In order to craft a solid digital media strategy, you must know your options. Our two-day workshop in Portland, held July 31-Aug 1 in partnership with Grantmakers of Oregon and Southeast Washington, Oregon Public Broadcasting, and Oregon Communitiy Foundation, explored mobile, social media, data, tech and other aspects of digital to inform local funders.

Six presentations led the discussion:

Lee Rainie's presentation on media zones explored political polarization on social media feeds, and the trends by which users gravitate towards and away from others based on their viewpoints. The stats concur that a larger part of the digitally engaged population won't argue heavily over politics, but 22% of social media users will block or unfriend followers based on their political opinions; 23% will respond to offer dissenting thoughts.

Amy Gahran took her audience through community mobile engagement, highlighting what was effective in different mobile campaigns and tools to help them work. Like social media, mobile campaigns require strong interaction, brevity, and a simplify and amplify approach.

Amy Sample Ward demystified tech investments by walking through stats in tech staffing, budgets, various levels of tech adoption at different organizations, and levels of effectiveness. The presentation also explored different design principles for return on investment.

Susan Mernit's talk on civic data and open government peered into the ways different cities across the U.S. are engaged in civic hacking, transparent data, and open government projects. Going by OpenDefinition.org, open data is data that "can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone -- subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike." 

Beth Kanter's presentation on leading on social platforms charted the journey of an organization's integration of social media -- from crawling to walking, then running to flying, and the activities required to succeed and advance in every step. She also posed questions to guide organizations through uncovering their authentic brand, and tips for representing an authentic presence.

Morgan Holm explored news partnerships in the Northwest, with maps depicting nationwide journalism layoffs, buyouts, and the public media landscape in Oregon.