Meet BSD: Questions with Lauren Miller

We’re starting a new feature at the Blue State Digital Blog – interviews with the people behind the scenes. Our first interview is with Lauren Miller, the longest tenured strategy team member at BSD. Lauren joined Blue State in 2005 and has since become one of the premier email writers in Democratic politics.

1. What drew you to Blue State Digital?
I'd never heard of Blue State Digital when I saw the job posting in 2005. I didn't know how to build a website, I wasn't a Deaniac, and I'd never read a blog.

But I was intrigued that four of the pioneers in online political organizing wanted to apply what they'd learned on the Dean campaign to other groups. It was new, it was exciting, and it was something I wanted to try.

2. How has BSD changed since you started?
BSD looks like a different company from when I started. Three years ago, BSD had less than 20 employees split between DC and Boston. Today, we have something like 80 employees split between DC, Boston, New York, London and California. Our offices are larger, we're not working at folding tables in the hallways anymore and there are many new faces, but the core mission of the company is still the same: to provide groundbreaking online tools and communications programs for our clients. Now we just have more people paying attention to us.

More than how BSD has changed, though, it's important to think about how online organizing has changed. When I started at BSD in 2005, YouTube was barely in existence. Facebook was still just a site for college students. Twitter wasn't even in existence. So the tools and techniques have changed, and Blue State has adapted to best take advantage of what's new and what's popular -- and set a few trends ourselves.

3. What has been the most interesting thing that you worked on/done in your time at BSD?
I've gotten to meet and write emails from a ton of really amazing people here at BSD. But perhaps the work that touched me the most was on behalf of someone nobody had ever heard of: Debbie Shank, a mother of three from Missouri.

Debbie Shank was left crippled and brain-damaged from a car accident. Her employer, Wal-Mart, paid the medical bills – until Debbie received a lawsuit settlement from the trucking company at fault, and Wal-Mart demanded reimbursement. We launched an online shame campaign against Wal-Mart to let Debbie keep her nursing home fund – and it worked. We talked to her husband, Jim, who couldn't believe the work we'd done to help provide a decent quality of life for Debbie.

So many times our online campaigns are about big ideas – health care, the economy, the war. But this campaign had a face, and a victory with a very direct result on someone's life. It's one of my favorite BSD victories thus far.

4. What has been your most memorable moment you have witnessed working at BSD?
Election day 2008. I spent most of the morning at Obama headquarters in Chicago, then the evening at BSD headquarters in Washington, DC. When Barack Obama was declared the winner, the entire city of Washington, DC broke out into the biggest celebration I've ever seen – and probably ever will see. It's at that moment that it truly hit me: that we'd done it. The power of online organizing could do anything – even elect the President of the United States.

5. Who is the public figure you most admire?
Senator Ted Kennedy, the client I've worked for the longest here at BSD. Senator Kennedy could have given up on public service and simply lived a life of privilege after the passing of his brothers. But instead, Senator Kennedy has devoted nearly 50 years to improving the lives of America's working families. He's perhaps the most important and influential Senator our country has ever had.

6. First political job?
My first paid political job was for the California Democratic Party. I was an intern in their communications department, and then became the Volunteer Coordinator.

7. What makes email such an important part of an online strategy?
Email is the most important part of a successful online program. Building an engaging website is important, but most supporters won't remember to go back to a website every day – or every week – to get involved. An opt-in email list allows you to create that ongoing relationship with your supporters in a medium that many people are comfortable with, and to help focus their attention on the stories and actions most important to the online campaign.

Email has the power to do so much for an organization. It allows rapid communication between you and your supporters. It can give transparency to your cause, but also allow your organization to frame the debate and respond to breaking news. It allows you to activate your supporters to take action. And of course, it's proven to have an amazing ability to raise money.

8. What makes a bad email?
There are a million things that can make a bad email. Emails that are too long. Emails that lack a proper tone and voice. Emails that have a bad subject line. Emails that don't ask supporters to take action – or emails that ask supporters to do five things at once. Emails that took so long to get vetted that the story is already out of the news cycle.

(Interviewers note: Lauren wrote a blog post several months ago about 10 tips for a successful email.)

9. What are some of the common misperceptions about email campaigns?
The most common misconception is that building an email list like President Obama's or MoveOn.org's is easy. Everybody wants an email list with millions of members that can raise millions in small-dollar contributions.

The fact is, it takes a great deal of time and resources to build a successful email program. It requires developing an engaging two-way conversation with your supporters. It requires empowering your members so there is value in your organization. It requires capitalizing on key events and milestones. And it requires integrating your email campaign as much as possible into every aspect of your organization.

Every email list is different, and what works for one group won't necessarily work for everyone else. It's essential to treat every email list like a unique community – and to remember that each person in that community has a unique voice.

10. How many email lists are you on? How many different emails did you get last year?
One of the very first projects I worked on at BSD was an exhaustive audit of Democratic, Republican and nonpartisan email lists. We're now monitoring close to 1,500 email lists, with new campaigns and organizations being added constantly.

Last week I hit capacity for my two year-old gmail account. My separate subscriptions gmail account is at about 50% capacity. So we're talking about tens of thousands of emails each year.

11. Other than becoming BSD’s chief email writer, what was your dream job growing up?
In college I wanted to be Sam Seaborn – to become Deputy White House Communications Director and write all of the President's most important speeches at a ridiculously young age. But then Jon Favreau went and stole my dream.

12. Email is still the most powerful tool for online communication. Do you see any new platforms that will challenge email for this title?
There are many new media experts who love to say that email is dead. These so-called experts like to say that facebook, twitter and text messaging have replaced email in importance.

While they are all powerful tools, email remains key. Social networking websites are popular, but in my opinion the jury is still out as to whether those supporters can be consistently moved off of their social networking platforms to take action elsewhere online or offline. Text messaging is effective, but the U.S. still needs broader text messaging penetration – and comfort with using cell phones to do things like donate money – before it can compete with email.

Everybody has an email campaign these days, and inboxes are more cluttered than ever before. That doesn't mean email is dead – it means that you need to send compelling messages that stand out from the crowd.

13. What do you like to do when your not writing emails?
I'm a big college and pro basketball fan (UCLA and the Lakers being my two teams). I love traveling, I love amusement parks, and I love exploring new parts of DC that I haven't seen before.

14. If a train leaves Chicago traveling at 35 mph and another train leaves DC at 45 mph when would they meet?
Who would take a train from Chicago to DC? That's an 18-hour trip! (As you can see, I'm avoiding the question. I haven't taken a math class in almost ten years. I just write emails.)

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