I spent some time lickin’ up a reporter for dissin’ social media in my last post. Now the licks needs to share to us social media users and the local policicans. We’re not engaged and we want to be. In this instance minus the 2 charat, princess or emrald cut diamond set in white gold with two trillians on each side…but I digress! The political followers on social media want to be engaged. They want an opportunity to know what THEY can do to help the campaigns – not a one way diatribe! Seriously! Get it right! You’ve started but the goal is not the finish – the goal is an engaged population – and we want to be engaged more than via traditional media.
Where are the opportunities to even HAVE a conversation – besides join one? Is there a site to encourage children to design their own campaign slogams? Are there podcats of the speeches post event? Can I get a detailed script of the platform speeches AS THEY HAPPEN? Nope. I have to tune into (gasp!) local TV and hope the mics are working – not to mention switch between channels to catch the “bacchanal”. C’mon! Can I get an email from the parties daily telling me where I can go and what I can do as a lowly computer user to help with the campaign? Are there targetted messages for my agegroup I can post in my FB status? Nope!
And while I would not do these things personally (as I keep my political views off the social media world by personal choice) – I have MANY friends that would and would HAPPILY post them on my wall – in addition to their own.
Guess the doubters were right. Its been a few days and it turns out the political camps appear to be giving only lip service to social media. So here is my advice (again, political social media strategy hat on):
- A microsite site with JPEGS that can be used for Profile Photos
- A microSite to insert your pic next to your candidate of choice
- UStream event with candidates: Ok so debate is not going to happen. How about ANYONE talk LIVE on social media about the questions on everyone’s minds? How about linking it to one of the MANY Facebook accounts for the political offerings and answering questions posted on walls? HELLO! Totally free and can be done at any time!
- Twitter and Facebook Updates throughout the day: Oh ghorm! Peoples! Once a day is not freakin’ enough! We social media peeps are insatiable! The #WITArmy (#WITA) is in need of info ALL the time. If you have an assistant, they can do it for you. Even if its “Proudly looking at newly opened school in ___” or “Concerned by rainclouds. Thinking that something needs to be done re: reforestation” . Anything! (Avoid – “taking a pee” updates though – political TMI is really unacceptable)
- Flickr Albums: This is not brain surgery. We jump to YouTube and missed Flickr – be real! Put photos up folks can pull down and place in their status updates or link to.
That’s just a start. There’s more. I’m passionate and so many of us are – for hells sake – just ask a question, send us an invitation and we’ll talk to you. Ask us, we’re ready (Alicia Keys pun) and we don’t need the ring for this..
Tags: Campaign talk, facebook, kamla, manning, Obama, PNM, Trinidad elections, twitter, UNC, Ustream
Communication Questions 
April 30, 2010 at 2:08 pm |
they should be streaming their events live on the internet, and also have engaging websites with links to everything.
Why don’t they have the text and video of the speeches of the feature speakers.
Political campaigns are still being run by the older heads. My dad was one of the founding members of the ONR in 1980-81… he was part of a group of 30 something year olds… guess what? Some of these people are STILL running the show in the main parties, but now they are in the 60s. AS my dad asks them “Why on earth are you still a front runner in this thing”
The ONR was able to garner a large proportion of the vote in 1981 is because they reached out to the voters. The internet makes it so easy to interact with the voters in so many ways, it is really a shame that the parties do not utilise it properly, nor do they have the infusion of youth and innovation in the organising of the campaign to recognise the powerful tool that the internet is.
April 30, 2010 at 2:22 pm |
Kevin – true, old heads still run the parties and the campaigns but is it really possible that they don’t get the power of social media? Seriously! Even @CNC3Trinidad is using Facebook to have questions posed to guests and most media houses are using Fb if not twitter. I have hope. At least they’ve started! Let’s see what happens. For now, there’s plenty left to do!
April 30, 2010 at 2:14 pm |
Good points… if anyone followed those strategies, they’d do well with their online audience. The thing is though… are the efforts the parties are expending into becoming more “socially aware” going to fade away after the election results are announced? I certainly hope they aren’t.
While a good portion of our youth may be “plugged in” to the happenings mainly via Facebook, there are still a lot of people who are not getting the message… partly due to apathy. I had to explain the rationale behind the “Do So” posters to three under-25 Trinis who practically live on Facebook, but don’t really follow local news and events.
Following your steps is a good way in breaking down the apathy by engaging the population in ways that are very familiar to some, if not most, of us… but they’d need to be consistent with it.
April 30, 2010 at 2:23 pm |
Thank you for the comment and compliment. I hope this all continues after the campaigns as well. There will be a winner but in the social media world, everyone can win if they play the game!
April 30, 2010 at 9:25 pm |
Preach! And teach!