My.BarackObama Orientation

Overview
My.barackobama.com gives you the power to make a difference in this election. With the ability to create your own groups, organize your own events, and write your own blogs, you have the basic tools for grassroots organizing at your fingertips. Now all you have to do is use them effectively.

This guide is meant to give you a summary of how the network is organized and how you can use it most efficiently.

My Dashboard
The dashboard consolidates the highlights of all your online network activity in one location. It’s your home page and starting point on the network.

On the left is your profile information. There you can easily view what information about you is displayed to others as well as edit the information. Below that are listed your most recent posts to your personal blog. On the same page on the right, you’ll see alerts for new messages and friend invatations along with a list of the friends you’ve already made on the network.

Below that you can setup and run your fundraising pages. Beneath the fundraising link are the events you’ve created, are planning to attend, or are near to you. Finally, at the very bottom right are groups you run or are a member of.

My Friends
From this page you can easily find people you may already know on the network or search for people who live somewhere near you. You can also view your friends, request to add friends, and approve or deny friend requests.

My Events
Here you can view events you’re planning on attending and events you have created. Additionally, you can find events or create new ones.

My Messages
My.Barackobama has a built-in messaging system so that you can communicate with other members without needing their email address. Here you can view messages you have received, messages you have sent, and write new messages.

My Groups
Groups are in many ways the foundation of the my.barackobama network. On the groups page, you can find a group to join, view the groups you are a member of, or create a new group.

On the top left the “My Groups” section lists all of the groups you have created or joined. Underneath, there are a few different ways to find new groups. You can view groups that were created recently, updated recently, have the most members, are closest to you, or have the most recent blog posts. These options provide a way to browse groups that you are not a member of to see if you want to join any of them.

On the right hand side of “My Groups” are other tools to help you find groups. You can search for groups focused on issues you care a lot about by using the keyword search . For example, students interested in joining student groups could search for “students” and would see my group “Students for Barack Obama” displayed as a search result.

Another search option, below the keyword box, is zip code. Here you can input your zip code and see groups based in and around that zip code. Below the search options you can browse all of the groups on My.BarackObama by selecting either the local or national categories.

My Fundraising
This page gives you the option to create a customized fundraising page. You enter a financial goal, some explanatory text, and, if you’d like, a picture for the customized page. Once you have made a page, you can view and manage it to see how donations are going.

The idea is that you can create your own fundraising page centered on the issues that are important to you and send the link to your friends. A simple email to all your close friends asking them to donate to the campaign will can help achieve your goal. Be sure to incorporate your personal story as to why you support Barack Obama in your email. Consider asking more than once; on average it takes most people to be asked three times before they will contribute.

Note that for donations to your goal to be counted, you must send invitations using the email interface provided. Only those donations that are given by clicking on the email invitation will be directly counted toward this goal.

My Blog
It’s not just techies who keep blogs, but everyday people. Your blog should fit your own style. It can be an expression of your political opinions or simply a running list of articles or videos that you think are noteworthy.

When you first land on the My Blog page, you are required to create your new blog. You’re asked to title it and give it some description. Once you’ve completed this process, you have three options: write a new blog post, view your blog, or edit your blog settings.

The “Write New Post” option allows you to jump right into blogging. At the bottom of the write new post page, you have the option to post the blog to groups that you are a member of. This is an easy way to get your blog read by lots of people if that is your goal.