The launch of Miami Corruption Tracker

I helped to launch Miami Corruption Tracker/ Corruptómetro de Miami in the summer of 2024 as a resource for residents of Miami-Dade County to learn more about some of the political dynasties running local government here and the donations fueling their power.

Our strategy was both to build out a series of profile pages for specific political families and also to write a series of blog posts to do the investigative reporting we wished local reporters were still doing: the kind that focuses on public records and campaign finance reports.

The site also included calls to actions with petitions and letter campaigns (powered by Action Network), so we could build empowerment as well as grow our email list.

Promotion: a pivot away from digital ads towards SMS / MMS Marketing:

While we still invested in digital advertising to market this site, we also used peer to peer texting tools to text out links to the blog posts on Miami Corruption Tracker / Corruptómetro de Miami.

Here are some of the examples:

I wrote this text message to Miami-Dade residents urging them to sign the Miami Corruption Tracker website petition to reinstate Miami-Dade’s old public corruption bureau.

Text message introducing Miami's biggest political dynasties

Aug. 30, 2024

I wrote this text message to Miami-Dade residents to promote a blog post on Miamicorruptiontracker.com about Miami’s biggest political dynasties.

Text message about the top donors of one of Miami-Dade's most powerful commissioners

I wrote this text message to Miami-Dade residents to promote a blog post on Miamicorruptiontracker.com about the top donors to Miami-Dade County Commissioner Raquel Regalado.

Text message about the fines Miami's biggest political families have paid for breaking Florida's election laws

I wrote this text message to Miami-Dade residents to promote a blog post on Miamicorruptiontracker.com about the all the fines Miami’s biggest political dynasties have paid for breaking Florida’s election laws.