Notes from I2M

Several of our colleagues are at the Innovate to Motivate (I2M) conference this week in New Orleans, LA. I2M is one of the largest annual grassroots conferences, and a wonderful source of information and networking with others in the grassroots industry.

Terri Broussard is among the participants, and has sent along some lessons from the conference. Her valuable insights are below.

• Social Media only works when you tie it to reality. You need a picture of it to believe it. If you’re at a rally, take a picture of your advocates, post it on facebook or you tube and have them tag themselves. They’ll want to follow you on twitter if you hand out your business cards with your twitter id
• Social Media engagement is not a 9 to 5 job. Volunteers engage after hours. Don’t be afraid to experience and it’s okay to lose control of your message from time to time; you have to be willing to experiment.
• Differences between facebook groups and fan pages (we’ve all been wondering). Groups were first on the scene. They tap out at 1k people. Fan pages are the way to go if you have to pick one. But if you can do both, do both. Fan pages allow you to do the same thing you can do with an actual facebook page. You can also get demographics on your fans after you have more than 10 people join.
• The #1 concern of a very experienced Grassroots Organizer, PAC manager and lobbyist is how to move online advocates to offline activities. The playing field has been leveled, most organizations have some kind of online advocacy capability, that advantage will likely level out over time as these technologies become more commonly used.
• A way to find key contacts: look up political contributors in the city, then check their voter records, cross check their professions and interview them.

Thanks, Terri!