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Salsa Highlight: Targeting by party or committee using Actions 3

by Jason Z.

Greetings!

It's the "Salsa Weekly Highlight," your quick hit on what's new in Salsa to help get the most out of your online program. As always, you can find plenty more news, updates, and conversation throughout the week on SalsaCommons.org.

With the 2011 Salsa Community Conference coming up next week, we're looking forward to showing off all kinds of highlights. As we expand our capacity, there'll be much, much more to come in the year ahead.

One of our favorite features has to be the Actions 3 tool. It's just the latest iteration of Actions, but it rolls in some new bells and whistles, including one that ought to be a big hit ...



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Welcome to the new and improved SalsaCommons!

Despite the torrential downpours, earthquakes, and hurricanes of late, the Salsa Labs crew managed to find time to put the finishing touches on the new-and-improved SalsaCommons, the online hub for Salsa's user community.

There are over 30,000 campaign managers who log into the Salsa platform to organize, fundraise, and ultimately change the world around us.  Here at Salsa Labs, we strive to provide you with the state-of-the-art tools you need to succeed. Changing the world is hard work, though, and it takes more than just tools. It takes a community working together and learning from one another, and that's why we built SalsaCommons.  We're so excited to share the newly-updated SalsaCommons with you, and we hope that you will continue to find it to be a valuable resource in your organizing efforts.

The success of SalsaCommons depends on one thing: your participation! We invite you to jump in, create a profile, view a tutorial, ask a question, or share an idea.

Here's the rundown on SalsaCommons's new features:

Single Sign-on

There is no longer a special Salsa Commons login. Users can now log in using identity providers like Facebook, Google and Yahoo. You'll have one less password to remember, and now you'll get an automatic profile on the site.

New forums
SalsaCommons' new forums are easier to navigate and provide a few new options, such as being able to leave a note on a question or answer and a new star system for rewarding useful or constructive posts. There's also a badge system "underneath the hood" that rewards users for their behavior and expertise.

New developer documentation
We've added a bunch of extra developer documentation and tutorials as well as re-written some of the old stuff. More documentation for both developers and partners is in the works.

Geek-a-Leek
There's a host of cool things under the hood, like the use of MongoDB and cloud-based servers with Amazon Web Services. There's also the new universal User object and new Web Editor.

New UI

There's a new visual design coupled with a change to how we handle pages, allowing us to easily get content by tag or topic regardless of type. The new Javascript libraries should also keep the new design fast and smooth to use.

Be sure to let us know what you think by clicking on the Forum tab and giving us your feedback or sharing an idea for the future of Salsa.

Note:  The re-launch of Salsa Commons marks the first major feature release of the year for Salsa Labs and lays the groundwork for a series of upcoming product enhancements that you'll see over the next year. Stay tuned!

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Salsa Labs Expands Operations into Reston, VA

Today Salsa Labs announces the company’s expansion into new office space in Reston, Virginia. The Reston office will support up to 75 newly-created positions to support Salsa’s growing client demand. The new employees will work in various departments, including marketing, software development, sales, and client support.

“The Reston Organizing Center will be a place where we build new products, train people in new organizing techniques, and reach new audiences who can benefit from our integrated set of organizing services,” said Chris Lundberg, Chief Executive Organizer at Salsa Labs. “The DC-area tech scene is booming these days, and we’re excited to be able to contribute and be a part of it in Northern Virginia.”

The Reston office adds to the expanding presence of Salsa Labs, which is headquartered in Washington, DC, and has an office in Austin, Texas. To support their rapid growth, they will be creating about 100 new jobs in the coming year in these communities. “We are fortunate to be in the position to help our local economies with excellent job opportunities at a vibrant technology company,” said April Pedersen, Co-Founder of Salsa Labs.

Salsa Labs, which recently received $5M in funding, is actively recruiting for many positions. For more information on open positions, click here.

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Happy Labor Day!

We here at Salsa Labs are proud to work alongside so many in today's labor movement, including the AFL-CIO.  We'd like to say a special thanks to all of you who have fought and who continue to fight on behalf of our middle class -- on the front lines in places like Ohio, Wisconsin and all across this great country.

Solidarity forever!

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Salsa/Partner Panels + Happy Hours in DC, NY, and TX

In September Salsa Labs will be teaming up with partner organizations to host strategy panels + happy hours in DC, New York City, and Austin, TX.  Join us for a lively panel discussion and real world stories about effective online campaigns and successful advocacy and fundraising programs.  Here are the details to register for each:

Washington, DC
Hosts:  Salsa Labs + Change.org + National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
Thursday, Sept. 8
Bus Boys and Poets
2021 14th St. NW
Washington, DC

Register at http://salsalabs.com/organizedc or on Facebook.

New York, NY
Hosts:  Salsa Labs + Big Duck
Thursday, Sept. 15
6:00-8:00 PM
Baco DUMBO Event Gallery
71 Jay St.
Brooklyn, NY

Register at http://salsalabs.com/organizeNY or on Facebook.

Austin, TX
Hosts:  Salsa Labs + Charity Dynamics
Tuesday, Sept. 13
6:00-8:00 PM
Malverde
400-B W 2nd Street
Austin, Texas

Register at http://salsalabs.com/organizeTX or on Facebook.

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September Loves Salsa!

September is right around the bend, and while it will be a light month in live webinars, there are a number of new learning opportunities popping up through the month.

Are you a Salsa user in New York, DC, or Texas? Stop by our live panel events! We've joined up with some amazing Salsa users and partners to talk about the importance of story-telling and relationship-building in online organizing, so we hope you'll come by.

On the webinar front, we currently have three trainings in place, with a couple more in the works. Those are all listed below, and we'll keep you up to date each week with any new additions.

Check out the full list of events in chronological order below. As always, if you have ideas for webinars or topics you'd like to see covered, email us and let us know!

Happy organizing,

Jake Patoski
Training and Online Learning Coordinator

P.S. Have you signed up yet for the 2011 Salsa User Conference? It's filling up fast, so don't miss out!

September with Salsa

Salsa 101 interactive training webinar
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - 1PM ET
Learn by doing in this interactive webinar. You'll learn how to add supporters, create sign-up and unsubscribe pages, segment your supporter list with groups, and finally how to create and send an email to your list segments. Register now!

DC Online Organizing Panel + Happy Hour
Thursday, September 8, 2011 - 6:00PM ET
A panel discussion about how storytelling and relationship building can organize and energize your supporters. Read more and register here!

Score big with Salsa - webinar
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 1:30PM ET
Learn how to use the Scoring package to gather data on your supporters' activity -- donations they've made, events they've participated in, actions they've taken -- into a single metric for organizing and segmenting your list. Register now!

Austin, TX Online Organizing Panel + Happy Hour
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 6:00PM CT
A panel discussion about how storytelling and relationship building can organize and energize your supporters. Read more and register here!

Salsa Labs Third Thursday Panel + Happy Hour
Thursday, September 15, 2011 - 4:30PM ET
We'll have an expert panel discussing the in's and out's of online advertising - why and what should your organization consider in putting up online ads? How can you get the most out of your advertising dollars? Show up in-person at Salsa HQ or catch the livestream. Register here!

NYC Online Organizing Panel + Happy Hour
Thursday, September 15, 2011 - 6:00PM ET
A panel discussion about how storytelling and relationship building can organize and energize your supporters. Read more and register here!

Best practices in email design & content - webinar
Thursday, September 22, 2011 - 3:30PM ET
Been sending emails, but wondering, "Am I really doing this right?” This webinar is here to help. We'll cover the different types of email strategies that are out there, and examine the design and content aspects that make them successful. Register now!

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Friday Fiesta: conference, quakes and coffeeeeee

Tags: chelsea

It's Friday and I actually drank coffee today. That's your warning.

Hey, we're doing that conference thing again. Sign up here for the November 1st Salsa Community Conference, and read about last year's version, courtesy of Ilyse. I'll be there, less caffeinated.

Commons Comments

Our July Third Thursday on rapid response was so well-attended, the room was packed and we had to move out the video equipment. No streaming, sorry, but you can read Laurin's notes.

Did you see the weekly highlights on personalized donation histories through dynamic content and spiffy recurring donation fun?

Thanks to Bill for his comments regarding tracking group counts over time.

There are some great recommendations for Anonymous donor tracking.

Some members discussed pasting content through iphones and tablets.

I get too excited about Salsa Scoop posts that are not written by my coworkers. Check out Drew Hudson's tips for bigger, better action buttons.

Thanks to those who checked on us post-quake. Living in Wisconsin, I found the news surreally entertaining, but I know several of the DC folks were pretty shook up (and I didn't just write that because I'm a geek about puns).

Salsa Spotlight

The League of Women Voters reminds us to celebrate the 91st anniversary of the 19th Amendment today. Yay! I love voting!

Transportation for America invites pictures of unsafe and poorly planned streets.

Forest Ethics says no to Tar Sands bananas.

---

Finally, my coworkers are boring me, and I'd really like some new ones. We're hiring, and you should apply.

Have a happy weekend! I'll be enjoying a bluegrass festival and maybe actually doing some laundry...

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Post-Quake: Salsa Still Standing!

We here at Salsa Labs' DC office are still trembling a bit from the 5.9 earthquake (and 2.8 aftershock) that shook the region this afternoon -- causing people across the city to flood the streets -- but we're happy to report that systems weathered the quake and remained 100% operational.  Thanks to those of you who checked in on our team here!

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Salsa Highlight: Now capturing more recurring donations data

Greetings!

It's the "Salsa Weekly Highlight," your quick hit on what's new in Salsa to help get the most out of your online program. As always, you can find plenty more news, updates, and conversation throughout the week on SalsaCommons.org.

We've recently tweaked the database to capture more information when your donors submit recurring donations -- those all-important automated, ongoing donations.

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