Want to communicate to Iowa State Ron Paul kids? Let's run a newspaper ad!

[parocks]

The big problem is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of activity in the Ames Meetup. The next two upcoming meetings were organized by someone out of state who just happened to stop by Ames. There also doesn't seem to be any Facebook groups specifically for Ames supporters. We need to get their members active again and start holding regular meetings.

I'm on the Ames meetup, and I wasn't impressed by what they've done so far.

 

[D.A.S.]

The big problem is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of activity in the Ames Meetup. The next two upcoming meetings were organized by someone out of state who just happened to stop by Ames. There also doesn't seem to be any Facebook groups specifically for Ames supporters. We need to get their members active again and start holding regular meetings.

I had an idea for how to handle this problem, and my idea was inspired by what dusman did for the Black This Out moneybomb:

Set up a website that would serve as a databank for Iowa residents who respond to the ads we place in the papers. This could be used for both advertising on college campuses and the broader ad initiative I have proposed for Iowa and NH in the other thread. The website would have a pull-down menu by Iowa County, so folks can choose their county of residence, and they would need to provide an email address or a phone number (either one), along with a name.

If we could get dusman to implement this, it could be BIG. Since the Campaign or the RevPAC don't seem to want to target print ads, we can net that constituency from those ads, and using that contact info, we could get in touch with those people and direct them to meet-ups or Youth for Ron Paul or if there is nothing near, we could reach out to them and send them some campaign materials - we'd have their information available to us from the website info collected.

How does that sound? I mean, that's probably the best way to organize Iowa using print ads.

 

[tsai3904]

There is good info here from the organizer of the only county that Ron Paul won in Iowa:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?282572-How-Ron-Paul-Won-Jefferson-County-(IOWA)

We need to have things in place before we advertise, like a website, phone number of a local supporter, a meeting with campaign materials., etc. I'll contact the Ames Meetup coordinator and see what's going on. Another problem though is that the organizer of the Ames Meetup is not from Ames. He's 150 miles away in Council Bluffs.

 

[tsai3904]

I'm on the Ames meetup, and I wasn't impressed by what they've done so far.

Is it that people don't use Meetup anymore so they don't check it as often?

 

[D.A.S.]

There is good info here from the organizer of the only county that Ron Paul won in Iowa:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?282572-How-Ron-Paul-Won-Jefferson-County-(IOWA)

We need to have things in place before we advertise, like a website, phone number of a local supporter, a meeting with campaign materials., etc. I'll contact the Ames Meetup coordinator and see what's going on. Another problem though is that the organizer of the Ames Meetup is not from Ames. He's 150 miles away in Council Bluffs.

I know about it -- that's why I'm pushing print ads! It looks like they used them actively, among other things. And young people are so important to us in Iowa - we need to get to them, as well as advertising in small local papers across Iowa to the constituency we lack the most - people over 45-50, who read newspapers a lot.

 

[Bender22]

I graduated from Iowa State a couple years ago and think this is a great idea. A lot of kids on campus actually read the Daily.

 

[D.A.S.]

I graduated from Iowa State a couple years ago and think this is a great idea. A lot of kids on campus actually read the Daily.

Thank you for your support!

 

[parocks]

I had an idea for how to handle this problem, and my idea was inspired by what dusman did for the Black This Out moneybomb:

Set up a website that would serve as a databank for Iowa residents who respond to the ads we place in the papers. This could be used for both advertising on college campuses and the broader ad initiative I have proposed for Iowa and NH in the other thread. The website would have a pull-down menu by Iowa County, so folks can choose their county of residence, and they would need to provide an email address or a phone number (either one), along with a name.

If we could get dusman to implement this, it could be BIG. Since the Campaign or the RevPAC don't seem to want to target print ads, we can net that constituency from those ads, and using that contact info, we could get in touch with those people and direct them to meet-ups or Youth for Ron Paul or if there is nothing near, we could reach out to them and send them some campaign materials - we'd have their information available to us from the website info collected.

How does that sound? I mean, that's probably the best way to organize Iowa using print ads.

Dusman has been stretched thin. He's got a twitter project, and elgg project. He might want to complete those things.

Take a look at http://bachmann2012.com

That's a domain name that is owned by a ron paul supporter who came here to rpf and said "what do I do with that". It was agreed that something should be done with it. And that's what I did.

I'd recommend signing up, and testing the features. I use bachmann2012.com to test features myself. There are a lot of features there.

http://webmusicvideo.com/bachmann2012/index.php/component/user/register

There are features that
1) Allow secret groups
2) Allow donations. Just think about that one people.
It's like facebook. But "donate to me" is automatically created.

All I'd need to do, once bachmann2012.com is working perfectly, with all the functions that are needed, is zip it up, put it on a ronpaulwhatever.com
remove bachmanns face with ronpauls face, change "michele bachmann" to "ron paul" and it's ready to go.

The donation function is not yet working, but you can clearly see what I'm talking about.

I'd like feedback on that.

Good or Bad. I don't care. If there's anything that should be corrected, I'll correct it.

http://webmusicvideo.com/bachmann2012/index.php/component/user/register

There are currently over 3,000 news articles on this site.

You can post your own news article, and approve it yourself. Try out the features and see if they work.

I wouldn't want a broken feature on a ronpaul site. but this is a bachmann site, so it's perfect as a testing platform.

 

[Eric21ND]

Regardless of what the add advertises, we need to make it clear that out of state students can vote for Ron during the caucus.

 

[parocks]

Regardless of what the add advertises, we need to make it clear that out of state students can vote for Ron during the caucus.

If they're in school during the caucus. We don't want the kids registering in Ames if they're going to be elsewhere.

 

[parocks]

Is it that people don't use Meetup anymore so they don't check it as often?

I have no idea. It appears that they're just getting started. I got something from the Ames meetup group less than an hour ago, and there's a meetup tomorrow in Ames

http://webmusicvideo.com/bachmann2012/index.php/jomsocial/70-jim-lott/profile

 

[D.A.S.]

Take a look at http://bachmann2012.com

That's a domain name that is owned by a ron paul supporter who came here to rpf and said "what do I do with that". It was agreed that something should be done with it. And that's what I did.

I'd recommend signing up, and testing the features. I use bachmann2012.com to test features myself. There are a lot of features there.

http://webmusicvideo.com/bachmann2012/index.php/component/user/register

That's great!

I was thinking of something very simple:

1. A hip design with the message encouraging people to register for information on how to volunteer and receive free campaign materials.
2. Make a pull-down menu which includes each Iowa county, so we know the geographic location of our registrants within Iowa.
3. Make fields with name, address (optional), and a pull-down menu where they can choose whether to enter phone number or email address or both and then make those field appear accordingly.
4. Register button below the form.

I think the page should be registration-only, with very little clutter on it -- we don't want them to wander off to some link. We just want them to register and be on their way.

 

[parocks]

That's great!

I was thinking of something very simple:

1. A hip design with the message encouraging people to register for information on how to volunteer and receive free campaign materials.
2. Make a pull-down menu which includes each Iowa county, so we know the geographic location of our registrants within Iowa.
3. Make fields with name, address (optional), and a pull-down menu where they can choose whether to enter phone number or email address or both and then make those field appear accordingly.
4. Register button below the form.

I think the page should be registration-only, with very little clutter on it -- we don't want them to wander off to some link. We just want them to register and be on their way.

Why wouldn't we want people to use the site for many different things?

How did the registration process work for you?

We have these features now, and these features are working.

 

[D.A.S.]

The registration worked just fine for me!

(1) What we need to add is the pull-down menu with all Iowa counties included, and perhaps include a field for zipcode.

(2) My concern is that some people may not have an email to give... So I wanted to provide those people with an ability to enter the phone.

So we need to address (1) and (2) at some point. Also, I still want the sign-up page as uncluttered as possible. Maybe you could make a tab within the main site where people register, and then they can proceed to the main site if they wish.

But obviously, Bachmann stuff has to go, and domain name needs to be ronpaul_something.com - is that something you can do, or do you need the owner of the website to do that?

 

[parocks]

http://webmusicvideo.com/bachmann2012/index.php/jomsocial/81-das/profile

this is your profile by the way.

People without emails aren't really a concern.

bachmann2012.com is completely separate from what I have done.

Bachmann2012.com is not under my control, and simply points to what I have installed on webmusicvideo.com. http://webmusicvideo.com/bachmann2012 is where the website actually sits.

I can back the site up and move it to a different domain when that becomes necessary.

 

[D.A.S.]

http://webmusicvideo.com/bachmann2012/index.php/jomsocial/81-das/profile

this is your profile by the way.

People without emails aren't really a concern.

bachmann2012.com is completely separate from what I have done.

Bachmann2012.com is not under my control, and simply points to what I have installed on webmusicvideo.com. http://webmusicvideo.com/bachmann2012 is where the website actually sits.

I can back the site up and move it to a different domain when that becomes necessary.

Big props to you! This is really good! I think we have a very good platform for registering people.

So you would have full access to the database built upon registration, such as emails, names, county, zipcode, etc, so we could use that email database to get in touch with people?

 

[parocks]

We don't really need a drop down list by county. There can be other fields. There can be a drop down county list. But there can just be a county field.
There can be a zipcode field.
There is an address field.
There is a phone field.
There can be a lon/lat field.
Everyone can be plugged into a google map.

There are a lot of ways that this could work. It currently works with town and state.

You can search for Iowa.

You can search for the name of the town.

I'm "Friendship" as town and "Maine" as state.

This search function currently works.

Advanced search as part of the "People" function.

Also, you can go to your own profile, and add additional data - like how facebook works.

 

[parocks]

Big props to you! This is really good! I think we have a very good platform for registering people.

So you would have full access to the database built upon registration, such as emails, names, county, zipcode, etc, so we could use that email database to get in touch with people?

I have all data, and I can send a mass email right now.

 

[tsai3904]

I messaged the organizer of the Ames Meetup telling him about our desire to place ads in the Iowa State Daily and urging him to set up a big grassroots meeting for us to advertise. I'll let you know what he says.

 

[D.A.S.]

We don't really need a drop down list by county. There can be other fields. There can be a drop down county list. But there can just be a county field.
There can be a zipcode field.
There is an address field.
There is a phone field.
There can be a lon/lat field.
Everyone can be plugged into a google map.

There are a lot of ways that this could work. It currently works with town and state.

You can search for Iowa.

You can search for the name of the town.

I'm "Friendship" as town and "Maine" as state.

This search function currently works.

Advanced search as part of the "People" function.

Also, you can go to your own profile, and add additional data - like how facebook works.

This is really awesome stuff!

+rep to you.

Let me give some feedback for what I think we need to accomplish with the page.

The current registration page has the necessities that we can build on. I believe location of the registrant needs to be defined during registration, otherwise those field may never get filled. I'd rather remove links to news stories and to forums from the registration page, if you don't mind, to prevent people from wandering off. Instead, we need to have a greeting message, saying something like "Hello and welcome to the grassroots initiative for Ron Paul 2012. Please fill in the information below, so that we could get in touch with you about local meet-up events for Ron Paul, as well as provide you with free campaign items that would help you in promoting Ron Paul in Iowa."

Here's what the final registration page should have on it, in my opinion:

Name*:
Address (optional):
City (optional):
State*: (pull-down menu for IA, NH, and SC - just in case to we have portability to expanding future efforts to NH and SC)
County*: (pull-down menu, determined by which state they enter; we want to be able to sort/search for people by county)
Zipcode*:

Email*:
Password*:
Verify Password*:
Phone (optional):

If you could implement the above, we would actually be SET TO GO!!!