A Candidate’s Name Is the Only Thing That Doesn’t Change


Here’s a quick tip for candidates who are starting their online campaigns: Pick a name that’s going to last! For your website and social media profiles, you should choose a single name for consistency. The question is whether you should include the name of the office you are seeking.

In our opinion, you should avoid using an office name in your website domain name and social media handles. It’s better to use just your name or a more generic ‘vote for’ handle.

Here’s why. If you are going to be in politics for a while, odds are the position you are seeking may change in the future. If that happens, all the work that was done to build your online presence will go to waste.

For example, for a Facebook page, after you have secured 25 “Likes”, you are now qualified to change your Page web address to a shorter and unique username. However, once you choose a name, you cannot change it in the future. So if your Facebook page is facebook.com/smithforsupervisor, all the followers you have gathered will be lost if you run for a different office and   start a new page called facebook.com/smithforstaterep. It will be tough to get all your old followers to the new page.

The same goes for a campaign Twitter account. Choose your name carefully. It will look silly if your handle is @smithforsupevisor when you are running for state representative. Again, it may be tough to set up a new handle and rebuild your following.

For your campaign website, we often recommend that you register your name as the domain name, if possible. That way, if you want to run for a different office or turn the domain to a personal or business site, you’ll find  it’s easier to keep the same domain name. All the old links and traffic will remain, making it easier to restart things later.

So, choose your online names carefully – and be prepared to keep them for a while!

Online Candidate websites include an easy-to-use interface, plenty of included tools and custom design to make building your online presence as quick and pain-free as possible. Check out our site features and try out the demo.


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