As the 2012 election begins to heat up we’re starting to see an overwhelming presence of politics ingrained into our social media lives.

A mere decade ago, the voter turnout rate amongst eligible American voters was as dismal as it ever was in our country’s young history.

After social media hit politics full speed in the 2008 Presidential Election we saw the biggest voter turnout in about four decades*. It became clear that in order to a win a political campaign you had to have an online presence; but what if you’re running for office and don’t have the luxury of a new media team?

Have a Website

The website is far and away the most important part of a political campaign now a days, regardless of what you’re running for. People don’t just expect you to have a website, they expect you to have a site loaded with quality content that will keep them wanting to learn more about you and what you stand for. There are a handful of companies out there that actually build political campaign websites (Leisure can handle your entire digital campaign). A website now works as a candidate’s political ID card and should include your stances on all the prudent political topics at hand, as well as pictures or videos of any type events you’ve been to.

Setting Up Your Social Media Accounts

Your social media presence is equally important to a campaign, but for different reasons. I like to call your social media campaign an offensive attack. The main website is there for people to find while a Facebook or Twitter account allow you to reach out to people, which is obviously an extremely important factor in a political campaign. Want to reach out to conservatives? Join Conservative Facebook groups and post your thoughts. Have an event you want liberals to show up for? Spend a couple of dollars on an Ad that you can specifically target to democrats living in that approximate area.  When you join these groups, be sure to actively participate in the conversations that are happening, if you appear passionate you have a better chance of winning people over.  You should also be sure to tweet to other like-minded members on Twitter and build your following in the new digital version of a grass roots campaign. With Social Grow you can now take your database of signed up volunteers and supporters and seamlessly build your social media profiles within minutes, something of which is extremely valuable.

Linking

Linking is important because you never know where new people are coming from. Some may have heard about you through Twitter and want to see your homepage, while others may want to “like” you on Facebook after reading your political stances through your homepage. Everything needs to trickle back to your homepage, think of it as the mother ship to your whole online strategy. You need to be completely overloading your followers or potential followers with fresh and original content.  One of the more under-the-radar tactics I’ve found success with is picture tagging. Facebook gives you the option of tagging yourself to pictures you may not have uploaded, what this does is introduce you to people viewing the pictures of other people they’re following who probably have the same ideas or qualities as you (or else why are you taking a picture with them).

Press Releases Are Essential

In political campaigns, any sort of positive press is considered a huge slam dunk no matter what level the campaign is on. What better press to have than through articles written about you…by you? Press releases allow you to control your fate in the media, a lot of newspapers receive press releases through the press wire and either just upload it verbatim or use it as a reference to build their articles. When I was in charge of writing press releases I made sure to always use PR Web because they have the cool feature of actually attaching a website of your choice below the release which encourages interaction and works as a direct link straight to your homepage and your subsequent social media sites, it’s extremely useful.

Update! Update! Update!

The importance of updating a homepage or social media site should go without saying, but I’ve unfortunately seen campaign sites that haven’t been updated for months. If you build up a steady stream of daily nuggets it will encourage people to keep coming back. The more you wait to add to your sites, the more people you lose along the way. Not only do you have a hard time retaining followers but it makes your campaign look sloppy and lazy which in turn reflects directly on you as a candidate. If you continue to add pictures of events you’ve went to, or videos of speeches you gave; you’ll find that not only will you keep people interested, it will help your SEO and in turn garner more followers interested in supporting you in funding and most importantly in the voting booth.

Are you in need of digital marketing for your political campaign. We can help! Shoot us an email!

* http://elections.gmu.edu/preliminary_vote_2008.html255

As the 2012 Presidential election is already beginning to heat up we begin to see an overwhelming presence of politics ingrained into our social media lives.

Gone are the days where people make the very important decision of voting for a political candidate based on how many yard signs they see on the way to the voting center in their local high school gymnasium. A mere decade ago, the voter turnout rate amongst eligible American voters was as dismal as it ever was in our country’s young history. For as long as I can remember the voting public has always been pessimistic about the selection of candidates partly because politicians

typically don’t always have the best track record for being honest, and they just simply didn’t know enough about who these candidates were or what they stood for.

-Enter New Media-

Obama’s Profile on Myspace

Myspace isn't around now, but it was instrumental in his 2008 victory.

Although it was prevalent in the 2000 and 2004 elections, we really began to notice social media play a major role early on in the presidential election of 2008. I’ll never forget when I signed on to Myspace (back when everyone was doing it, but that’s still not an excuse) and I had one friend request from Barack Obama. It didn’t take long to see that what the Obama camp was doing through social media was not only inexpensive but effective. When all was said and done the 2008 Presidential Election saw the biggest voter turnout in about four decades*, and it was Barack Obama who emerged overwhelmingly victorious.  Not soon after did the newly elected President’s campaign essentially became a tutorial for all future political candidates regardless of the party or position.

-So Why Was It So Successful?-

For the first time ever the people had access to a presidential candidate where they were able to interact with him like never before. People didn’t need to rely on watching debates or remember slogans on signs. We were able to go straight to the source by reading his daily tweets, or checking his constantly updated Facebook profile full of video, news, and images. Meanwhile you almost felt some sort of disconnect from his competitor John McCain the “conservative” Senator for Arizona, who ran a more old school campaign that focused on small public speaking events while shaking hands and kissing babies.

After the 2008 election, things changed fast; in a matter of two years the online presence of a political candidate is not only the norm… it’s required if they hope to stand any chance of success. Campaign directors are now shying away from traditional television ads and old school tactics all while recruiting young social media experts to essentially run their campaign, and give the candidate an online voice. Social media tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Grow, and Twitter have become essential to running a campaign because they “turn the tables” and deliver the people to the candidates as opposed to the other way around. Candidates now find themselves campaigning in 140 characters or less or plugging their fully loaded Facebook fan page during every event, why? Because it gives them a new level of interaction that is more than just valuable… it’s essential. It goes without saying that new-media will forever now play an important role in politics; the interesting part will now be to see who can use it in innovative new ways to create more exposure…thus the evolution of media continues on.

* http://elections.gmu.edu/preliminary_vote_2008.html255

You can’t afford to not be on the web and other social media platforms now a days. The evolve or die model is in full effect and we’re help to help you keep up with the pack. Seriously, let us manage your brand online and watch what happens. We’ll take you from an unknown brand to the top of the pack with our proven skills and tactics.

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