From Facebook to ballot box

 

Jag Singh

 

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Also in this section:

• Building local coalitions David Canzini
• Why negative campaigning works Jonathan Upton
• How Boris Won: The Lynton Crosby Interview Iain Dale
• Ten ways to improve a speech John Shosky
• Campaign doctor Christian Schnee
• Learning Lessons from Crewe and Nantwich

The major American political campaigns have begun to connect with people in more efficient and engaging ways, by utilising the internet to enhance offline campaigns. They invite people to get involved, rather than simply embedding YouTube videos and campaign slogans all over the web.  Most importantly, they’ve discovered the most effective on-line social media campaigns are those which attempt to connect people with each other and instil a sense of community. Accordingly there is no reason to be afraid of engaging and interacting with audiences on sites like Facebook, MySpace or  Bebo.

Such sites present campaigns with an opportunity to directly communicate with people via a cost-effective and rapidly scalable platform. The figures speak for themselves - it costs the same amount of money to reach 10,000 people via a well-targeted web campaign as it does to reach 200 people via direct-mail.

 

Additionally, reaching out via the web allows organisations to create genuine feedback loops with clear incentives for everyone involved.
Campaign managers are beginning to understand that being tied to a single form of distribution simply makes no sense. Different platforms generally reach different types of audiences, and these communities must be nurtured and supported in different ways. However, it is worth considering that none of the successful campaigns write off Facebook’s entire user base as wealthy and upper-class, or MySpace as a destination solely catering toward rebellious teeny-boppers.

Engaging with your on-line audience means finding what matters most to them and then forging a pitch that compels a given user to consider what you offer. Adjusting your message to the audience requires understanding how users interact with each other.  Tone down the volume of your message if you want them to start talking back. If you are pitching to individuals who are notorious for their short attention spans, use shorter sentences and introduce bullet points. Don’t be afraid of engaging with the popular but independent bands on MySpace. Most importantly, use the existing environment to your advantage.

I once advised an American gubernatorial candidate to host a competition allowing musicians with profiles on MySpace to compose and perform a song about the state he was hoping to lead. It worked because groups of ‘emo’ and ‘goth’ kids from all over the state collaborated with punk-rockers and pop-star wannabes in an attempt to discover new bands and promote their existing favourite ones. Indirectly, they were introduced to the candidate, who, in turn, was introduced to a new and captive audience.

The most important consideration during this campaign revolved around staying authentic, while also coming up with creative ways to disarm the critics.

We experimented in different ways by not putting any slogans up and keeping the words ‘vote for me’ off the micro-site. We allowed bands which were openly supporting other candidates to join in the fun and we ensured the process itself was democratic and fair. Campaigners generally never dare abandon the desire to maintain control over messages and resources and their instincts are spot-on in some instances. We carefully monitored the threads within the mini-forums, and introduced community moderation procedures to prevent the campaign from being hijacked by our opponents. We also highlighted the fact our candidate was tone-deaf – and while the humour wasn’t lost, it surrounded the entire exercise with an air of authenticity.

Distributing a cleverly constructed campaign via the web requires considerable effort. The same level of effort must be given to drive traffic to this online channel, integrating it with all other media activity. The effectiveness of advertising is always subject to debate, but all major social networks afford the chance to target specific adverts to specific users based on various criteria. Such on-line advertising presents the opportunity to be very flexible when it comes to recruiting and approaching new members.

Harnessing the participatory processes taking place in communities across the internet isn’t an easy task. However, it may be somewhat comforting to know that the most successful campaigns all follow six key rules when defining their online presence.  The pay-off: an engaged community which is ready and waiting to support your campaign.

 

• Be genuine and familiarise yourself with the existing environment.
• Don’t try and sell your audience anything immediately.
• Provide resources and value to the community.
• Converse with your audience, on their level.
• Analyse your results and then tweak your messaging.
• Repeat the process and remember to document the execution of every good concept.

 

Jag is a veteran of US Presidential campaigns. He is currently CIO at MessageSpace.co.uk and a co-founder of Labourhome.org.