Campaigns have never been more connected to their supporters than they are today. In this digital era, staying in front of trends is crucial.
What do you mean your campaign doesn’t have a Snapchat account? Your followers can’t find you on Instagram? Less organized campaigns can laugh off these important social media platforms as child’s play, but the reality is that voters young and old are communicating on person-to-person social media platforms like never before. The truth is, slow-to-adopt campaigns are being left in the dust.
Here are three quick tips to get your social media campaign trending up:
Be a prolific poster
Social media moves at lighting speeds. More often than not your post will be buried in your audiences’ feed within hours. You need to be a prolific poster to get noticed. Task a young member of your field team or an intern with writing twenty tag lines a day. Use every inch of your communications frame to push through message in 140 characters or less on Twitter. A successful social media program uses the ever-expanding net of a social network to draw more attention to your issue. Frequent posting allows for your follower to have new content to distribute to throughout their networks.
Make your visuals = verbs
Pictures are great, but they must lead to an action. Your social media program is designed to show growth within your campaign. So cut out the “wacky socks Wednesday” and keep those posts focused on relaying action within your campaign. Highlight field activities that show your growing ground game at work knocking on doors and pounding the phones at nightly phone banks. Show your supporters holding a rally outside of the most recent debate or town hall. The visuals you publish on social media streams should relay one concept to your audience: why are you not here with us?
Know your audience
We live in a world that is dominated by social media: Even your grandmother has a Facebook account. In fact, 62 percent of adults in the United States report they get news on social media sources, but not all social media applications are used by the same audience. Snapchat, Tumblr, Instagram are all examples of active culture social media streams frequented by young users.
Use these apps to push volunteer opportunities and for crowd building. Twitter and Facebook are examples of copy-driven social media applications that allow for written text (as well as video): use these to relay policy positions and to build an audience.
It’s never too late to get started.
Don’t let social media be a complete mystery to your campaign. Capitalize on the audiences who turn to social media platforms daily to read the latest about your campaign, and those who are seeking an opportunity to get involved. Curate your content to maintain a fresh page that’s well established on a viewers’ actively rotating feed. Use photos to relay action and activity within your campaign and cut out the posts that lack a direct ask or way for a user to interact with your campaign.
Finally, have a conversation with your audience. Young and old have found the opportunity to have deep and meaningful engagement within social media platforms. Being a part of this conversation could be the difference that propels you to a win in November.
JR Starrett is the national advocacy director for Common Sense Media, and a veteran campaign operative. Follow JR on twitter @JustinRyanS