Blog - Arc 3 Communications

Meet Social Media Marketing Intern Paul McNally

August 2, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Paul McNally is a Communications major in his senior year at Kennesaw State University. Passionate about writing, public relations, and marketing he is currently interning for Arc 3 Communications as a Social Media Marketing Intern. Prior to attending Kennesaw State University, Paul attended the Art Institute of Atlanta where he studied graphic design, drawing and animation.

One of Paul’s proudest moments in his marketing career was having the opportunity to team up with Sober Living America, a non-profit organization that helps provide information, support, and recovery options for people struggling with addiction. Paul created a media kit and marketing plan to raise addiction awareness among college students at Kennesaw State University. This included an on-campus event for the non-profit which raised awareness in the media and online about the growing addiction epidemic among students and millennials and how to combat it.

In his spare time, Paul is an avid film, video game, and book geek. He also has a passion for music and enjoys rocking out on the guitar, playing alternative music. His passion for writing goes beyond the communications realm as he writes poetry and short fiction on the side. He and his wife, Trish, an elementary school teacher for the Cobb County School District reside in Kennesaw with their dog Malcolm. They also enjoy traveling and spending time outdoors hiking or just taking in the beauty of nature.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to practice the marketing skills that I learned in school in a small agency environment where I can work with different clients on diverse accounts,” McNally said. “I think being a Social Media Marketing Intern at Arc 3 is a great opportunity for me to do that right in the heart of downtown Marietta.”

Welcome aboard Paul! Look for Paul’s upcoming posts regarding social media tips and tactics in our blog.

WordPress Maintenance Is Important for A Secure Campaign Website

July 22, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Reliable WordPress Maintenance Keeps Your Site Safe

Since even before the movie War Games in 1983 with Matthew Broderick, cyber security has long been a concern for governments, corporations and small businesses. However, in the last election cycle of 2016, the issue of cyber security and political campaigns came to the forefront. With hacking of the Democratic National Committee in the 2016 election, the hacking of the Marcon campaign and release of emails days before the French Presidential Election, and the breach of millions of voters’ data by a contractor for the National GOP, cyber security has become a critical, timely and urgent issue for campaigns, parties and candidates at all levels. While education and training for staff regarding two-step authentication of third-party systems and avoiding phishing attacks are all important for a campaign’s cyber security, a WordPress Maintenance program is a vitally important way to keep local campaigns and county political parties from being hacked and is often overlooked usually to the peril of those organizations involved.

The majority of local campaign and party websites are built on the WordPress platform. In fact, over 28% of the world’s websites are built on WordPress. This includes big brands like Disney, Sony, and The New York Times just to name a few. There’s a reason for this – WordPress is simply the best content management system out there. Its ease of use, functionality and affordability make it of one of the best CMS systems for the fast paced world of campaigns and elections. There are so many themes and plugins for WordPress that enable folks to create awesome websites with little or no hard coding involved. The open source community of WordPress, which includes the developers of the many themes and plugins for WordPress websites, is a treasure trove of resourceful information and can serve as a guide for web designers through any questions and problems that they may encounter in creating a WordPress website.

However, new versions of WordPress and the plugins and themes integrated with the platform are constantly being issued. For busy political operatives, state legislators, and county party officers, finding the time to do routine WordPress website maintenance is not easy. In a preliminary analysis of local campaign and county party sites across the country, it was found that many have outdated WordPress versions and are vulnerable.

Outdated versions of WordPress core, themes, and plugins can result in potential hacking. According to quarterly reports from the security company, Sucuri, three out of four websites hacked in 2016 ran the WordPress platform with 25% of these sites having the plugins TimThumb, GravityForms, and RevSlider. According to Sucuri, a majority of these hacked sites were running outdated versions of WordPress and the popular plugins. The majority of Word Press core, theme and plugin updates have to do with patching security vulnerabilities. WordPress and theme and plugin developers are always striving to make their products better and improve their features with new versions, but security is a paramount issue and dominates new releases.

Political hacking is on the upswing and WordPress sites are the most vulnerable when not updated. A WordPress maintenance program that provides updates to your site on a routine basis is affordable and the best way to avoid hacking. A WordPress maintenance program is proactive, smart and provides peace of mind.

A safe, secure, and fast performing campaign website is vital to being able to raise awareness about your campaign’s message to voters, donors, and potential volunteers and grassroots supporters. It is crucial in achieving your subscriber, volunteer, fundraising and electoral goals. In today’s new paradigm of electoral hacking, a WordPress maintenance program is an easy way to keep your site intact, free from danger and a quick read for viewers.

What should a WordPress maintenance program entail? A couple of key things should be provided by your vendor. First and foremost your agency should be accessible by phone and email and provide customer service that answers technical questions, provides prompt bug fixes and enhancements, and is willing to communicate with your website’s hosting provider when there is an issue. The agency should also do daily backups of your website files and database that are independent of the back ups that are done by your hosting provider. WordPress core and your site’s plugins and themes should be regularly updated to the latest version. Real time up-time monitoring and security scanning should also be provided along with regular site speed and performance testing. Your vendor should also do regular site optimization through the cleaning of your database and any post revisions. Finally, a monthly analytics and performance report that includes minor design and content update recommendations to help you achieve your subscriber, volunteer, fundraising and electoral goals should be provided.

Interesting in learning about our WordPress website maintenance program for campaign websites? We have experts who have been tested in the crucible of political campaigns, public service, technology and digital. Our passion and experience in WordPress website development and maintenance makes us the right choice for any political campaign. Contact us here or via Facebook Messenger now.

Website Development Case Study: North Carolina House Republican Caucus

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

Project Goals

In the wake of the passage of House Bill 2, an onslaught of liberal interest groups, the media and celebrities attacked the North Carolina GOP legislature for its common sense bathroom policy. The preponderance of negative and fake information online regarding the issue proved to be a threat to the North Carolina Republican Party keeping its super-majority in the State House. The NC GOP sought to develop a website that would serve as a digital hub for providing accurate and resourceful information regarding House Bill 2, and allow people to donate to support the party for their courageous stand. Resource information was especially needed to allay concerns of suburban women in the Charlotte and Raleigh areas, who were constituents of key suburban GOP legislators.

Our Solution

Arc 3 Communications developed a website dedicated to the issue of House Bill 2 branded “Keep North Carolina Kids Safe” that had in-depth information regarding the new policy. The website included FAQs, an explanatory video, op-eds, and the latest news stories from across the country regarding the issue of transgender and single gender bathroom policy. The website also included powerful stories from women who courageously spoke out why it was important to have a single gender bathroom policy in state buildings and schools to protect women and children from sexual predators. All content on the site was easily able to be shared on social networks and it became a digital hub for the effort to fight back against the liberal media online.

Results

The website was a digital hub that stayed the test of time throughout the intense debate online regarding the bathroom policy in North Carolina, which included distributed denial of service attacks on several North Carolina government sites by a hacker associated with Anonymous in protest of House Bill 2. The site was a valuable resource for the North Carolina State House Republican Caucus Members who provided credible third party information regarding the bathroom policy issue to their constituents and alleviated their concerns. The website’s content consistently ranked high on Buzzsumo’s social sharing content rankings for most shared content regarding the issue each week. The North Carolina Republican Party was able to leverage the site to get a substantial number of new email subscribers and donors to the party to support its fundraising and electoral goals. In the end, the NC GOP House Caucus was able to re-elect key members in suburban districts and keep a super-majority.

Ten Ways to Post Political Views On Facebook Without Being Unfriended

May 26, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Facebook messages have been shown to be an effective tool in get-out-the-vote political efforts. In the prestigious journal, Nature, political scientist Dr. James Fowler found that a single get-out-the-vote message could produce a 2.2 % bump in voter turnout. More importantly, 80% of the impact came from users sharing the message with their friends.

However, sharing your political views online can come with the risk of being unfriended if not done in the appropriate way. Here are some simple tips for sharing your political views on Facebook:

1) Be humorous. Humor disarms and is a powerful weapon to articulate a point of view to someone who may not agree with you.

2) Comment on timely topics and events. Remember the “Query Deserves Freshness” (QDF) rule of Google search which ranks fresh content on timely topics higher. Be relevant in your discussions, especially with those whom you may disagree.

3) Use an image, preferably one that promotes empathy or sympathy for your cause. Social media is about images. Without them your message is ineffective.

4) Avoid ad hominem attacks on those who do not share your views online.

5) Rely on facts and figures and data to support your position. Utilize infographics. Social issues especially are helped along by sociological data to support your position.

6) Listen and learn and engage your audience. Your audience must first know that you listen to them, before they will entrust you to persuade or lead them.

7) Timing of posts; the best time to post on Facebook is between and 9 and 10 p.m. EST. People are more receptive to messages at this time.

8) Be a consensus builder. Find small issues that you can agree with those of different political viewpoints first.

9) Be conversational. Facebook is a large cocktail party; act as though you were talking with your friends in person. Social media is a conversation and it helps to be pleasant and engaging.

10) Keep you content consistent and interesting. Facebook is not a graffiti wall in which you just post information for the sake of posting. Give thought to your overall posts. Once posted, it is out there. Even if you delete your post, chances are someone may have taken a screenshot photo of it.

The most important rule of all in discussing politics on Facebook is to use your common sense and be civil. Just as in real world conversation, civility and tone can go a long way in your online conversation.

Why Content Marketing Matters for Your Trade Association’s Future

May 15, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Every industry is facing the digital disruption of their traditional marketing and communications. Trade Associations are no different and not immune to the winds of change that have occurred in consumer and business to business marketing. Trade associations’ marketing and communications efforts to membership, stakeholders, alliance groups and government audiences is changing and aligning with big brands’ transition to a content marketing model. The largest and most effective brands in the world such as Coca-Cola and IBM, use content marketing to build relationships and brand loyalty and make future sales.

Developing a content marketing program for your trade association is important to achieving your organization’s goals and objectives in the digital age of communications. What is content marketing? It is the creating and sharing of valuable, relevant and consistent content in order to build relationships with an audience to achieve an objective such as a membership sale. It is owning media, not renting it. By sharing your best ideas and experience, good content builds trust and relationships with people and encourages them to come back to you when they need your services or product.

The most popular forms of content marketing are articles, social media content, blog posts and e-newsletters. But case studies, white papers, e-books and webinars have also proven to be effective in reaching audiences. Although social media and digital formats have made content marketing affordable and effective for big and small organizations, it is not strictly confined to online. Print publications such as John Deere’s The Furrow Magazine and Lego’s Lego Club Magazine have been around for decades and are remarkably successful in building long lasting relationships for these respective brands.

Like the big brands, trade associations must come to the realization that traditional marketing with its heavy reliance on television, direct mail and print media is a losing strategy in retaining and growing membership and promoting advocacy and policy goals, especially among millennials. With the rapid decline in cable television subscribers, newspaper readers and the increase in junk mail into mailboxes, producing compelling content that engages your members and reaches them on the digital continent is vital. The most popular television channel for millenials isn’t even on TV; it is YouTube.

The future of trade associations and all those organizations that are engaged in civic life depends upon the sharing of content online that engages and forms relationships with audiences. In order to have millenials active in your association, you must reach them on the digital continent in which they live. Support for your association’s membership, legislative and advocacy efforts depend upon this large group upon which future board members and leadership will come.

Want to learn more about the principles and fundamentals of content marketing and how you can update your trade association’s communications and marketing efforts? Contact Patrick Burns at pburns@arc3communications.com. We can work with you on content marketing fundamentals such as a content audit, the creation of a content marketing plan, content calendars, a content management system and analytics. Arc 3 can reboot your trade association’s marketing efforts and implement a content marketing process in your organization that helps you achieve success.

Content Marketing Case Study: The Grady Health Foundation

March 31, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

The Grady Health Foundation works with philanthropists, corporate leaders and civic activists to raise critical dollars and secure in-kind donations to benefit the Grady Health System. The Grady Health Foundation is a 501(c) 3 that directly supports metro-Atlanta and Georgia’s largest safety net hospital – Grady Memorial Hospital.

In an effort to increase public awareness about Grady’s unique role in the health of the city and state, the Foundation hired Arc 3 Communications to remodel its traditional marketing program into a content marketing program that utilized its website, social media, email marketing and digital advertising programs in a way that created a donor content journey that resulted in more subscribers, donors and advocates for Grady. Grady’s leadership sought to transform an essential Atlanta institution into the leading public academic health center in the U.S., and have patients and their families rave about their experience at Grady regarding the quality of care they received.

Working with the Grady Health Foundation staff and the Grady Health System public affairs team, a content audit was made of all content online; and a strategy session was conducted to identify audiences of current and potential donors, stakeholders and advocates. Audience personas were created and a content marketing program was developed that included the messages and content strategies that resonated with different donor audiences via the Foundation website, social media, email marketing and digital advertising via Facebook and Google. Content strategies included having a good balance of content in a variety of specialty areas that pertained to the capital campaigns underway, and having content with both broad donor appeal and geared towards more elite audiences such as major gifts and foundational grants. Seasonal trends – such as end of year giving – were also considered and out of the park content was planned each quarter and repurposed. Reused content such as photos and stories from the remarkable history of a 120 year old Atlanta institution was also incorporated into social media strategies. Video content for the Foundation’s annual White Coat Grady Gala honoring Grady’s top physicians and their lifesaving work was also created and repurposed throughout the year leveraging healthcare observances in specialty areas. Analytics and testing tools were utilized to analyze content before and after publishing on the website, social media, email marketing and digital ad platforms. Headlines, images and text were tested and reworked for improvement. As content was readied for distribution, channels were carefully selected and optimal times for publishing on them were chosen. Data and traffic were looked at every day for success or failure and improvement.

Today, Grady Health Foundation’s website is one of the most visited online health care foundation destinations. Its social media following is also impressive, with more than 8k Facebook fans and 5k Twitter followers. The Grady Health Foundation has seen a dramatic increase in donations made over its website and seen an increase in major gifts to its capital campaigns and grants from national foundations from across the country. Within the last year, Grady raised a record $1.8 million at the annual White Coat Grady Gala and saw the official dedication of the Marcus Trauma and Emergency Center at Grady, funded through a contribution made by philanthropist Bernie Marcus and the Marcus Foundation.

How to Better Use Social Media #Hashtags in Politics

March 28, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Since the introduction of hashtags by former Google Developer Chris Messina on Twitter in 2007, hashtags have grown in their effectiveness as an advocacy and mobilization tool. Hashtags have long been an effective tool on Twitter, helping to organize people by shared interest. However, hashtags have been embraced on other popular social media platforms such as Instgram, Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr. Hashtags allows social media users the ability to connect by interest in an expansive way. This is important in the noise of today’s digital dialogue.

A campaign or political organization can utilize hashtags to reach extended, adjacent and even far-off networks of people with similar interests. Hashtags is an effective tool in organizing people of a shared interest, value or belief who may not yet be socially connected.

Here are some tips for incorporating hashtags into social media posts to promote your political content and connect with those of a shared interest.

1) Ideology: One of the easiest ways to promote your organization’s content is to reach those of a like ideological mind. The most popular ideology hashtags are #tcot, ‘top conservatives on twitter” and #p2, “progressives who prioritize diversity and empowerment” and #tlot, “top libertarians on twitter”.

2) Party affiliation: Although there is a close correlation between ideology and party identification, in order to ensure that you reach all of those with a shared party affiliation, include a reference to your local, state or national party. The most popular hashtags are those associated with the respective state parties. For example in Georgia, the Republican Party hashtag is #gagop and the Democratic Party hashtag is #gadems.

3) Issue: In the promotion of a issue or policy, utilization of a hashtag to build support for the issue is an effective tool. Providing quality insights and updates on timely issues is a way to build supporters and followers. The Google QDF rule (quality deserves freshness) applies to search on social media networks by hashtag. People hunger for meaningful content on timely issues and will search to find it. For example, #healthcare, is one of the most popular hashtags on social media, due to it being a timely and relevant issue as Congress has recently been discussing alternatives to the Affordable Care Act such as the American Health Care Act.

4) Location: Geo-location is critical in social media. As social, location and mobile merge together, the ability to connect with those in your immediate vicinity is important in the promotion of a post. Placing a hashtag that indicates your location can not only build credibility in your posts, but can draw the interest of those in your local area. People hunger for local news around them, and the power of connecting with people in your local area on social media cannot be underestimated. For example, state and local specific hashtags such as #gapol and #atl ensure that you are reaching people in your local area. If you are attending a place, event or conference see if there are hashtags that have been developed for that specific site. For example, at the national party conventions last year, #RNCinCLE and #DemsInPhilly were the respective hashtags for these events.

5) Social TV: There is a strong correlation between live television and social media. People love to share insights on TV programs on their 2nd screen and watch alongside others online to see their feedback. During last year, some of Twitter’s most trafficked moments occurred during the Presidential debates between President Trump and Secretary of State Clinton that aired on live TV. Utilizing hashtags for specific events that air on television is way to connect with followers and audiences and promote your posts. Before the first Presidential debate, Twitter and the Commission on Presidential debates released official debate hashtags #Debates and #Debates2016, along with corresponding emoji. The result was that the 1st debate showdown between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was the most-tweeted debate ever. All told, there were 17.1 million interactions on Twitter about the event, according to Nielsen’s Social Content Ratings.

6) Look to the Past: History and sentimentality about the past is a fundamental part of the human experience. People love to remember and are drawn to content that reminds them of the “way things were”. Our civic institutions and political parties have a rich history in which content can be pulled. One of the fundamental parts of being a candidate is telling your biography and life experience. Utilizing a hashtag such as #TBT (Throwback Thursday) or #FBF (Flashback Friday) can be very effective in gaining followers as they are some of the most popular hashtags on social media.

7) Humor: Humor disarms and is a powerful weapon to articulate a point of view to someone who may or may not agree with you. Use of humorous hashtags can enlist followers and supporters for your cause in more subtle way. For example in the 2012 Presidential election, the Obama campaign utilized the #Romnesia hashtag to describe Governor Romney’s inconsistent policy stances over the years. Many hashtags or slogans that are started in earnest by a campaign or group can become hijacked by the opposite side who use the hashtags in a humorous way. In the 2012 campaign, the Obama-Biden team had put out the hashtag #forward, a key campaign slogan. The RNC quickly utilized the #forward hashtag to describe moving “forward” to $491 billion in higher taxes for Obamacare; deficits over $1 trillion; and $1.9 trillion in higher taxes.

With the continued integration of search and social, hashtags are an important part of content and social advertising strategies for all social media platforms, not just Twitter. The use of hashtags can connect your organization in a timely manner with the audience you are trying to reach and promote your content. So don’t forget the #hashtag in your next post.

Do you post political content on social media? What are your favorite hashtags? Leave comment below or contact us via Facebook Messenger by clicking here.

WordPress Maintenance Is Important for A Secure Campaign Website

Reliable WordPress Maintenance Keeps Your Site Safe

Website Development Case Study: North Carolina House Republican Caucus

Why Content Marketing Matters for Your Trade Association’s Future

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Reliable WordPress Maintenance Keeps Your Site Safe

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