In addition to the various social media accounts we use for our jobs, it's also important to maintain a personal presence on social media like Twitter and Facebook. Even in cases where your employer has you set up "personal" accounts to use while employed there (I'll write another tip about this later), you should keep your own accounts that you come to the job with separate from any work-based accounts.

I worked in theater before coming to organizing, and the same skills for speaking in front of a crowd translate nicely. On any stage, you want the audience to find you approachable and real. Here are a couple quick tips on how to get rid of those nervous jitters and gain a little confidence (even if it's faked).

Short check-in meetings, especially in the morning, can be a great tool to get your team on the same page and pumped for the day. Too often, though, these meetings are low energy, drag on past the limits of people's non-caffeinated attention spans, and end up leaving participants more in the mood for a nap than a productive day. Here are three ways that you can make sure your meetings are nothing to snooze through.

If there's one thing we RootsCamp attendees have in common, it's a desire to push the limits of technology to improve progressive organizing. We're organizers by nature; it's what brings us together and dominates our vision for the future. But what happens when we turn this zeal for progressive community inward? How can our experience in organizing help us create the most productive RootsCamp experience possible?

If you're like me, you oogle when you see clean and sophisticated websites with fabulous font pairings. I can recognize when fonts are misused and when they make me drool at my screen, but I can't for the life of me pair them together myself. Luckily, I don't have to.

Ever wonder why certain people and organizations always seem to get the love in your Facebook timeline, and others barely show up at all? Facebook employs a complex algorithm that creates your "Edge Rank," which determines how important it think your posts are. (This holds true for personal profiles and fan pages.)

We can't wait to see you at RootsCamp! This post is a little long, but it's got all the where, when, what, why and how of RootsCamp. Please make sure you read it through and save it, so that you won't miss any of the key parts or fun activities at RootsCamp this weekend.

When you're getting ready to hire a new staff member, make sure to distinguish between what is a "must-have" quality or skill for the role and what is simply a "nice-to-have." In doing this, pay special attention to what qualities tend to be inherent (i.e., you either have it or you don't) versus what can be taught or developed.

When faced with an unclear decision, it's important to ask, "Do I need more data, or more analysis?" National security expert Gregory Treverton makes a distinction between two kinds of problems: puzzles and mysteries.

Have you ever wondered what the campaigns you work on look like from the volunteer side? Or from the point of view of the paid canvassers? In 2008, I spent ten months researching two congressional races in the North East, talking to hundreds of staffers, paid part-timers, and volunteers for my book Ground Wars: Personalized Communication in Political Campaigns. Some of what they say will surprise you. Some of it may infuriate you. All of it can help you in your work.

In my previous life, I reviewed a lot of cover letters. All too often, the cover letters would discuss the applicant's qualifications and background, but would fail to address the qualities I referenced in the job description.

As organizers we are often called on to give feedback to our colleagues, volunteers, and even our supervisors. I find it helpful to think of feedback in terms of pluses, things that a person does that helps her achieve her goal, and deltas, things that a person could do differently to better meet goals in the future.