The Ambiguous Donation
Filed under: Red Alert Dossier, Social Media
I was reading some blogs today and came across a great article from Hotair.com about the Massachusetts US Senate race between Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley who is only leading Republican State Senator Scott Brown by a mere 11 points. Which for Massachusetts, a state where Obama won by 23 points, is pretty darn good considering there are still ten campaigning months left. In the post the author placed an appeal to donate to Brown’s campaign. An appeal I’d second as that would be a huge win for us. But that’s not my point.
Directly below, I was perusing the comments to this post. Sure enough the second one said,
“I fanned him on Facebook. That’s like a contribution right?”
With the emergence of Social Media (SM) the definition of a donation seems to be skewed. I’ve noticed this with other campaigns as well. People are beginning to remove the $$ from the definition of “Campaign Donation” and replacing it with any action from volunteering to “fanning” them on Facebook. This in fact, is wrong!
Fund raising is key for any campaign, DUH! Yes, volunteering your time is good, but let’s be honest, I can reach a heck of a lot more people through a TV ad or even a tweet than I will from you knocking on five blocks of homes. Not only that, but they are less intrusive as well. Don’t get me wrong. Volunteering is vital for a successful campaign but it doesn’t mean you don’t have to donate. That said, you as a candidate should not expect them to not donate because they are volunteering.
It’s simple marketing. You need to ALWAYS be asking people for donations until they’ve given you the maximum funding the law allows. Remind them at every turn. Money may not be the exclusive force that wins campaigns but I promise, it sure does help.
As a campaign you need to be strategizing all the time on how you can generate more funds through your daily actions. How can you remind people all the time without looking like a loser? It varies from area to area so figure it out. Our clients are finding success in different ways and with SM you have many more avenues for generating those funds.
Like I said, don’t let your supporters get away with thinking that fanning your Facebook page is sufficient. If they want real change than they MUST donate. Even if it’s just a dollar. I don’t care how much. Obviously the more the merrier but anything and everything helps.
Drive Campaign Sales!
Filed under: Red Alert Dossier, Social Media
Today I joined Doug for the Red Alert Hour and we discussed a few things I really want to extrapolate on. It really is amazing how few people get it. Not just in politics but even in business. People assume that because it’s called social media it is meant to be only ’social.’ They think that these online communication venues are only meant for interaction. Why is it that communication within the world of social media is constrained to be defined strictly as ‘friendly interaction?’ Are television ads not communication? Are radio ads not communication? Heck, are newspaper ads not communication?
I bring this up for a very good reason. You see….political AND many social media consultants aren’t saying that selling (fund-raising) through social media is pointless. Rather, they are saying DON’T DO IT! They say it’s against all that social media stands for. They say it’s not authentic. This REALLY erks me. Let me share why.
Social media STILL follows all the basic marketing principles. How does my tweeting back and forth with you about the weather going to make you give me your hard earned cash? IT DOESN’T! It does make you think I’m a nice guy to chat with, but that’s it. I’m not just saying this – I’ve experienced this with past clients. You need a call to action. You need to tell them why you are online. If you are on Facebook and Twitter just to chat…more power to you. But don’t complain when your sales aren’t going up or you haven’t hit the level of funds you need for your campaign.
Social media IS selling. It’s selling yourself. It’s selling products. It’s selling services. It’s selling oppportunities. It’s selling and selling and selling and selling. Get the point? The argument they always give me is that you need to brand. Yeah. So what? You tell me what good branding is if you aren’t going to sell what you have to offer. Wait. You don’t have to because I already know it’s useless.
So get ready, here’s what it takes. Branding and selling need to be simultaneous acts through social media. You have mere seconds to position yourself, peak interest, coerce a click and motivate your viewer with a call to action. That’s right. In a matter of seconds. It’s shorter than TV and radio. This is done through content generation. Provide your viewers with valuable content and ALWAYS remind them to donate funds to your campaign. There are some strategies we use at OperationRedState and of course you’ll have to sign up to find out what 
. But it really does come down to the fact that if you are ONLY conversing with your following don’t expect anything to happen.
People don’t vote for friends. They vote for leaders. They vote for people they know will stand up for what their constituents believe in. They vote for people that communicate with them and ask for their help, both monetary and through actions.
You aren’t online to be their friend and frankly, I don’t want to be your friend. If you are then that’s all you’ll ever be – the friend that keeps running for office but seldom wins. You are online to lead. Show me your a leader. I dare you!
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Social Media
