writetothem
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mysociety
Continued outreach to MPs
I'm opening this ticket so that we have a place to record ideas in reaction to @ajparsons' recent internal blog post, which mentioned misconceptions that reps hold about WTT in particular.
Here are a few ideas. None of them is without drawbacks, but let's just get some down and then we can pick the best. Please add more.
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A Buzzfeed-style quiz, multiple choice, with questions like: 'How does WTT let you choose which MP to write to?' (only better thought-out). This could be promoted to the general public but also it'd always be there as a public resource that anyone could forward to an MP or other rep who was making erroneous statements. Pros: Could be fun to do the quiz Cons: Could be hard to get reps to actually do it; would need quite hard work to ensure it actually was fun!
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A regular 'newsletter' for reps which updates them on the parts of mySociety's work which are relevant to them. Pros: You could sneak some facts in with every edition, eg 'did you know, WTT blocks very short messages, here's why'. You could invite feedback. Cons: You'd have to invite reps to subscribe and probably very few would.
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Invite a handful of reps (of all types) to come to a focus group session where they could tell us what they want/need from WTT. Pros: Opens up channels of communication, gives the chance to counter misconceptions, potentially creates seeds of knowledge that might be passed on to colleagues Cons: Labour-intensive (no pun intended) and might only reach a few reps at a time; once those reps have moved on, you'd have lost the benefit; potential for the facilitator to be subjected to complaints.
- Call-out to reps on Twitter: "What would you like to tell/ask us about WTT? We're listening". (optional Frasier GIF) Pros: Quick and cheap Cons: May not get traction.
- A single "reps concierge" email address for all our services, which we can push at the bottom of WTT emails, and is also 'new' enough I think we'd be justified in a mass email to tell reps about it.
Pros: Easy to describe, not much work to set up, immediately makes us more approachable. Cons: Needs someone to actually look after it. A mass mailout will almost certainly generate a wave of replies to it.
Note we already do put a contact email address at the bottom of all WTT emails: https://github.com/mysociety/writetothem/blob/master/templates/emails/footer
Another possibility would just be a quick guide to the site from the representatives point-of-view, then the footer of the email could link directly to that. (With maybe a on-boarding email section with the first email sent to a rep?)
We also have the mps@ email address that we set up when we sent the leaflets out to MPs' offices. Emails are routed to the TWFY & WTT support addresses.
Here's the online guide we pointed them at - some more promotion of that would be good too.