Joe Camicia is Retiring

Nine years ago Advocacy.Marketing was one of the first Sacramento digital marketing firms to focus on government, politics and public affairs. Co-founded by elected and appointed official Joe Camicia, A.M has spent the last decade focusing on digital tools for clients in political campaigns, issue advocacy, lobbying and coalition building, along with more traditional public affairs activities.

With March being Women's History Month Joe thought now was the right time to turnover the reins of A.M to his partners Ana Marie Carlton and Tara Lenoir. Joe will still consult for A.M from time-to-time but day-to-day operation of A.M will be overseen by Ana Marie and Tara. For more information about Ana Marie, Tara and our work, visit the A.M website-- Advocacy.Marketing

In addition to consulting for A.M Joe has formed a working group exploring artificial intelligence as it pertains to local/state government and politics. The group includes political consultants, data analysts, industry experts, bloggers, journalists CIOs and IT professionals. Contact Joe for more info joecamicia@gmail.com

Lobbying and Campaigning During a Crisis

Hope you're hunkered-down at home.  


This crisis limits the ability of traditional lobbyists, association peeps, consultants and public policy communicators.  Everyone is trapped at home, the building is closed to visitors and the Legislature is off until at least April 13.  So what do we do in the midst of all this confusion and uncertainty? How do you impact public policy at a time like this?

The Answer: Lobbying Online.

Even the democratic candidate, Joe Biden is Looking to Build his Digital Capabilities Amid the Pandemic.
"Presidential campaign’s operation, shaken up by the spread of the novel coronavirus, has the candidate scrapping in-person events, staff working from home. Mr. Biden’s operation is looking to bring on new staff with expertise in digital advertisingsocial-media content and programming, people familiar with the matter said. It is also in talks with technology vendors about how to best boost its virtual and digital engagement with supporters, volunteers and donors, they said."


As reported in the Wall Street Journal.

Read More

How do you impact public policy at time like this? How do you engage supporters, volunteers and donors via digital? The mayor you need to approve a zoning amendment maybe not be at City Hall, same is true of Assembly members at the Capitol. In this environment how do you do your job advocating?

For the past 6 years Advocacy.Marketing has been touting what we call-- lobbying online.  


The Internet gives lobbyists, government relations practitioners, association advocates and others the ability to communicate effectively through this crisis.  While you many not be able to reach officials at the state capitol or city hall, you can reach them via digital advertising, email, on Facebook, via Instagram, Twitter, Linked-In and others.

We can motivate your supporters to contact officials where they are, not where they were.


Email us for a free consultation with us on how we can help you.

Joe Biden Looks to Build Digital Capabilities Amid Pandemic

Screen Shot 2020-03-25 at 8.41.25 AM.png

This story was published in the Wall Street Journal on March 23, 2020.

Presidential campaign’s operation, shaken up by the spread of the novel coronavirus, has the candidate scrapping in-person events, staff working from home

Former Vice President Joe Biden has had a fast comeback. Now, his digital operation is trying to catch up.

His presidential campaign is bulking up its digital infrastructure, anticipating it will be necessary to compete with President Trump in the general election and spurred by a nationwide quarantine forcing the Democratic front-runner to find new ways to reach voters.

Mr. Biden’s operation is looking to bring on new staff with expertise in digital advertising, social-media content and programming, people familiar with the matter said. It is also in talks with technology vendors about how to best boost its virtual and digital engagement with supporters, volunteers and donors, they said.

“It’s a strange way to do an event, I know. We’re all getting used to it,” Mr. Biden said Friday evening during a virtual fundraiser with New Jersey donors. “But, this is going to last for a little while. This isn’t going to go away in a couple weeks.”

Mr. Biden’s campaign has been looking to expand since he became the Democratic front-runner this month, including hiring Jen O’Malley Dillon as campaign manager. But the campaign’s operations have been shaken up by the spread of the novel coronavirus, and Mr. Biden has scrapped in-person events and told staff to work from home.

The former vice president, like other candidates dealing with the pandemic, has held online events, including a live streamed town hall with voters in Illinois, a telephone town hall with supporters in three states and addresses from his home state of Delaware.

Mr. Biden said Friday during a conference call with reporters that his aides were taking steps to allow him to conduct frequent broadcasts from his Wilmington home and a nearby campaign office and to take questions from reporters.

“I want to be in daily or at least significant contact with the American people,” Mr. Biden said.

Mr. Biden’s digital team had fewer than a dozen people before it began adding staff, people familiar with the matter said. The campaign acknowledged it was smaller than most other Democratic presidential campaigns during the early primary voting, and the coronavirus has prompted it to speed its hiring for digital-focused roles.

Its finances have also changed. Mr. Biden’s campaign for several quarters raised less than competitors. He raised $18 million in February, according to a Federal Election Commission filing, but his campaign has said it has raised more than $35 million so far in March as Mr. Biden cemented his front-runner status and others dropped out of the race.

“Campaigns still have to do the work of raising money and reaching out to voters and helping people see a path forward that’s different from what they see today. And they have to do that really differently than what they’ve been planning to do,” said Betsy Hoover, co-founder of Higher Ground Labs, a left-leaning political tech incubator, and the online organizing director for President Obama’s 2012 campaign.

The Biden campaign has talked with tech vendors as it evaluates digital platforms to connect with its volunteers, donors or supporters in lieu of in-person events, people familiar with the talks said. It is hoping to mostly use other companies’ platforms since the campaign doesn’t have time to build new customized tools, the people said. “They’re looking at anything and everything,” one of the people involved in the talks said.

The campaign is also trying to reach different types of voters, especially younger people, as it shifts toward competing in the general election, people familiar with the talks said.

During the first live-streamed town hall on March 13, there were audio and technical difficulties as Mr. Biden fielded questions. “I’m sorry this has been such a disjointed effort here because of the connections,” he said, speaking into an iPhone.

The Biden campaign said it would scale-up production of digital content and experiment with methods to reach and engage voters. It also pointed to successful virtual phone and text banks during Super Tuesday and primaries later in March where Mr. Biden clinched big victories.

Some of the campaign’s most widely shared moments online involve situations where Mr. Biden has shown empathy. The campaign pointed to clips showing Mr. Biden giving a 6-year-old his lapel pin several years ago and another in which he took a selfie with a supporter in an elevator in January.

Biden campaign digital director Rob Flaherty, who joined the team in December, wrote an email to supporters Wednesday asking for their ideas on how to best engage online.

“A lot more people are at home and spending their time online than usual. So the digital parts of our campaign—the work you and I do to share the VP’s message online—matters more than ever,” according to the email.

—Ken Thomas contributed to this article.

Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com

COVID-19

How COVID-19 will affect Lobbying today and beyond.png

With the Coronavirus disrupting everything from the stock market, to travel, to our work, how will it disrupt the way we communicate?  

For many, many years now people have advocated before government officials  face-to-face—  in committee hearings, at city halls and across a desk.

As experts encourage social distancing these traditional, tried-and-true lobbying practices are on hold.  Many of us now work-from-home and limit our interactions with others, in hope of stopping the virus from spreading.  Still, work has to go on, bills need to be passed, ordinances killed, amendments adopted— the public’s business goes on.

How do you impact Public Policy at a time like this?

How do you impact public policy at time like this?  The mayor you need to approve a zoning amendment maybe not be at City Hall, same is true of Assembly members at the Capitol.  Staff may be working from home and hearings conducted via conference call.  In this environment how do you do your job advocating?

For the past 6 years Advocacy.Marketing has been touting what we call-- lobbying online.  The Internet gives lobbyists, government relations practitioners, association advocates and others the ability to communicate effectively through this crisis.  While you many not be able to reach officials at the state capitol or city hall, you can reach them via email, on Facebook, via Instagram, Twitter, Linked-In and others.  We can motivate your supporters to contact officials where they are, not where they were.

Having been at this work for awhile now we have built effective, motivated coalitions to pass bills, kill initiatives, elect candidates and position new ideas.  We just added podcasting as a capability.  Podcasting can help you explain complicated concepts in a conversational way.  And there is no need to record your podcast face-to-face.  Our podcasting director James Scrivano, can produce your podcast over the phone, from wherever you are.  And we don’t stop there, we can distribute your podcast to your target audience, when you want it delivered and promote it via digital advertising.

So, what’s the takeaway message?  You can advocate effectively online at this difficult time.  Use the power of the Internet to reach people where they are, not at an empty office.  For more information on how A.M can develop and implement a plan for you—

Ana@Advocacy.Marketing

James@Advocacy.Marketing

Joe@Advocacy.Marketing

Tara@Advocacy.Marketing

5 things about SEO everyone should know


Originally published on AZ Big Media

It has been more than 10 years since I first started to really understand the world of search engine optimization (SEO). The country was trying to climb out of recession, and I was working with a business development program focused on helping small business owners succeed in what was a very trying time.

I had been involved with digital marketing at a Fortune 500 company and knew the basics of what would help businesses succeed, but it was clear that there was still a stigma that the ability to apply meaningful SEO was somehow a secret that only few “oracles” had access to.

Joel Cohen is the chief digital officer for Commit Agency.

I soon came to find that many of the businesses that were flaunting their Google Partner status and their ability to navigate the murky waters of SEO were just scammers. I remember one particular provider that had been charging local business owners tens of thousands of dollars with little to no result. It wasn’t long before one of these business owners reached out to me to review the reports she received from one such provider, and it was evident that this was all just a scam.

Soon after, I started my own company to provide honest and ethical digital marketing practices.

Those experiences—as well as advancements in the field over the past decade—taught me five critical things that every business owner should know about SEO:

1. Google’s algorithm that helps define what shows up in a search changes almost daily. It is run by an artificial intelligence (AI) system that constantly tests, learns and changes how the search engine functions. While Google does not publish how the algorithm works exactly, it does make sure to share significant changes or updates that we need to be aware of. You can find these on Think with Google at https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com.

2. If your marketing agency is using third-party tools to gather your data, you are likely getting data that isn’t correct. Instead, utilize Google Analytics as your source of truth when it comes to your organic search results. If Google Analytics sounds a little overwhelming, know that a new AI system within the platform called “insights” is very user-friendly. As long as everything is set up properly, it will tell you whatever you need at a high level.

3. Knowing where you rank across the web can only be shown to you in the most accurate way with Google Search Console. This system is your link to the Google search engine and allows you to see how you are performing organically—such as your rankings and search volumes—so you can see where you are growing and identify opportunities for improvement. Because search results are different depending on who is doing the search and where that person is located, you will not see the big picture just by doing a search and seeing where you come up. Search Console will show you exactly what you need to know.

4. If you have a service or product-based business, your Google My Business profile is your lifeline to your customers. There is no other place on the web where you will get more exposure. Maintaining this profile and updating it to reflect the consumer experience is critical.

5. Lastly, make sure to keep your ratings at or above 4.0 on your Google My Business profile. Dropping below 4.0 will eliminate you from searches related to “best”—like “best burgers in Chandler” or “best hotels near me.” While your website has a tremendous amount of influence on your overall search rankings, your consumer experience that is reflected on this platform is by far the most important.

While the world of SEO is ever-evolving and dynamic, implementing and executing on the above tips will ultimately bring you and your business closer to the success it deserves.


Twitter’s Click to Contribute Feature

Back in September Twitter announced they had teamed-up with Square to launch a new service.

Their new click-to-contribute feature makes it easy for political campaigns to solicit direct contributions from followers and supporters. By registering with Square www.Cash.me campaigns can add another connection point between the campaign and voters/potential supporters. In 2000 if you saw a story you liked about Al Gore and wanted to send him $100, you needed to find his website. In 1992 if you wanted to send $100 to Bill Clinton you had to wait for a piece of snail mail to arrive from the campaign or call the local Democratic Party office for info on where to send the check.

Today, if you’re a Twitter follower of say Bernie Sanders, you can contribute to his campaign on Twitter. There is no longer a need to log off Twitter and hunt down the Sanders website. While reading posts from the Sanders campaign you may see that Sanders has taken a position on national defense that you like, or higher education or job growth to cite a few examples. You can then click on the link in the Twitter post to make a direct contribution to the campaign via a credit card, debit card or direct bank withdrawal.

If you’re a candidate or consultant and want to implement this feature go to www.Cash.me and click on business to set up the feature for your camapign. You’ll be given a #Cashtag. Square will charge your campaign 2.75% of every contribution. Or if you need help setting-up this feature, Advocacy.Marketing is happy to do it for you and also talk with you about how we can convert followers to supporters and contributors. And for qualified non-profits, we will set-up the Square feature at no charge. Best Wishes for a Winning New Year!