Digital organizing 101: What is a ladder of engagement and why do I need one?

The most successful organizations and campaigns are driven by motivated volunteers and surrounded by engaged supporters.

But the difference between blast style campaigning, and deep organizing for sustained action is all in the follow up.

The best organizations are using a ladder of engagement. Using a ladder of engagement you can develop supporters into volunteers, and volunteers into donors, leaders and champions.

One step at a time

A ladder of engagement is a framework designed to deepen engagement. It works by asking someone to take increasingly important actions, leading up to an ultimate goal.

A great example of a ladder of engagement in action is one used by the Obama campaign in 2012. The Obama campaign wanted a couple of simple things from people — votes, donations, and volunteer time. They built a ladder of engagement to take people from observer to engaged.

The Obama ladder of engagement looked like this:

• First step, people were encouraged to take an easy action: ‘like’ Barack Obama’s Facebook page.
• Second step, the campaign posted a link to Facebook asking people to “sign a birthday…