Getting Started — Setting up your social media accounts
One of the rules of organizing is to teach to the lowest common denominator. With that in mind, if you’ve been around for a few campaign cycles, there’s probably going to be a lot of review in the beginning, and you’ll be familiar with a lot of these concepts. Here’s three reasons why it’ll still be helpful:
Consider it a train the trainer module. Take these teachings as a framework to train your own volunteers, staff, maybe even your candidate.
I’ll pepper it with some of my own insights that are less obvious.
It never hurts to have a reminder of some of the more mundane parts of organizing. We can all get rusty and forget to do the little things.
There’s probably plenty I’ll forget to cover here. If that is the case, please, please, please email me at david@scrappyorganizing.com. I never want to stop learning.
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The first step to digital organizing is to establish your presence on social media channels. While it was critical to communicate on all mediums before a global pandemic, these are now going to likely be the primary way you interact with voters. Let’s start with the big three that are requirements for any campaign in the modern era.
Facebook.
Despite the argument that your grandma is on Facebook, this is where the majority of your voters spend their time. Especially now. It’s the largest social network in the world, by far.
When creating your campaign page, choose photos for your profile and cover pictures while keeping in mind the format of each. For example, the profile photo has a circular outline - accidentally cropping part of your candidate out of that photo probably isn’t ideal.
When posting, track your signal to noise ratio so you don’t annoy or tune-out potential voters and volunteers. Typically you should only post a maximum of two to three times per day, ideally at the best times of the day. A whole smorgasbord of sales analysts have built newsletter subscriptions off of their suggestions for when that timing is, and more holistically, when is best to post on any social media platform. But remember their work which may have accounted for commutes was completed before shelter in place orders were instituted. As such, some of the research will now be out of date. So instead of listening to the thought leaders, experiment yourself with different times of the day - be iterative.
After you’ve set up an official page, start a Facebook Group. There’ll be a full issue devoted to how powerful these are for organizing later on. For now, set one up, and consider for yourself whether you want it to be “private” or “public.” “Private” groups are easier to curate and less easy for trolls to infiltrate. But “public” groups are easier to grow.
Twitter.
Each medium requires its own communication strategy. And let’s get the obvious out of the way — Twitter is very frequently just the worst. It rewards cynicism and maximalism disproportionately. But it’s still a necessity.
Far fewer people are on Twitter than Facebook, but the ones that are are more likely to be activists, journalists, thought leaders, or operatives. Because of this curated audience, Twitter can be used to shape the narrative of your campaign. Your language can and probably should be a bit more polarizing and snarky on the platform, and it never hurts to take advantage of the substantial “meme culture” built into it.
Twitter has far less of signal to noise ratio issue to worry about, you can post twenty times a day and you’ll be fine. However, that does create its own issues. It’s easy to have your content be lost on Twitter as a result.
Instagram.
It’s primarily a visual medium, which can make it a little tricky for political organizing. But as they say, a picture can say a thousand words.
Some quick tips for what makes a good photo:
Action shots are better.
Fill the frame, avoid negative space.
Lighting matters.
Keep in mind that even in the darkest of times, Instagram is usually a little bit more personal and “fun” of a platform than Twitter or Facebook. If your candidate has family or pets, feature them repeatedly. Use this platform to humanize your campaign.
Instagram also has a feature called “Moments” built into the platform that can be very effective in organizing, because it allows you to overlay a photo with text, attach a song to the post, or customize it in a variety of ways.
However, keep in mind, when using text, you need to make it visually appealing. Or if nothing else, legible.
These three are the bare minimum, but what if you want to go beyond?
Youtube.
While written word and photos are an effective way to communicate, video is probably the closest simulation you’ll get to actual face to face speaking. And while all the platforms allow for video, Youtube is the only built wholly around the medium. And furthermore, if you do it right, Youtube will even suggest your video to potential supporters.
More than most, Youtube rewards people who put in the work to be successful on its platform:
“Audience retention” is factored into their algorithm for which videos they will recommend i.e. people have to watch your video the whole way through.
Using keywords in your title and popular tags helps a video be recommended to new audiences.
If you do decide to attempt Youtube, don’t just check a box, but instead commit to learning about what others are doing to be successful. A good place to start is examining how Senator Bernie Sanders exploited the tools of the platform, using smart keywords and featuring celebrity guests.
Nextdoor.
Some of the more interesting campaign work in my career was helping to expand Nextdoor’s market penetration across the country. It opened my eyes to what an undiscovered opportunity the social media platform for neighborhoods is in bringing people together. Perhaps most importantly, usage is surging during the quarantine.
If you do plan to use Nextdoor, there are a couple critical points to be aware of before getting started:
Because of the culture of the platform, and the responsive nature of their user support team, being explicitly political or partisan often leads to backlash and possibly being blacklisted from the platform. Instead of having a house party for your campaign, promote a conversation about a specific issue sponsored by your campaign.
Unlike the other platforms, users cannot post outside of their “neighborhood,” a limited geographic area around their evidenced residence. In order for your campaign to have a presence citywide, you need to identify supporters in each neighborhood and provide language guidance so that they themselves can share content in their neighborhood.
But these limitations also mean you have a much higher likelihood of having your content actually read. And additionally you can do hyper-targeted online organic promotion for events or content, which could be super useful in turning out communities within critical voter precincts.
Think outside the box.
The internet is like the Baskin Robbins of demographic organizing. You’ll find every flavor if you look hard enough. So once you have an understanding of your turf, meet your voters where they are already and start strategically promoting your campaign. For example …
If your electorate includes a heavily Asian American population, consider building a campaign presence on social media platforms popular with those specific constituencies like WeChat or Weibo.
If you’re struggling with young voters, and I think we can all think of at least one national campaign that may have this challenge, cracking the code on Snapchat and Tik Tok may be worth looking into.
But be smart when expanding your scope. Social media platforms are built on the business model of data harvesting. Some are more explicit than others, and some may have ties to foreign governments.
Whatever you do, it’s important to always remember that one of the time-tested strengths of politics is authenticity. If you have a septuagenarian candidate, it’s probably not a good idea to force them to do the NeNe for the ‘Gram.
Which gets to a holistic point to consider on any and all communication platforms: remember we’re in the middle of some very dark times. The news is going to be filled with stories that are sad, depressing, and infuriating. Understand that both the pandemic will be top of mind for your audience and that emotions are on a tightrope. This isn’t the time for fundraising, gimmicks, or cheap pitches. Organizing is still possible, but be smart about it, and be gracious if people tell you “I’m not interested.” At this point, you can’t really blame them.