Brian Rubenstein’s Post

As a one-person consulting shop, it’s easy to forget the importance of investing in your own professional development. You no longer get employer-paid conferences or reminders from your boss. Thus, like so many things about running your own business, it’s all on you. This year I decided I wanted to get back to public speaking in front of large groups. It wasn’t about creating a new revenue stream, but it’s something I always enjoyed doing and a skill I didn’t want to atrophy (and the marketing is a bonus).    Last month I gave speeches at two conferences. If you know me well, you’ll know this isn’t an exercise in bolstering my ego. The ability to speak in front of a group - regardless of size - is a crucial competency regardless of your career choice. 🌟 And, for me, interacting with an audience, making micro-adjustments in real time based on the feel of the room, and managing technology hiccups as if you always knew they would happen is, well … FUN! 🌟 So, whether you run your own shop or work at a big company, don’t forget to take the time to invest in yourself. The rewards – professional and emotional – are enormous. (And yes, I probably need to find a second favorite suit so that all of my presentation pictures don’t look the same. 😂 ) #grassroots #advocacy #digitalstrategy #professionaldevelopment #investinyourself Public Affairs Council National Infusion Center Association (NICA) Rubenstein Impact Group, LLC

Oy! Quorum's recently released State of Government Affairs Survey reported that 55 percent of the respondents emailed their list either once per month, only when there’s a crisis, every three to 12 months or never. That. Is. Not. Good. To borrow an expression from my previous boss, Dan Smith, grassroots advocacy is not a spigot that can be turned on and off. This means you can’t email your people only when you need them. A tenet of a strong grassroots program is that your list of volunteers or members must be constantly nurtured, actively developed and regularly engaged. We’re entering the time of year when many organizations back off from grassroots communication. After all, most state legislatures are out, Congress is more focused on the election and things are relatively quiet. Don’t fall into that trap! Every policy discussion I’ve been in recently concludes with the same refrain, “It’s going to be addressed during the lame duck.” This means that November and December are shaping up to be huge opportunities to move your federal priorities across the finish line. You need to spend the next few months priming your volunteers/members for those moments. Be creative and develop tactics and mini-campaigns that keep your people engaged from now through election day and beyond. Feel stuck? Let’s talk. It’s vital that you keep your list active and ready for what’s shaping up to be a wild end of the year. #grassroots #advocacy #digitalstrategy Rubenstein Impact Group, LLC

I had a great time presenting at the Public Affairs Council Digital Media & Advocacy Summit this week. It's always fun to watch the expression on people's faces when they see how effective AI can be in creating advocacy campaign content. In less than 15 minutes, we developed an email to volunteers/members, a Facebook post, an Instagram post, a press release and three tweets. People sometimes ask me if I'm putting myself out of business by promoting the use of AI for generating advocacy content. As you'd expect, the answer is definitely "no." For one, you have to understand what content characteristics truly drive engagement to evaluate and edit what the AI provides. And, my unique, content planning model and writing approach - which helped one client triple their action takers - still hasn't found its way into AI (at least not yet). Lastly, there is no computer that can replace strong relationships and lived experiences. Thank you to the PAC team, including Laura Brigandi, Alexander Donovan and Kristin Hanley for their partnership in this collaboration. #grassroots #advocacy #digitalstrategy #dmas24 Rubenstein Impact Group, LLC

Thank you Quorum for promoting key excerpts from the blog post I co-authored with Craig Johnson demonstrating how nonprofits can use AI to bolster their advocacy campaigns. #grassroots #advocacy #digitalstrategy #ai Rubenstein Impact Group, LLC

I’ll be presenting at the Public Affairs Council Digital Media & Advocacy Summit on June 10. I'd love to catch up with my LinkedIn connections who are attending. Let me know if you’ll be there by leaving a comment or sending me a LinkedIn message or email. In the afternoon, I’ll be presenting on “Using AI for Content Creation.” This will be a hands-on demo using AI to create a grassroots email, social media posts, images and even a press release for an advocacy campaign. If you’ve never tried using AI for your campaigns, you’ll walk out of the session pretty amazed. And if you have, I'll pass along some great tips for generating better content from your AI prompts. #grassroots #advocacy #digitalstrategy #ai Rubenstein Impact Group, LLC

I had a fun time hanging out with three advocacy superstars on a webinar panel yesterday talking about using AI for Advocacy. A big thanks to VoterVoice (Part of FiscalNote) for hosting and promoting the panel. And kudos to Adam Campbell, Anne Madison and Mark Ames for a great conversation. AI and advocacy are the new chocolate and peanut butter. They work great together. If you’re unsure how to take that first step and use AI effectively for your advocacy campaigns, drop me a message in the comments or through LinkedIn. I’d be happy to talk you through it. And like chocolate and peanut butter, you’ll be hooked. Oh and I hear that the video they're promoting in the below screenshot - ChatGPT for Grassroots Advocacy 101 - is awesome. You'll see why if you check it out, and be sure to stay until the end. 😉 #grassroots #advocacy #digitalstrategy #ai #aiforadvocacy FiscalNote Rubenstein Impact Group, LLC

Yes, I'm guilty of loving data-driven strategies for your digital engagement program. And now Quorum has it on video so I can never deny it. 😂 It was fun being featured in their recent Ask The Expert webinar. #digitalstrategy #advocacy #grassroots Rubenstein Impact Group, LLC

I was preparing for an interview with a book author (more on that later this year) and was asked what impact I thought AI could have for organizations as it relates to advocacy. My answer was this: ✨ AI is going to democratize advocacy by allowing even small advocacy organizations and departments to dramatically increase their impact. ✨ This impact will also be felt by mid-sized or large organizations that have small advocacy teams. AI will expand their capacity and output, allowing them to launch additional campaigns and increase the sophistication of their work. AI is not the technology of tomorrow. It’s an advocacy tool ready to be used by your organization today. #grassroots #advocacy #digitalstrategy #ai #nonprofit Rubenstein Impact Group, LLC

This sounds like an awesome job for an even greater cause. If you're looking for a new grassroots challenge, you should definitely check this out. And it's location-agnostic!