mobile

After my recent post  Digital Activism does not = Slacktivism and the discussion that it promoted, there seems to be lots of energy for digital campaigning practitioners to tell their stories and share there wins and fails, to give a more balanced look, on the ground look  at what we do.

And, we want you to take part.

Do you have a story, lesson, tips or success stories  to share about using digital tools to affect positive social change?  If so blog it, tag it# digicampstories, post the link in the comments or tweet me if you would like to be involved in pulling this project together.

Topics  we would like to see covered email, mobile, video, web, audio, graphics, social media and how they have been used to attempt or achieve social change.

The project team is forming now and will report back on progress at the E-campaigning Forum in Oxford, UK 2-23 March, Oxford, UK and via FutureMediaChange.com

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I admit it: I’m an early adopter. For years I’ve been waiting to the coming together of mythical device. My technological unicorn would act as a single pocket size device that does it all. The only device you need that would dock with your work desktop, manage movies and TV shows you want to watch, let you chat and make phone calls, maybe even do laundry. We are not quite there, but the new wave of smart phones and tablets has moved a step closer.

For the record, I think the slow pace of developing one device to rule them all is calculated and not do to technical limitations. What’s better than one device you can charge consumers for: 10 devices.

Enough of my dreaming and complaining. There is a simple way to move your phone, or Galaxy Tab in my case, closer to being the only device you need in your pocket or bag. Adding a bluetooth keyboard removes the need for thumbs or Swype and you suddenly have a portable device for composing those long emails, documents, or blog posts. I’m actually typing this post on Mac’s mini bluetooth keyboard paired with my Tab while at a Cafe. It is part of my test to see if I could truly replace my laptop with a tablet and keyboard. So far…Almost!

I chose the Tab over an iPad, because it actually does fit in my pocket while being large enough for comfortably reading, watching video and of course playing Angry Birds. The addition of the keyboard means it is no longer the pocketable — well, the two together are not. Is there much advantage to carrying a backpack or bag with a tablet and keyboard than just having your laptop? Not really.

However, I can see the pairing as a lifesaver in areas where limited connectivity means that a 3g mobile connection is more valuable than searching for sketchy Wifi. In additon to the Tab, the keyboard also pairs with my Blackberry Torch. In a pinch I can do all my email on the phone with the keyboard, which is great for travel. (I could use the tab, but the BB’s ultra-low bandwidth is a big money saver when abroad where megabytes are pricey.)

For WordPress users, I have tried both the WordPress Android App and going to my site through the Tab’s browser and using the standard WordPress interface. The app is more useful for simply typing, but the normal interface on the browser gives you all the WYSIWYG goodness you love.

Until the Lord of Tab comes along, this will have to do. Do you have any tips for mobile living and working? What’s your digital must have gift this year?

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The Personal Democracy Forum has just made it easier to decide what tech firm to hire for your organization’s e-mail marketing, mobile messaging, online fundraising, or CRM, by publishing “Who to Hire: the PdF Political Technology Guide.”

The PdF Technology Guide ranks the tech solutions based on user surveys.

The guide profiles 40 vendors of political and advocacy software — and ranks them based on user surveys of their:

• software quality and usability
• pricing fairness
• customer service quality

The guide also tells you what to look for when choosing your vendor of four “Core Technologies” — E-mail service, Database management, Peer-to-peer activism, and Mobile.

Anyone can download the guide’s executive summary for free, but the full report is available only to paid members of the Personal Democracy Forum.

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The ubiquitous calls to help Haiti by texting “Haiti” to 90999 last month, and the $41 million raised by the effort, may have opened your organization’s eyes to the possibilities of mobile messaging, but what are reasonable expectations for more run-of-the-mill mobile campaigns? To answer this question, M+R and MobileActive.org have released 2010 Nonprofit Text Messaging Benchmarks.

Building Your List

Percentages of subscribers who make a call (to a congressman, for example) or sign a petition via their mobile phones when asked to do so via text message

The report found that nonprofit text messaging lists grew at an annual rate of 49.5%, with the overwhelming majority of subscribers (80%) joining the lists by entering their mobile numbers on a Web page.

Most organizations leveraged their existing e-mail lists to grow their text messaging lists, which explains why most text subscribers are also e-mail subscribers (73% – 87%). “Hence,” says the report, “for the organizations in this study, text message is primarily being used to communicate with email supporters through an additional channel, not as a way to communicate with a different set of supporters.” This may be an important consideration when deciding whether to invest in building your text messaging lists — especially since the churn rate for text lists was much higher than that for e-mail lists: 30.7% vs. 19%, according to the report.

Messaging Your List

Fundraising may come first to mind for a text campaign these days, but the report found nonprofits and advocacy organizations are conducting five distinct types of messaging:

• Fundraising – The $10 per donation limit is far less than the e-mail average, notes the report, but text fundraising messages increase the success rate of e-mail solicitations when subscribers receive both.
• Advocacy – 4.7% of subscribers make a call (to their congressman, for example) when asked to do so via text message; 14.6% of subscribers sign a petition in reply to text messages asking them to do so.
• Informational – News alerts or reminders to vote, for example.
• Go-to-Web – Sending subscribers to a Web page to take a survey, take an action, or just check it out.
• Text Reply – Asking subscribers for their thoughts/ideas, for example.

The free report has more specifics, of course, as well as links to case studies of many of the campaign types. I definitely recommend downloading it.

More Benchmarking Studies

See our previous posts on benchmarks for e-mail advocacy and fundraising and social networking.

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