You are a nonprofit executive. You eat lunch at your desk regularly, 50 hours a week is a "short" week, and you're understaffed. You are the head of human resources, lead fundraiser, and mentor to a team of young idealists. You don't have time to become an expert in social media, but you don't have to be. Here are five tips for faking it.

1.     Have a communications plan. This plan does not have to be complicated. It could be as simple as, "We will post to Facebook three times a week to share upcoming events, recent successes, fundraisers, or interesting news articles our supporters will appreciate." Although I recommend something more complex, if you have NO strategy, simple is better than nothing. This is the template I use with my clients and will help you and your team determine your social media goals.  

Four hundred twenty miles driven and eleven tanks of gas exhausted stalking presidential candidates over the last two months. I know it isn’t technically stalking because the public is invited, but my Instagram feed is beginning to look like there should be a restraining order. Pictures of me with presidential hopefuls and tiny images of someone gesticulating wildly on a stage who seem farther away than they were because of my not-so-great camera phone. I have thought about bringing my big camera, with the 50x zoom, but for some reason, this would reinforce that stalking feeling.

Seven different events and seventeen candidates (list below), plus two presidential debates, and I am no further along in deciding who I want to throw my support behind for the primaries. I vote in Illinois, and typically, the primary race is over by the time it’s our turn, but maybe with 20 contenders, Illinois will become relevant. And even if we don’t, it’s important to me that I have a preference because, to be honest, I am excellent at having opinions.

Although I don’t have a final “pick,” I have learned three things about the Iowa process and made some initial decisions about the field.

On Saturday afternoon, I woke up on my front porch from an unplanned but welcome nap. The zen of my unexpected slumber quickly disappeared after I saw the news of yet another mass shooting from El Paso. I sent a paranoid and panicked message to my friends who live there, and they thankful confirmed their safety in minutes. Then, I stomped around the house, angry that these shootings continue to happen, and discouraged because I feel so helpless to affect change on this issue.

The cycle repeated itself the next morning when I woke up to the news of the Dayton shooting. Two in less than 24 hours. I watched all the Sunday morning news shows hoping maybe this time would be different, but expecting the rhetoric to be the same.

A Chicagoan at heart, a series of events, including falling for a local boy, led me to spending time "Iowa-adjacent," in Moline, Illinois. Moline is on the Mississippi River and part of the Quad Cities region. When I first started coming here in 2015, and when asked, "What's it like?" by friends in Chicago, I highlighted three points that stood out the most.

First, five cities make up the Quad Cities, well at least five, some might even say eight or nine. Apparently, they started as the "Tri-Cities," changed to Quad as the region grew, but "quint" never stuck. Second, split by the Mississippi River, residents move between Illinois and Iowa - sometimes many times a day - crossing the largest river in North America like it's no big deal. Being from Chicago, crossing the Mississippi meant a great adventure ahead, not, "We ran out of peanut better, so I am going to the Super Target." As a result, the little girl in me avoided Iowa to keep a sense of adventure alive. Finally, fall 2015 marked the beginning of primary season for the Iowa caucuses and although I was in Illinois, it's an Iowa media market. This proved to be incredibly painful because I don't travel with my Tivo and for the first time since 2004, I had to watch commercials - and political commercials at that! I started avoiding TV like I avoided Iowa.

The "democratic socialist" label is like nails on a chalkboard to me, no matter if it's Bernie proclaiming it proudly or FOX news dropping it with disdain. Democratic Socialists support policy reform in areas I care deeply about, such as healthcare, affordable housing and childcare, and campaign finance. They believe that democracy should work equally, for everyone. So why do I have such a visceral reaction to the label?

I have spent more time than I care to admit trying to figure out why "democratic socialist" bothers me so much. I have questioned whether the time I spent post-communist Eastern Europe has made me overly sensitive. I looked up the word" socialist" because it has been a long time since college poly sci and wanted to confirm it still means the collective ownership of the means of production (it does). I tried to understand how Bernie and AOC describe democratic socialism but direct quotes, in context, are hard to find. The secondary sources I found, are a bit biased, both to the left and to the right. That said, I found one direct quote by AOC that stuck in my head.