12 steps to a successful cause campaign

About 50 people — social activists, nonprofit executives, political campaign strategists — turned out for the first Mobilize Your Cause Bootcamp on June 2 to kick off Personal Democracy Forum in New York.

Above is the first part of the presentation on Slideshare: 12 steps to a successful cause campaign (or, if you prefer, advocacy campaign or e-campaign).

While there are other steps that can take your campaign to the next level, these 12 steps are the building blocks you need to get started:

1. First, listen and observe. Engage before the Ask.
2. Set clear goals & define metrics to measure
3. Define a clear theme
4. Frame it with a personal story
5. Create a simple call to action
6. Create a conversation hub for participants
7. Give your campaign social love handles
8. Consider a mobile component
9. Identify & enlist evangelists
10. Create ongoing mini-actions & provide updates
11. Use immediacy: Headlines & deadlines
12. Measure results, reconnect, refine, refresh

The bootcamp — and the Slideshare presentation — flesh out these recommendations in more detail. And we’ve just added a “Mobilize” section of Socialbrite to pull together the most relevant resources and pointers.

We’ve already had a couple of inquiries about holding another day-long Mobilize Your Cause Bootcamp. If you’re interested, let’s discuss.

Here are about 70 Flickr photos I took of the bootcamp and the rest of the conference. While I focused on social media strategies and tools, Katrin Verclas, Nicola Wells and Rachel LaBruyere provided a look at using mobile in your campaign.JD Lasica, founder and former editor of Socialbrite, is co-founder of Cruiseable. Contact JD or follow him on Twitter or Google Plus.