Not too long ago, most candidates would have started dipping their toes into the social networking waters only after they decided to run for office. Political candidate profiles would be created as a secondary way to drum up support and grow a campaign.
How things change in just a few years.
Many of tomorrow’s political candidates are already using social media – extensively. This audience network will be the first to learn about a new political campaigns and will be among the first tapped to support these future candidates.
We’ve already discussed the issue of whether their social media use will hurt or help their future political goals, so we won’t go into that.
A few years ago, we would have recommended a campaign website. Social media was too small and fragmented to be of much use. Today, we recommend starting with social media, building a network of friends and supporters, and letting them become the initial audience base for your campaign website.
Facebook is (as of this writing) the number one social media website with over 400 million users worldwide. If you are new to Facebook, here are some tips to acquiring friends:
- Search your email contacts or use the Facebook tool to can do this for you.
- Look for local businesses and organizations and add them as friends.
- Search for your existing offline friends and add them to see if they respond.
- Search your friend’s friends to find related acquaintances.
Beware the social media divide: Not everyone is a part of or wants to be a part of social networking sites. A campaign website domain is open to all visitors and can help to add to your social networking. Reaching voters the way they use the web is important, whether it be through a website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or other channels.
If you communicate through any social networking site, assume that any communication you make is (or will become) public. Privacy standards online are shifting continuously, and information that was once walled off within certain websites might become open at some point.
The work of building an online network before you launch your political campaign can give you a leg up when you finally announce your intention to run. The payoff is that your group of friends and fans will be the first to check out your campaign website, provide feedback on it, and maybe even help in your fundraising efforts.
Going forward, your social media network can provide feedback and help spread the word!
Any future candidates out there already using social media to build support?
When you need a campaign website, consider Online Candidate! We combine the best of custom design and ease of use in one complete package! Try our website demo to see how it works.
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Tags: campaign promotion, facebook, political fundraising, social networking, twitter, youtube