As state-level campaigns begin gearing up this year, still in the shadow of Obama’s dominating online performance, expect a boom in the technology employed in state-level campaigns. Campaign Insider contributor Colin Delany has a great post on his own blog offering some tips to staffers and politicians looking to increase their online presence:
Some great ideas for building supporter databases came up during the breakout discussions. For instance, besides the usual tactic of asking friendly organizations to promo your organization in their e-newsletters, people immediately warmed to the idea of developing and promo-ing content targeted to particular audiences (many already work with politicians who regularly contribute columns to political blogs). Example: education-funding issues are going to be big in the upcoming legislative session, so you prepare a column by your caucus chair and pitch it to the state teachers’ union newsletter, with of course a link back to your website.
Much of what we discussed, however, will be familiar to online communicators of any stripe: the need for websites to convert visitors into followers, the power of video to create a connection, the importance of delivering value of some kind to list members (”inside” information, emotional satisfaction, raw-meat partisanship), the usefulness of adapting content for many different channels, and the tendency of online outreach to be trench warfare more than blitzkrieg.
Read the whole thing at e.politics.