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718.858.7160

www.hilltoppublicsolutions.com/socialmedia

Hilltop Social MediaTODAY ’S CHALLENGES. TOMORROW’S

STRATEGIES.

MONTANADEMOCRATIC PARTY

SOCIAL MEDIA PROPOSAL

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What can Social Media do?

Social media communication is about finding that sweet spot: the right message at the right time that will connect with casual readers, supporters, reporters and potential voters — and get them engaged with your content.

Sometimes it’s a news hook that we tie into your message. Maybe a presidential candidate said something on which we can capitalize. Maybe it’s a major event, a national holiday or a pop culture moment.

Whatever it is, Hilltop finds that sweet spot. Then we find a way to showcase your message, highlight the weaknesses of your opponents’ arguments and engage your supporters — all as succinctly as possible — so that your campaign can build buzz.

The Montana Landscape

In 2012, it’s nearly impossible to mount a credible offensive without using social media effectively. Many Montana reporters and bloggers are on Twitter; this provides an opportunity to drive traditional media attention to your campaign, shape the conversation and energize the grassroots.

With thousands of Montanans checking Facebook every day, you will also engage activists and have access to a wide pool of potential supporters.

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Right now, Bullock for

Governor has a strong,

dynamic, interactive website,

a solid Facebook page and

no campaign Twitter

account.

Building a solid social media

presence and online

program will help the

campaign both set the

narrative throughout the

primary, and also help you

amass a network of

grassroots supporters, who

will be engaged and ready to

support your efforts in the

general election.

The Republican Gubernatorial field Rick Hill has a Twitter account with a small following, a Facebook page with a comparable following to your own, and a solid website. Neil Livingstone also has a Twitter account and a Facebook page with small followings. His website is less developed. Jim Lynch also has a Twitter account and a Facebook page with small followings, and a website. Ken Miller has a Twitter account, a Facebook page with a slightly larger following (over 1,000) and a website as well. Bob Fanning has a low quality website, a very small Twitter following and a comparable Facebook page. Corey Stapleton has a Twitter account with a small following, a solid website, and a significantly larger Facebook following (over 6,000).

The Attorney General candidates, both Pam bucy and

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We can help all your candidates, including Steve Bullock and your Attorney General candidates, by devising content for their Facebook pages that will engage Montanans. Facebook, with its emphasis on photos and visuals, can be a powerful tool for telling the story of your grassroots campaign. New Facebook fans can be used for fundraising and later, as potential volunteers.

With creative suggestions for daily content, we will help engage Montanans more deeply — and generate excitement and attention.

Those ideas will include promoting media appearances, asks for supporters to get involved and updates on the campaign. We can also help make your candidates’ pages more dynamic, with eye-popping visuals and interactive features and video. We will also work build a strong stable of active voters who will help disseminate your message, push back against attacks and organize for GOTV.

Going Negative

The Party is in a stronger position to attack Republican opponents, while allowing your candidates to continue running positive campaigns. We can help devise pithy messaging to highlight the weaknesses of your opponents for Twitter, Facebook and Email.

We’ll come up with comprehensive attack plans and mini-campaigns to take on your opponents. For example, on Twitter, we could invent a hashtag to call out a Republican candidate’s failures (

With interactive content like polls, contests and questions -- focused on Montana issues or cultural touch points -- we can help engage readers and give your campaigns more local credibility.

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How We Can Help:Facebook

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With Twitter, we can bring Montanans into the campaign in a more personal way — we can let them know how to volunteer, how to donate, or how to host their own event. Posting pictures from the road also lets us share moments from your candidates’ campaigns with your followers as they happen, while photos of supporters can highlight the campaign’s grassroots energy in real time.

Twitter is a constant dialogue between your supporters and your competitors, regular Montanans and inquiring journalists. Because it is fast, simple and provides access to important players, Twitter offers your campaign a chance to make its voice heard in the right conversations.

Today, a simple tweet can get your message out more efficiently than a press release.

Your Twitter can also be a place for supporters to get updates and feel engaged with the campaign on an instantaneous basis.

The more energized your supporters are, the more they will invest in making sure you win.

How We Can Help:Twitter

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We will help you establish and build a new campaign Twitter account. Your new Twitter account will be legally separate from your Attorney General Twitter, and will also provide a space to have consistent messaging that reflects your campaign’s central themes.

We can monitor the news daily, draft tweets, create a profile and help manage your account. 

Sample strategies:

• Virtual Town Hall: We can conduct and promote organized, online meetings of your supporters on Twitter where you can directly engage with supporters and potential supporters in real-time. We can draft potential responses in advance and promote the event beforehand. Then, we invite your followers to participate at the predetermined time, where they will tweet their questions to you, and you can respond back, all while generating buzz and more mentions of your name on Twitter.

• Interactive tools: Questions and contests can also be a great way to increase the amount of people that see your tweets and build your following. For example, your campaign might tweet out a key message of the campaign and then offer a free bumper sticker to the first person who retweets you. It’s fun, provides incentive for interaction and will put your name in front of more eyeballs.

• Live-tweeting: For certain events, like a debate or party convention, we could “live-tweet,” and alert our fans and followers beforehand. Live-tweeting usually occurs when a much larger conversation is happening on Twitter. It’s a way to add your voice to that conversation, sound off on something happening in the news — and get noticed.

What We Can Do

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The vast majority of online fundraising is done via email. If done right, a strong email program can help buttress your fundraising efforts and raise significant amounts of money.

If you choose Hilltop Social Media, we can deliver a holistic email communications strategy that will work in tandem with your social media presence to amplify your message and grow your support.

A smart email program will maximize your schedule and your list. Emails that are sent at the right time, whether they are coinciding with events in the news or with natural deadlines, are far more successful than emails sent at random.

We can help devise a schedule to maximize results, and will write compelling copy to convince your supporters why they should give — and most importantly, why they should give now.

Not all emails raise money — we can create an entire plan that includes volunteer activation asks, updates on what’s happening on the campaign, and more online strategies designed to engage Montanans.  

How We Can Help:Email

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The approval process

Hilltop will work to ensure that your social media messaging is fully integrated into your overall communications plan in a manner consistent with your voice and positions.

In consultation with your team, we will start by crafting a comprehensive planning schedule, with an outline of what the Bullock for Governor campaign can push out on Twitter, email and Facebook over the course of the 2012 campaign season.

We will then draft tweets, emails and Facebook posts, subject to approval by your campaign manager, to be submitted on a daily basis.

Long Term Strategy

Hilltop can help you grow your list — on email, Facebook and Twitter — which will increase your pool of potential volunteers and donors.

If you choose to hire or designate someone on the ground in Montana to handle the daily social media output — we can work with that person to make your online presence as dynamic as possible. We can help teach best practices on everything from adding pictures to timing posts.

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Planned Parenthood came to Hilltop when they were on the verge of losing federal funding during a contentious budget battle on Capitol Hill. Our online messaging experts helped them push back on the attacks quickly — and in the end, Planned Parenthood retained the bulk of its funding.

During the 2012 election cycle, Hilltop helped Planned Parenthood launch its innovative online campaign, Women are Watching, and call out hypocrisy on the campaign trail, including live-tweeting during Presidential debates.

Bill de Blasio is creating a foundation for a citywide race, and Hilltop is helping him build his profile and reach out to supporters through an intensive new media strategy. To amplify de Blasio’s core campaign strategy, Hilltop has taken a holistic approach to communications and fundraising.

To ensure his social media platform is accessible to everyone, we are working with the de Blasios to promote Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and an interactive website. Hilltop also designed and implemented a comprehensive email program, including scheduling and writing all emails, which has built the campaign’s list and effectively increased fundraising.

Project New West, a Democratic polling and research firm, used Hilltop’s online savvy to help build their brand.

Ahead of their 2011 Western Summit, Hilltop advised Project New West on how to grow their Twitter account substantially and gain more recognition from national media. During the summit, reporters, consultants, operatives and observers from all over the country used Project New West’s Twitter to tell the story of what they were hearing and seeing through the event.

CLIENT WORK

Hilltop Social Media has advised a variety of campaigns and organizations on how to best harness the dynamic power of new media to make their message connect with the public.

Rebecca Katz

Steven Phillips-Horst

Before coming to Hilltop, Steven served as New Media Director for the Florida Democratic Party. As head of the online program in 2010, Steven more than doubled the state party’s online following and created the fastest growing state party Twitter account in the nation. Before working in Florida, Steven worked in finance on several campaigns in New York City, including Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s successful re-election bid, where he drafted fundraising, volunteer activation and endorsement emails for her. A graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School in 2009, Steven studied journalism and politics.

 A veteran political strategist, Rebecca Kirszner Katz has worked in local, state and national communications for over a decade. Katz’s experience includes managing all daily messaging, rapid response and long-term planning for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid’s War Room, assisting in the White House’s communication strategy for Judge Sonia Sotomayor and developing successful communications strategies for elected officials such as U.S. Senator Tom Udall , U.S. Representatives Allyson Schwartz and Chaka Fattah, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, and NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. Today, Katz directs social media strategy for a variety of political campaigns and non-profit organizations, working alongside Hilltop staffers to discuss and plan communications strategies across all media platforms. Katz works personally with her clients to craft effective messages, and to translate these plans into an overall social media strategy. By channeling her expertise in traditional communications, Katz has successfully mirrored Hilltop’s field and grasstops work in social media, attracting online support, attention and enthusiasm among her clients’ target audiences.

WHO WE ARE

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