DemCast Proposal

Problem Statements Pages 1 – 3 Promising Practice #1 Page 4 Promising Practice #2 Page 5 Building to a Solution Page 6 DemCast Model Summary Page 7 DemCast.com Pages 8 – 14 #DemCast on Social Media Pages 15 – 16 Key Implementer Page 17 Endorsements Pages 18 – 20 Section 1: Challenges & Opportunities

This page provides an overview of some challenges we face and a few big opportunities we should take advantage of in our current media climate to help advance the blue agenda and electoral success.

Challenge: Beat back the opposition in the information war.

The election of would not have been possible without a dedicated social media influence campaign from Russia, fueled by data that was mined by Cambridge Analytica with the explicit purpose of stoking fears and hatred, and amplified by Russian bot armies and amoral conservative media outlets that routinely propagated lies to the American people. Donald Trump outspent 13:1 on social media, because his campaign understood that digital is the new frontier of campaigning, 24/7/365. They bombarded American eyeballs with images, videos and propaganda. It worked.

Thus, foreign and domestic actors conspired to advance on the social media landscape before it even became a battlefield in the new information war. If the left continues to cede digital territory, it will be overtaken. We must advance and fight back by building our own digital army and spreading intentional, strategic messages that advance truth and progress.

Unfortunately, traditional media outlets are terrible at this. For one, they are profit-driven and prone to pushing click-bait faux-news that distracts attention from important stories. Traditional media also errantly falls back on a “two-sides” and “equal time” mentality, even when one side is blatantly lying and obfuscating.

The social media landscape is littered with manipulative messaging from the right and content-poor click-bait that distracts from the important issues of our time. This makes it incredibly hard for Democratic messaging and information to slip through. Ultimately, to push out and amplify the message on the social media battlefield, the left needs its own digital army to develop original, on-point content, push grassroots messaging, drive engagement, and beat back the bot armies of the right.

The left’s digital infantry began to form organically in 2017 and 2018 in response to Trump’s election. That’s us. As grassroots activists, we saw what our own party had failed to see – that digital was the new battlefield – and we took matters into our own hands by forming a digital resistance on Twitter and Facebook. Many promising practices emerged, and an effective online onslaught of pro-Democratic content helped to propel the blue wave, while also demonstrating strategies that can be built upon heading into 2020.

Bottom line: we must engage and advance on the digital battlefield. Both the quality and quantity of content matters.

DemCast Solution: Build and organize an army of grassroots digital activists.

Opportunity: Double-down on digital activism and honor its importance.

Door-to-door canvassing, phone-banking and postcard-writing are all accepted forms of blue wave volunteering, and they’re acknowledged as such by candidates and campaigns nationwide.

In 2018, on the heels of Russia’s cyber-attack on our nation, another form of campaign volunteering sprang forward: digital activism. There are two key roles filled by digital activists that are important to highlight.

Digital Content Producers – Creating Disbursable Digital Assets Folks across the country and world exercised their creative talents by generating digital assets in support of their candidates and causes – assets that could be spread across a variety of platforms. Websites like mine, DemWritePress, popped up to share grassroots resistance writing and calls to action. Activist-driven podcasts like End Times Pep Talk and Two Broads Talking Politics were created to showcase blue wave candidates. Artists lent their skills through the creation of graphics and memes with pointed, powerful messaging.

Digital Content Amplifiers

The most astute content producers went on social media to distribute their content, where a growing army of accounts worked together to relentlessly amplify digital assets and strategic communication. For example, throughout the 2018 cycle on Twitter, activists coordinated with each other in “direct message” (DM) rooms to build community, synchronize messaging & amplify high-quality content. DM rooms were hugely impactful: a room member could share a tweet, and other members would immediately amplify to hundreds of thousands of Twitter users in minutes.

The impact of these DM/Retweet rooms was felt by Democratic candidates, who gained followers & donations, and got support in fighting back disinfo attacks through these purposeful, behind-the-scenes efforts.

Whether spreading information on websites, via podcasts, in Twitter rooms, through Facebook groups, or on Instagram, content producers and amplifiers are the left’s digital army. We don’t do ‘bots’.

Bottom line: For 2020, we must normalize the idea that through content production and amplification, digital volunteering is another important leg on the campaign stool.

DemCast Solution: Formalize a structure and build roles for volunteer producers and amplifiers. Then, connect them together via a single initiative with a common blue wave mission.

Challenge: High-quality grassroots digital content often languishes, lonely and unamplified.

If a writer spends four volunteer hours crafting a persuasive essay in support of a candidate, but only the writer’s mother, best friend and 9th grade English teacher read it via a Google Doc or a personal blog site, does it make an impact? Maybe a very small one. But there is a huge missed opportunity, too.

Similarly, if a graphic artist spends four volunteer hours crafting an impactful graphic that depicts her anti-immigrant Republican Congressman as a snickering warden patrolling cages full of immigrant children, but she only emails it to her friends and family, then only 25 people may ever see it.

Given a well-travelled content hosting platform and a dedicated amplification strategy to help content spread with geographic targeting, the essay above could easily get 7,500-20,000 reads, its headline could be seen in peoples’ Facebook and Twitter feeds 500,000 times, and the powerful “kids in cages” graphic could catch the eyes of a million plus.

Bottom line: we should not be letting high-quality digital content go unamplified. We don’t ask canvassers to go knock on the one guy’s door and then stand around for four hours. That would be a waste of volunteer time. Our digital content producers are volunteers too, and their products should spread as far as possible, especially in the context of the digital war.

DemCast Solution: Identify and curate high-quality digital content produced by activists, aggregate it, and connect it to a dedicated social media amplification strategy. DemCast will exclusively produce and disseminate pro-blue, anti-GOP content aimed at helping to achieve the DemCast Mission. Opportunity: Offer coaching on digital activism.

Many of us dove into the deep end following the 2016 Russian hack/election, and began writing, podcasting, tweeting and posting politically for the very first time. It was trial by fire, but best practices were developed in this new media environment that need to be unearthed and shared.

We need a formal mechanism for mentoring new and promising resistance voices, many of whom could – with structured experience – become the next generation of Democratic/progressive communications professionals. The current media environment requires technical savvy, concision, and persuasive, emotional appeal. Strategies can be shared that will increase the effectiveness and reach of digital activists.

Bottom line: The blue wave movement would benefit from a hub that offers free resources for skill development in content production and amplification strategies.

DemCast Solution: Build an online training portal to help digital activists become more effective. Offer peer feedback and networking opportunities for writers, artists, podcasters & amplifiers.

Challenge: Democrats are about to face their biggest challenge to party unity.

We know from multiple reports that emerged following the 2016 election that Russia’s Internet Research Agency and other actors targeted social media disinformation specifically to drive a deep wedge between the left and centrist wings of the Democratic party/progressive movement, and special efforts were made to de-motivate African Americans from supporting the party.

This is only going to get worse in 2019 and 2020.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that the GOP has literally sold out America, we will hear constant messaging about the “corporatist” Democratic Party, about how “weak” elected Democrats are, and about how “both parties are the same”. It’s going to be brutal, and the mainstream media isn’t going to help.

Bottom line: We need a disinformation-free zone for curated content that clearly sees the big picture: while the left may differ on the pace or method of progress, we are on the same team. Republicans, however, must be electorally eliminated at every turn for the next two years (and beyond).

DemCast Solution: As a rule, all content produced or amplified via DemCast will be infused (or in line) with a message of Democratic unity. It is essential that the Democratic brand itself be as healthy as possible heading into 2020.

Section Two: Promising Practices Promising Practice #1: Resistance Writing & DemWritePress

From to Medium to WordPress, highly knowledgeable and engaged Democratic writers are actively pushing the party’s agenda through citizen reporting, essays and Op-Eds that remain largely hidden from public view. The Multnomah County Democrats (OR), for example, had so many members who were itching to write original pieces that the local party created its own Medium channel of “Resistance Writers”. And yet – these written pieces languish in a poorly-travelled pocket of the internet. Similarly, a rarely-visited WordPress blog “A View from Kansas 03” contained insights into GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder’s least admirable characteristics…but nobody ever saw them. There are countless examples.

There is another way.

In late October, a former-journalist-turned-activist wrote an essay entitled “The Top 10 Reasons To Just Say No to Knute Buehler” (Buehler was the Republican who mounted a formidable campaign against Democratic incumbent Governor Kate Brown of Oregon). The piece was submitted to and shared through DemWritePress – a news & opinion blog site founded in March 2018 by Nick Knudsen, a writer, activist and Twitter super-user (@DemWrite). As was common practice, Nick tweeted out the piece to his 80,000+ followers and spread the tweets throughout a series of Direct Message retweet rooms (including Oregon-specific ones) used by blue wave stalwarts on Twitter.

That single piece was read 14,000 times before Election Day. In contrast, the Multnomah County Democrats’ own site – which was chock full of important election info – was only visited 2,500 times for the entire cycle. It took the author three hours to write her piece, and it took Nick about 90 minutes to edit it, produce a graphic, post & tweet it out. Nick’s tweet was retweeted over 1,000 times and – importantly – received 98,727 Twitter impressions, meaning that almost 100,000 people who never even clicked through to the article got a critical mental impression of Buehler when the tweet passed through their feeds. The author also shared her piece with her local network of activists and her Indivisible group, who all posted it on Facebook. This overall amplification strategy maximized the volunteer hours put in by the author.

Published articles not only help reinforce the Democratic message via persuasive argumentation, but they also in effect act as a powerful social media meme when paired with strong featured graphics: DemWritePress articles tweeted from Nick’s account alone have led to over 21 million tweet impressions on Twitter. Those headlines catch a lot of eyes.

In all, DemWritePress published 223 pieces from 53 contributors (18 of whom were Democratic candidates themselves such as Sharice Davids and Gil Cisneros) and garnered 483,765 page views from 287,377 unique visitors over seven months, relying almost entirely on social media amplification in lieu of search engine optimization.

The total cost of this strategy was $300. Nick built and managed the infrastructure of the WordPress site in his spare time. Given greater capacity to seek out and curate content from Democratic activists across the US – a platform like DemWritePress could host high-quality, pro-blue content that could easily reach tens of millions of sets of eyes and garner hundreds of millions of impressions before the 2020 election.

Takeaway: aggregating quality written content and connecting it to a dedicated social media amplification strategy maximizes the impact of the effort put out by volunteer writers. Promising Practice #2: Social Media Amplification & #WaveCast

A wholly separate endeavor, #WaveCast was an experiment in the coordination and empowerment of resistance voices on Twitter during the final four days of the election cycle this November. The effort harnessed the sense of ownership that blue wave activists had over their movement. The timeframe of the project was November 3rd-6th, 2018.

Twitter users were invited to join a team of “Amplifiers” who would be tasked with sharing candidate information, reporting on GOTV efforts, relaying polling place information & offering insight and analysis on Election Day. All WaveCast Amplifiers were ‘hybrid’ activists (as described above) – versed in digital amplification strategies but also highly connected on the ground to local campaigns. We created Twitter DM rooms for each state, filled with local activists, and assigned a State Captain who helped guide reporting so that there was a spread of information both geographically and across local, state & federal races. Amplifiers were encouraged to use mixed media by taking photos of themselves and others canvassing in the final days, interviewing campaign staff and posting the videos, and otherwise creatively building buzz.

#WaveCast had roughly 170 volunteers, including 14 high-follower “anchor” accounts, known and trusted by the online blue wave community. 150+ volunteer Amplifiers stretched across 37 states and focused on the state-specific content that they knew so well from months of grassroots volunteer efforts. #WaveCast was “broadcast” using a hashtag framework that proved highly effective: every tweet by a #WaveCast Amplifier included both the #WaveCast hashtag and a state-specific hashtag such as #WaveCastTX or #WaveCastCA. All Amplifiers were asked to amplify each other’s content, and it was clear from real-time data that Twitter users were clicking on both the national and state-specific hashtags and retweeting widely.

In the end, the #WaveCast hashtag garnered 320 million impressions over just four days.

Critical facets of the #WaveCast experiment

• WaveCast ‘deputized’ online activists as something more – Amplifiers, and acknowledged them as experts in their local races. This generated huge appreciation and motivation among the team. Takeaway: asking people to opt in to a collaborative framework where their efforts and expertise are acknowledged seems to empower and motivate them to go above and beyond in terms of time investment and level of creativity. • WaveCast provided a hierarchical structure, formal guidance, and processes/procedures – as well as direct feedback about content and approach so that quality of tweets and shared media could improve. Volunteers would receive similar guidance and feedback from a well-run campaign. Feedback on this front was highly positive from participants. Takeaway: bringing order and structure to the normal free-for-all of Twitter activism was embraced, not shunned, by participants. • This project highlighted and celebrated hybrid activists. #WaveCast was as much about celebrating GOTV efforts in the field as it was about reporting on candidates, requiring knowledgeable, on-the-ground activists who could successfully relay what they were seeing/hearing via Twitter. • WaveCast demonstrated how to build a grassroots army that is connected via social media at the national level, but is both electronically and personally connected within states. • The use of photos, videos, streaming YouTube & podcasts to augment info transmission, built buzz and drove clicks. • A visualization of the spread of the #WaveCast hashtag is on the left. • The cost of #WaveCast was $0 – an entirely volunteer initiative, but it required full-time coordination. Section 3: Building to a Solution

A summary of what we know so far:

• The right is aggressively using digital tools to spread disinformation, and we must meet them on the battlefield. • A digital army has begun to emerge on the left, but more structure would improve quality & amplification. • Digital activism is a valid form of political volunteering and needs to be acknowledged as such. • Digital activism comes in the form of both content production and social media amplification. Both are important. • Quality resistance content often languishes unamplified - a huge missed opportunity given the messaging war. • There are many types of amplifiable digital assets, including writing, graphics, videos & podcasts. • Releasing digital assets into a dedicated social media slipstream greatly increases their exposure. • Hybrid activists – those who engage in both digital and in-person activism – are uniquely valuable. • Local activists are in a fantastic position to produce content about and amplify local races & issues. • The for-profit, click-driven nature of most media sites spreads noise, and necessitates a louder bullhorn. • Acknowledging digital activists as invaluable volunteers helps them to connect and deepen engagement. • There is currently no central location that aggregates and promotes grassroots-produced digital content. • Up-and-coming digital activists need coaching to maximize impact.

This proposal urges the use of a low-cost, high-return, field-tested strategy that can be incorporated into the digital arsenal of the grassroots: DemCast.

Section 4: DemCast Model Summary

DemCast will harness the expertise and experience of grassroots activists by curating original news & opinion pieces and other original media, graphics and podcasts that broadcast the party’s message and platform. Through a unique approach, grassroots- produced content on a news and opinion website/app will be matched by a social media amplification strategy that will empower the grassroots to tell the story of the party and movement. Key facets of the DemCast model:

Aggregating the Blue Wave: Fantastic content is being produced by grassroots activists in every state. DemCast.com will act as a magnet, drawing in the best of that content, to collect it in a single location. The site will host articles and op-eds, as well as podcasts and resistance video blogs. A smart, searchable meme and graphics library will host resistance art that can be used in social media posts. Content posted on DemCast will not be exclusive – content producers can share their work elsewhere. In fact – we will encourage people to do so. The more eyes the better.

A Bullhorn for Amplification: When activists post articles on Daily Kos or Medium, they are largely on their own. People who already use those sites may find the content, but there is no built-in amplification strategy. DemCast will draft and train an army of social media accounts to share out DemCast site content, and also flag/share other stories and posts floating around social media using a unique set of DemCast hashtags.

Not-For-Profit: DemCast is a project of blue wave resistance, meant to help Democrats pick up seats across the country at every level of government (see ‘MISSION’ to the left). There is no intent to make this endeavor profitable. No ads. No fees. In fact – profit motive would likely ruin the project. To the extent that DemCast requires funds for operating costs, the goal would be to keep those costs as low as possible, and only take in money from people/sources who don’t expect editorial control.

A Volunteer Framework: DemCast is not for professional journalists or social media operatives. Content producers who share their digital assets through the site and social media amplifiers will be treated as volunteers – just as they would if they were volunteering for a campaign. Volunteers will opt in to specific roles and will receive training/support through peer feedback and from a lean editorial team. If this works as intended, DemCast will help to cultivate the next generation of Democratic commentators, social media managers and campaign communications staff through intentional structure and mentorship.

By and For Democratic Activists: This project will be by and for the millions of Americans who are desperate to see major Democratic advances in 2020 and beyond, and who are writing, tweeting, posting and creating on behalf of that vision. Indivisible, Swing Left, MoveOn and local Dem groups are doing great work in parallel and are coordinating locally, but there is no single forum or resource to aggregate their efforts at a national level. We all have a common desire to elect as many Democrats as possible in the coming years and crush the GOP agenda. DemCast is overtly partisan for that reason.

Uniting Local, State & National Under One Umbrella: DemCast.com content contributors and the #DemCast social media amplification team will be trained to tag all assets by their geography, using content labels on the site and hashtags on social media. This way, users can quickly find the information most relevant to their lives. Volunteer roles will include State Content Captains and State Social Media Captains, to help build and train teams in each state. Each state will have a dedicated page on DemCast.com that will share all state-tagged content. Within each state page, embedded links will direct people to local Indivisible groups, candidate sites and Democratic party groups. Section 5: DemCast.com

The DemCast website (and corresponding app) will share news, opinion, media and resources by and for Democratic activists. Prominent party figures, lawmakers & candidates will have an open invitation to share content on the site as well.

Site Feature – Written Content: Largely, DemCast.com will be a news and opinion site akin to HuffPost (in its early days), or like the open progressive blog site Daily Kos. But the narrower mission of DemCast and the target user base of hybrid activists will narrow the written content to some core categories. DemCast will capture the essential energy of diverse grassroots voices through pieces that focus on: getting out the vote; local election overviews and candidate boosting; critical calls to action; voting rights, the 2020 census, gerrymandering and other issues that are essential to long-term electoral wins; fact-based pieces highlighting Republican lies, hypocrisy and corruption; personal and community narratives about why the Democratic agenda is right for America; and more:

• Motivational Content: Activists love to read and write pieces that get people excited about engaging in the democratic process. Motivational pieces that catalogue wins, show our progress and inspire people about the future are critical for keeping activists going when they are tired.

• Candidate Profiles & Media: In-district activists come to really love the candidates they work on behalf of. They know each candidate’s best qualities, watch all their media, and know how to promote them effectively given local dynamics. DemCast writers will share new media from their candidates, write about their campaigns, and make the argument for their election to office.

• Candidate Op-Eds: Many campaigns publish position papers and op-eds on Medium, Daily Kos, or their own websites, but those don’t come with built-in social media amplification. DemCast will. And there will be no expectation that writing is unique to DemCast – candidates can publish elsewhere. In fact – every DemCast writer can publish their work elsewhere and will be encouraged to do so. In the world of new media, the more eyes the better. Throughout 2018, candidates found it valuable to publish their Op-Eds on DemWritePress:

“Nick has built DemWritePress into an important voice for not only the "Resistance" but for the Democratic Party as a whole. I enjoyed working with him during the 2018 campaign and appreciated the amplification he and his network provided to my campaign. I look forward to continuing that relationship, either as a candidate or as a contributor to his new platform - DemCast - far into the future.” - Jill Schiller, Democratic Nominee for Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District, 2018

“I found DemWritePress to be an invaluable tool for getting Peter’s message out on social media: he faced an entrenched incumbent in a very red state, which made it hard for us to attract traditional media. Posts on DemWritePress brought us more new followers and support than anything else we tried. Nick's platform provides candidates with an audience that they very much need and deserve. The next iteration, DemCast, will be critical to our efforts in 2020.” - Jennifer Garlen, Communications Director, Peter Joffrion for Congress (AL-05)

• GOP Oppo: Democrats love to read about how awful the GOP is. Luckily, there are so many stories to tell. On DemCast, there will be no trashy clickbait, supposition or unfounded claims. There is no need: the GOP actively votes against the health, safety and economic security of everyday Americans on a daily basis. Terrible voting records and hypocritical policy positions alone can fill volumes. Activists highly engaged in campaigns have deep knowledge of all of the critical talking points about GOP opponents, and can translate those into effective oppo pieces for amplification.

• Calls to Action: Whether the goal is to boost attendance at a rally, motivate voters to call their MOCs, or leave a comment at regulations.gov about some terrible new rule change proposed by the Trump Administration, DemCast will be a place to find ways to engage. Many grassroots organizations like the Loyal Opposition and Rogan’s List already produce high-quality calls to action. We will partner with those groups to share content via the DemCast site for more engagement.

• Tools and Resources for Activism: DemCast will have an Activists’ Corner, where resources will be posted to help budding activists learn about effective ways to engage. Tips, tricks & tools galore.

• Civics, Information & Analysis: While a broad category of content, the editorial focus here will be “unity”. If positions or perspectives are proposed, they will be proposed on their own merits and never in opposition to positions taken elsewhere in the party. There will be no infighting on DemCast. No circular firing squads. Republicans work hard enough to sow division within our party – we don’t need to help them. Here, you might expect to find opinion pieces from different ally communities: African-Americans, LGBTQ, veterans, etc.

• Local Focus: Our goal is to have at least one volunteer DemCast writer embedded in each Congressional district – and ideally more: within each federal district there are multiple state house and senate districts that deserve ample attention as well. During 2018, local CA-25 activist/writer Marcy Rothenberg was supporting the Katie Hill campaign and would periodically publish on DemWritePress about the effectiveness of the campaign, the unity of the local party post-primary, and Katie’s effectiveness at campaign events. These pieces did very well on social media and garnered tens of thousands of reads.

Site Feature – Graphics and Video Library: Graphic artists (and regular folks, too) have had a field day making art for the anti-Trump resistance. Much of this art is highly effective and reflective of the core principles of memetics/propaganda – using striking images and concise, strategic messaging to elicit an emotional response within the viewer. Some art is used to convey information – dates and locations for rallies, GOTV events or candidate appearances. Surprisingly, there is currently no central depository for these works, which are worthy of re-use across the country for a variety of purposes. Artists will be able to contribute art and videos, and label them so that others can quickly find the content they need. Art will be screened as it comes in, based on a set of editorial standards: nothing defamatory, abusive, false or egregious will be allowed, and artists will have to be approved contributors to add content. All posted art will be free for the taking, but artists will be able to link back to their own websites if they so desire.

Site Feature - Blue Wave Podcasts: Across the country, blue wave activists have taken to podcasting as a way to relay critical information, vent, and connect. Many of these podcasts are of extremely high quality but have few subscribers. Grassroots podcasts that have a track record of longevity and pro-Democratic/resistance messaging can request to join the DemCast Family of Podcasts. Each episode will be tagged with content labels so that user searches can turn up specific episodes relevant to their search, and so that state-focused episodes can appear in a podcast list on state- specific DemCast pages. In the long term, the DemCast app will feature an embedded media player that can stream or play downloaded episodes. Video blogs will also be included on the site, and follow this same labelling approach.

Site Feature - State Pages: There will be 50 customized webpages - one for each state - that automatically load the most recent written, graphic, video & audio content that are tagged with the state’s content label.

Volunteer State Content Captains will lead in the build-out of the pages, to include links to key resources within the state: Indivisible groups, Democratic Party pages, voter registration and polling place information, etc. The goal would be that – if somebody was sent a link to DemCast.com/Ohio – the page would contain a wealth of aggregated information and resources for Democrats and, more specifically, Democratic activists in the state.

Site Feature - Digital Army Bootcamp: This section will be devoted to training. Site organizers will host live webinars and calls to train new volunteers on the DemCast model. We will bring in special guests to host conversations with contributors on specific topics, such as campaign communications and the science of memetics. Volunteer amplifiers can sign up for how-to courses on effective tweeting or on how to use Facebook groups to help content spread. Writers will be asked to edit pieces written by their peers through a private editing queue.

Bootcamp will also feature open trainings about in-person activism: canvassing, phone-banking, postcarding, etc. By housing training for both digital and in-person activism in one place, DemCast will move users deeper into hybrid activism.

The Bootcamp feature is key to making the DemCast model work. If volunteer content producers or amplifiers are not clear on what they’re supposed to be doing, or feel unsupported, they will disengage. Ultimately, DemCast will help to grow the communications talent pool on the left. DemCast can help social media amplifiers, writers, artists and podcasters grow their professional portfolios/expertise while they are also making an impact on the future of American democracy.

DemCast.com Site Goals & Metrics:

• 500 # of Writers (by 1/1/20) • 150 # of Graphics Contributors (by 1/1/20) • 15 # of Podcasts in DemCast Family (by 1/1/20) • 100M Total site page views (by 11/3/20) • 25M Total site unique visitors (by 11/3/20) • 4K Average reads per posted article • 5K Total published articles (by 11/3/20)

DemCast.com Startup Priorities:

• Develop volunteer position descriptions for DemCast Correspondents, DemCast Graphics Designers, DemCast Content Captains, as well as staff roles. • Conduct focus group(s) with activists to get feedback on desired site features • Define submission criteria, editorial priorities, and the process for becoming a contributor • Design submission processes for writing and media • Build out wireframes for DemCast.com pages, engage with developers • Outreach: network with Indivisible and other progressive groups to recruit volunteers • Launch site March, 2019 • Full functionality in place by May, 2019

Section 6: #DemCast on Social Media

#DemCast will be a bullhorn in the hands of grassroots Democrats, blasting out the party’s unified, big-tent message.

As referenced in Section 1 of this proposal, Russia and the GOP have conspired to mobilize an army of “bot” social media accounts, while also placing targeted ads and planting stories within right wing media intended to stoke fear and anger. They have used the new media landscape to manipulate the American public into voting against their best interests. The social media landscape is a battlefield, and the left needs soldiers. Since we don’t do “bots”, we need real people – and not just people who use social media to complain. We need people who go to social media with a mission of effectively spreading content that counters the narrative of the right and boosts the Democratic party.

The #WaveCast experiment (referenced in Section 2) offered some promising practices that will guide the build-out of the #DemCast social media amplification model:

• Recruit volunteers who want to be part of a team. Formalize and recognize their roles. • Provide hierarchy, structure and guidance to volunteers. • Build teams based on geography, to optimize hybrid activism (i.e. dual engagement – both digitally and in-person) and capitalize off local expertise/access to information. • Utilize best practices for viral info transmission (hashtags, Twitter Direct Message rooms, Facebook groups). • Track and use data to hone messaging and approach. • Amplify digital assets being produced by on-message content producers.

Based on these best practices, #DemCast on social media will feature the following:

#DemCast Feature - Twitter Army: DemCast will recruit and train 1,000+ Twitter activists to act as volunteer “Amplifiers”, with a geographic focus. Amplifiers will be charged with boosting the grassroots message on Twitter by sharing state-specific assets from DemCast.com and also producing Twitter- based content of their own to boost local candidates, highlight GOP corruption & push the message of supported Democrats. Amplifiers will be organized into state-specific Direct Message rooms managed by designated “Captains”. Captains will be highly knowledgeable local activists with strong ties to/knowledge about the Democratic Party within the state, Indivisible groups & campaign infrastructure. Captains will help guide reporting, provide feedback on quality of tweets, and bolster a sense of community among the groups. The team will collectively identify major state-based media, democratic group & political accounts to “tag” in tweets where appropriate.

When DemCast Amplifiers tweet out information, they will use a specified set of hashtags to help amplify their material: each tweet will carry the hashtag #DemCast, along with a state-specific hashtag such as #DemCastCA or #DemCastTN. When Twitter users click on the state hashtag in the tweet, it will take them to a list of all the other state-specific content that Amplifiers are sharing. This will help to unite in-state Democrats via a Twitter medium that tends to be more national in scope. Once the standard is set that this is how Democratic news and messaging can spread, political accounts will catch on. This happened during #WaveCast, as seen by UT Democratic Candidate Shireen Ghorbani’s tweet (left). Indeed, candidates will benefit greatly from the state-based infrastructure developed by the #DemCast teams.

Every asset from the DemCast.com website that carries a state label will be shared out by in-state Amplifiers. Tweets will be added into the Direct Message room for others to retweet and amplify. All #DemCast Amplifiers will be expected to click on the #DemCast hashtag and relentlessly retweet content to ensure it spreads.

Of course, tweeting and retweeting will only matter to the extent that Amplifiers have followers who will see the information. DemCast leadership will develop a communication plan to share the mission of the initiative, introduce Amplifiers as they are added, and ask users to follow them. “Follow” recommendations from respected accounts tend to be effective. Boosting the followings of #DemCast Amplifiers and Captains will be a constant, but understated focus.

All Captains and Amplifiers will be trained via the DemCast.com Bootcamp. Training will cover which types of stories to boost or avoid, decorum/professionalism expectations, how to use Twitter best practices like Tweetstorms, and how to tweet effectively to increase engagements with shared media. Amplifiers will be vetted via a process TBD, to ensure that they are who they purport to be. The geographically-focused approach and the strategy of recruiting hybrid activists who engage with each other in-person will mitigate the risk of imposters.

#DemCast Feature – Share Tags: Normally, when an article is shared to Twitter from a website, a pre-programmed tweet will be suggested by the site that has an article summary, a link, and a reference to the site’s Twitter handle. DemCast.com will go further, incorporating #DemCast hashtags and including the @-handles of relevant local or state groups/accounts. This will help user-shared site content enter the social media slipstream.

#DemCast Feature - Facebook Amplification: On Twitter, people associate via common interests, which means a good tweet from anyone can go viral, regardless of following size. Facebook is different because the associations are based on “Friendship” rather than interest. Nevertheless, Facebook can be a fantastic amplification tool, especially for local content of the sort that will be shared on the DemCast.com site.

DemCast will immediately set up an organizational Facebook account, and ask Twitter and Facebook allies to “Like” the page so that updates appear in ally feeds. Networking with grassroots orgs such as Indivisible that have formed local Facebook Groups will be critical. DemCast Amplifiers will facilitate this outreach. The DemCast Facebook account will share out all DemCast.com site content, and a DemCast Ally Facebook group will be managed by volunteers. Local Indivisible and Democratic Party chapters will amplify content.

#DemCast Feature - Instagram Amplification: Because Instagram is a visual medium, the DemCast Graphics Library will be a perfect feeder for Instagram content. All DemCast Amplifiers will be cross-trained in Instagram to maximize amplification on that platform.

#DemCast Goals & Metrics:

• 1,200 # of Twitter Amplifiers (by 1/1/20) • 500 # of Aligned Indivisible/Dem Group Accounts on Facebook (by 1/1/20) • 3 Billion Tweet Impressions on #DemCast Hashtags (by 11/3/20) • 300K Followers on DemCast Twitter Account (by 11/3/20) • 500K Likes on DemCast Facebook Page Section 7: Key Implementer – Nick Knudsen

Nick Knudsen is a Portland-based writer and activist who has been a leading voice of the Resistance and an effective behind-the-scenes organizer of Twitter-based resistance efforts. Nick is also the creator and Editor-In-Chief of DemWritePress – a popular resistance news and opinion site. He has a BA from Cornell University and a MA from Stanford University. Nick is a Certified Project Manager and long-time non-profit professional specializing in communications, strategic planning, coalition-building and resource development. Throughout the 2018 campaign, Nick supported and advised Democratic candidates on messaging and social media strategies.

Nick will be Editor-In-Chief of DemCast.com and Director of #DemCast social media efforts, bringing together a team to support the editing and coordination of messaging.

@DemWrite www.demwritepress.com

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