It’s another Sunday, so for those who tune in, welcome to a diary discussing the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic campaign. If you’ve missed out, you can catch up any time: Just visit our group or follow the Nuts & Bolts Guide. Every week I try to tackle issues I’ve been asked about. With the help of other campaign workers and notes, we address how to improve and build better campaigns, or explain issues that impact our party.
This year I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the impact of COVID-19 on campaign events and outreach. From fundraising to coordination, how do we make sure that our campaigns succeed and that volunteers and voters feel connected? By now you’ve either heard of or used a lot of the major products out there. Whether you have used Zoom, Microsoft Teams, a Facebook live event, or a Youtube stream, there are a lot of ways to connect you to those around you online. How can your campaign take these tools and make them effective?
Evaluate the tool for you
Before I get into discussing political campaigns, I want to talk about how you should look at a tool from a technology standpoint. If you know what you expect to get out of your tool, then you can better choose the way you want to communicate. For example, if you’re looking for a one-directional tool, something like Facebook Live or a live Youtube stream can be effective. Everyone else is the audience in this event. While they can ask questions in comments, it is still controlled by the broadcaster.
When Microsoft took over Skype, they began to make major changes to the product, which ended up resulting in what we see as Microsoft Teams. Zoom started from a different point, but both of these products had the same idea. In the past, the tools debated were Skype versus Cisco.
Tools like Zoom allow for a more cooperative experience by allowing multiple users to participate in a conference. This provides a more town hall feeling, or if you have a business meeting, a much more collaborative approach. Many Democratic Party organizations have used Zoom for exactly this purpose: a way to hold short meetings easily and quickly. Zoom’s easy setup and options make it user friendly for most, and the hardware requirements are not strict. With strong multiplatform support, Zoom can be a great option.
Microsoft Teams, on the other hand, is a part of Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), a product stack that includes all of Microsoft’s services. The thing that can be nice about Microsoft Teams is the tight integration with Microsoft applications, allowing the program to quickly share Microsoft documents during a team meeting, which provides people with the opportunity to edit and revise. If you already subscribe to Microsoft 365, it can be worth it just to take a look, even after COVID-19.
Both of these tools have different strengths, so you can’t say there is one solution that is hands down better than the other. Having used both, there are things I really like and dislike about both products. Try them for yourself and decide what might work for you. Both products offer a free version, so you don’t have to go out of pocket.
Okay, you can do it. Now how, and when?
One of the tools I find most effective in evaluating my time and how to organize a meeting is going back to the four quadrants. (If you’ve ever taken a business management course, you may know of this system.) Draw yourself a simple two-by-two box. In Quadrant 1, you are dealing with “Emergencies.” These are events that happen that you must deal with immediately. This should be less than 5% of any day, and less than that every week in most of your work—even campaigns. Quadrant 2 is “Planning and Projection.” It’s considered important, but not urgent. The bottom two quadrants are the wasters. Quadrant 3 can be emails, talking to co-workers, returning phone calls, and other events that are both not urgent and not really that important. Finally, you have Quadrant 4: not important and not urgent. This is a time where you just zone out and do nothing.
I am a believer in rest, and I have advocated for it frequently. When it comes to staging a meeting, though, think about these management targets. If your meeting is about planning, projections, or something important but not urgent, set it up. You may find it to be a good use of your time to lower the likelihood of emergencies later. If you’re having a meeting about something that is both not important and not urgent, well, you shouldn’t be having the meeting at all. While the technology available is great, that doesn’t mean you need to hold a meeting for no other reason than to hold a meeting.
Time is valuable
There are many things that can happen in a campaign. You can always raise more money. You can send more mail or broadcast a new advertisement. The one thing you can’t do is get time back. Once it’s spent, it’s gone. This is the reason why meetings held among you and anyone working on your campaign should be focused on a point. Video conferencing can lead to a lack of focus. Come into a meeting with an objective and conclusion. You don’t have to rush to exclude other topics, but you also want to make sure you aren’t wasting someone’s day when their time would be much better spent helping you with something else. Remember, they have tasks they’re working on outside of your meeting.
When you hold a town hall or a livestream via Facebook or Youtube, time is also valuable. Start on time, or as close to on time as possible. In the past, I’ve told candidates it is okay to show up slightly late to make sure you aren’t sitting in an empty house when the first donors come walking in. In a livestream, though, things are different. Your campaign will need to initiate the livestream to start it and for you to control it. People will expect it to be on time.
Not only will potential attendees expect you to be on time, but they also value the time they are providing, so don’t drag out a town hall forever. Don’t ramble. To make their time most valuable, provide easy-to-access links that help them donate to your campaign on ActBlue or any other donor service you may be using for your race.
Next week on Nuts & Bolts: Proposals before the party at the convention.