LTO Links #44

Inside Clinton's Email Team

Your weekly must reads

Check out the Wired story on President Trump's media diet, followed by the story about the new app that tries to help you balance your media diet. If you're interested in diving into this topic some more, check out Clay Johnson's

Make sure you read the summary of the podcast interview with the director of the Clinton campaign's email program -- a very sophisticated operation.

I try my best to balance the sources that make up LTO Links each week, but if you've got a site I should check out -- or think we could be more balanced -- I want to hear from you: [email protected]

LTO Links

Issue #44 |

Community

How Movements Organize Now: Notes on the Challenges of Rapid Growth

"Some common themes emerge from these brief reports. One is that without exception, people who are organizing use the same consumer-grade tools that “ordinary” people use for their everyday communications: email and Facebook. Second, organizers and members alike are not happy with those tools, and it’s possible to shift people to others if your group is willing to differentiate communication needs. (If everyone wants to know everything that is going on, that is simply impossible.) Third, Slack isn’t just for the tech-savvy; people who aren’t early adopters and who often reject new tools are capable of quickly warming to it. Fourth, no one is satisfied with what they’re using. And fifth, there appears to be an ongoing unfulfilled need for more lateral communication between groups, for sharing of best practices and solutions to the ongoing challenges of local organizing."

How one viral publisher uses Facebook groups to grow big numbers

"Since last June, Blasting News has recruited roughly 1,000 people who manage groups, mostly on Facebook, on topics covered by the news and entertainment site, like politics, lifestyle, health, beauty, technology and entertainment."

Content

We're watching more video, just not on TV

"A new Consumer Technology Association study finds that video viewership has increased more than 30% over the past five years to 16.8 hours per week, but almost half of all video viewing is being done on devices other than television (smartphone, laptop, desktop, tablet, etc.) — the highest rate its ever been."

I Tried Trump’s Media Diet. Now Nothing Surprises Me Anymore

"The danger is that an increasingly large number of media outlets today have built their business models around telling the president’s supporters—and the president himself—only what they want to hear."

A news app aims to burst filter bubbles by nudging readers toward a more “balanced” media diet

"A slider bar at the bottom of the screen moves from left to right based on how much time users spend reading news from certain sources, and how ideologically extreme the app deems those sources to be."

Data

Study: Breitbart-led right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda

"A remarkable feature of the right-wing media ecosystem is how new it is. Out of all the outlets favored by Trump followers, only the New York Post existed when Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980. By the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, only the Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh, and arguably Sean Hannity had joined the fray. Alex Jones of Infowars started his first outlet on the radio in 1996. Fox News was not founded until 1996. Breitbart was founded in 2007, and most of the other major nodes in the right-wing media system were created even later. Outside the right-wing, the map reflects a mixture of high attention to traditional journalistic outlets and dispersed attention to new, online-only, and partisan media."

Email

10 Things We Learned From Hillary Clinton About Email Marketing

"3. Write a killer subject line!...5. Always write or type fast...7. Send people information that they want...8. Keep emails short and easy to read...9. Don’t sell until the prospect is ready."

This is a fascinating, must-read (or listen) about the Clinton campaign's email operation:

Email Design Podcast #52: An Inside Look at Hillary Clinton Campaign’s Email Marketing Strategy with Amanda Litman

  • "The email marketing team was 19 members organized into 3 groups – copywriting, organizing team (event mobilization, etc.), and fundraising."

  • "The digital team raised over a third of the campaign’s budget and email accounted for 65-70% of that."

  • "They used Silverpop as their ESP and had a printed out 74-step checklist for QA, including checking links, dynamic content, etc. There would be additional team members to review the email and checklist including a final proof send amongst team members."

Social

Facebook has started to flag fake news stories

"But now it’s going to get a warning label. Eventually. Sometimes.

Facebook has started pinning a “disputed” tag on fake news, as it promised it would back in December, as part of its 'we’re going to fight fake news but there’s only so much we can do' campaign."

Facebook Reactions Are More Valuable Than Likes – How You Can Get More

"Facebook says that reactions are now more valuable than likes – and that means getting people to use them is more important than ever!"