Congressman Mike Ross introduced his new web site this week, offering the people of Arkansas’ Fourth an excellent line of communication with their representation in Washington.

You may have noticed a few new features in the Fireside web and email platforms this morning.  We just rolled out an update that includes the following changes:

Files: You can now easily copy the addresses of your uploaded files from within the Files Admin page, making it easier to create hyperlinks on web pages and in emails.

Photos: The Photos Admin page displays the URLs for your resized (Thumbnail, Low Resolution, Medium Resolution) and full resolution versions of your uploaded photos.   

Paging: Improved paging, with Previous/Next links and the ability to jump to pages, making navigating your emails, audiences, documents, files, events, or constituent searches easier.

Constituent Search and Create User: We’ve added more fields to the Constituent Search and Create User pages.

Test emails: Audiences are no longer listed on the confirmation page for test emails, so you can clearly distinguish tests before clicking send.

Drag and drop: Just click, drag, and drop web page components or web form fields  to reorder them.

Wyoming’s At-large was treated to a new web site this week, complete with videos, podcasts and plenty of other relevant and useful information for constituents.

The people of the 13th district of Texas will find it easy to track the important issues of the day with Congressman Mac Thornberry’s newly redesigned site, just launched this week.

This email campaign is a study in simplicity: a single franked email to a new list that drew in thousands of new subscribers in just a few days.   These are just the results you hope for in the days leading up to a blackout period, and they’re not so difficult to achieve.

Both the body and subject line pointed readers to their survey, which stuck to the basics: about five, easy-to-read questions on the hottest topics of the day.  As it turns out, their constituents were more than happy to participate, and their subscribers list grew by leaps and bounds.

I had a few questions for the Press Secretary who spearheaded the effort (and who is modest despite his success – he asked to remain nameless).  I’ve posted his answers here:

You had a very successful start to your email outreach in 2010.  What were your goals going into the New Year?

We wanted to redesign an antiquated online and fax newsletter and we wanted to boost the Congressman’s online newsletter list from 800 to at least a few thousand.

You doubled your subscribers list in a single weekend, right off the bat.  How did you manage that?

Actually, we went from 800 to over 6000 in just a few days. We sent over 100,000 constituent e-mail addresses an online survey asking them their opinions on some of the hot topics Congress is dealing with right now. When they submitted the survey they were able to sign up for the newsletter.

In drafting your e-newsletter, what were your priorities for the content and its presentation?  Did you track click-through rates?

We prioritize actions that the Congressman is taking and his bipartisan work to get things accomplished. We haven’t been tracking click through rates yet but I’m hoping to get some time to see what people are interested in.

How about the survey?  Any tips for creating successful surveys?

We based our questions on Rasmussen and Gallup poll questions to avoid the appearance of bias. We also included a question about priorities that had six different options.

What’s your e-newsletter strategy for the year ahead?

We’re going to continue with weekly e-newsletters but we’ll also be sending out special editions when big events happen. Last year, the Congressman sent out in-depth memos explaining his reasoning on some of the big votes. The new list is a great way to get this communication piece out to even more constituents.

Congressman John Sullivan brings Oklahoma’s First up to date with his newly redesigned web site.

Congressman Earl Pomeroy’s new web site puts news, videos, and helpful information right at his constituents’ fingertips.