth analysis, news and how to tips in digital and public affairs? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter here.

This Week in Digital & Public Affairs: Snapchat IPO, Facebook Live and Conservatives

February 4, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Below is a roundup of key stories in digital and public affairs for this week:

Content, Digital and Social Media

The New York Times reports on the public S.E.C filing by Snap, the parent company of Snapchat. Snap filed confidentially to go public with the Securities and Exchange Commission late last year. Making the filing public was one of the company’s final steps before it begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SNAP. In the filing, Snap disclosed that it had built a nearly $405 million advertising business in just over two years. By end of last year, an average of 158 million people were using the app daily, with the average user opening the app more than 18 times a day according to the public filing.

AdAge does a analysis of the Snap filing pointing out key facts that every marketer should know about. AdAge points out that while Snapchat has 158 million users, growth appears to have flattened out, as it was only up from 153 million at end of September 2016. In addition, the overwhelming majority of users are 18 to 34 years old and the highest engagement on the platform is among those younger than 25. AdAge also points out Snap’s admission in the filing that it has had difficulty in securing long-term commitments from advertisers and is concerned that advertisers may take knowledge from playing on their platform and use it with their competitors.

Gov 2.0 and Public Affairs

State Scoop reports on a recent poll of local governments by the Public Technology Institute that found that 85% of local governments use social media to disseminate information to their constituents. However of those local governments who use social media, 88% of them do not have a specific budget for social media activities and 63% do not have an enterprise wide social media strategy for their efforts. The survey found the top three social media platforms for local government were Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Associations Now offers 5 tips for associations to optimize online fundraising. Tips include creating a compelling narrative that bring donors into the story; design an easy to use branded giving page and make your website mobile friendly; remembering end of year dates and holidays; and periodic messages to donors throughout the year.

Campaigns and Elections

Backchannel reports on how Facebook Live has become the perfect incubator for conservative media. Conservative outlets like the Daily Caller are using Facebook live to not just explain policy but take their audience behind the scenes in the new Administration. Backchannel argues that the low key nature of Facebook Live is the perfect medium for the conservative news media to reach millions. The off the cuff, unscripted nature of Facebook Live videos mirror President Trump’s style and are more authentic and believable to conservative audiences.

Mike Su, Chief Product Officer for Mitú, a Latino digital media company, writes an analysis in Medium of how through the examination of Facebook data, his company found that despite Latinos being apprehensive about the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton made little headway among them on the Facebook platform. In their study, Mitú found across all Latinos on Facebook, Hillary Clinton had just a quarter of the interest that Donald Trump had. Su credits the Trump campaign for moving quickly and efficiently to grow it base on the platform and rants about record low spending by Democrats on Hispanic outreach.

Website Development Case Study: Georgia Construction Aggregate Association

February 3, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

The Georgia Construction Aggregate Association (GCAA) is the leading advocate for the construction aggregate industry in the state. It is a member-driven association with producer members, associate members and trucking companies. The mission of the Georgia Construction Aggregate Association is to advocate for expanded use of aggregates in the private and public sector; educate the public on the value of construction aggregates; and educate industry employees on safety, health, and environmental compliance. Over 100 million tons of aggregate is produced each year in Georgia.

The aggregate industry has a long history in Georgia, with the first commercial rock quarry coming into operation in 1925. As Georgia has grown, so has the aggregate industry, growing from 25 million tons production in 1967 to its present day production of 100 million tons. The aggregates industry is not only the foundation for highways and infrastructure construction in Georgia, but also a foundation for economic growth in the state.

With a steady improvement in the aggregates industry due to an improved economy and the passage of the Georgia General Assembly’s Transportation Funding Act of 2015, a funding measure providing dedicated, predictable and sustainable revenue for the repair and maintenance of statewide roads and bridges, a renewed optimism has pervaded the industry.

To reflect this new optimism, the leadership at the Georgia Construction Aggregate Association wanted to update its communications with a new logo, redesigned website and e-newsletter design that was mobile friendly and contained engaging content that reached their members. In addition, the Georgia Construction Aggregate Association wanted a new brand, website and e-newsletter to better harness the power of online content to recruit new associate members; publicize events and support fundraising and policy initiatives.

Arc 3 Communications worked with the Georgia Construction Aggregate Association to develop a content strategy and plan for developing a new website and e-newsletter to educate and inform association members, stakeholders, state legislators and regulators. In addition they conducted a brand ideation session and worked with GCAA leadership on the creation of a new brand and logo. Through the development of a content strategy which included an identification of key messages, audiences and tailored content, Arc 3 helped the Georgia Construction Aggregate Association launch a new brand, website and e-newsletter that reached key audiences and reflected the new optimism in the industry.

The Georgia Construction Aggregate Association’s new website has resulted in substantial growth in unique visitors and page views to the site, and its new e-newsletter has seen a dramatic increase in open rates, click through rates, referrals to the website and new subscribers. GCAA’s new logo has given the association distinction and a strong new visual identity.

Most importantly, GCAA’s new logo, website and e-newsletter has resulted in an increase in member engagement, greater awareness about the aggregate industry among key partners, state legislators and civic leaders; and more associate membership leads.

Website Development Case Study: Georgia Construction Aggregate Association

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