Despite the sage advice from aging sages, social media will continue to be a useful addition to political campaigning. It is not going to go away. And do not think of it as cheap coverage. It needs careful attention and scarce resources. You do not want to miss out and you do not want to waste them.
The first audience you want to consider is the 18 to 25-year olds. You can easily track them down at your local community college or university. Do not settle for the opinions of just a few. Remember though that the pre-meds are serious grunts. It is the soc-and-phil guys and gals who are there for the social life. And if you line up the gals first as volunteers, the guys are sure to follow.
Every campaign needs all the person power it can get. It helps if you budget generously for pizza.
And let the young people run the social media campaign. You need a small team with a leader and back-up. Stream the younger volunteers by them so they can get updates on what’s trending.
Be sure you understand the differences between the popular social media apps—it is really not all that complicated. Facebook is still king at the moment but there is new competition coming. Twitter is being hurt by the abuse of Donald Trump but you cannot argue with that many million followers. And I strongly believe that any candidate who thinks he or she could use a chatbot, should be replaced with a chatbot. And I would suggest the unless you have someone very good at creating videos, you do not waste time on YouTube
But the intent of getting candidates involved with social media is to make sure that they are reaching the audiences that we see everywhere with their noses stuck to that smart phone screen. They need to get the messages—the same as seniors who might never have seen a Facebook page.
The different generations out there are just a complication to modern campaigning. They all need convincing communications. Social media has not replaced the printing press. You need strong printed images and signs to pull together your different audiences. Communication constantly changes, but basics are slow to evolve.
Nor have the principles of the ground game changed that much.
-30-
Copyright 2018 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]