The best feature of electronic media, from your campaign’s perspective, is its avoidance of printing and postage costs. It’s entirely possible to spend lots of money on electronic communications, but you can and should get much of the potential value for a relatively modest cost.
Social media, particularly Facebook, is the big dog in this category. But you should still give thought to other, complementary electronic media.
Not technical? That’s OK. A simple website will work just fine
A traditional web site is likely worth having, but keep in mind: even bigger campaigns’ web sites are now mostly a brochure plus a donate button. Yours can be too. Get a clean, template-based web site which looks good on mobile devices, then plug in basic content matching your campaign literature.
Most campaign sites should have similar options: a section about the candidate, issues, updates, contact information, a button to help volunteers get involved, and most important – a place to let people donate. Feel free to go into issues and policies at greater length on your web site. “Get involved” should be a form letting people request a yard sign, volunteer to host an event, canvass, phone bank, etc. Include a prominent link to sign up for updates (mainly by e-mail, though you can invite people to provide other contact information as well).
Updates or news page is worth having, as an official home for important announcements, endorsements, but a mostly static web site is fine too. Unless you make a splash in the news, it will receive most of its traffic during the final few days of the campaign.
E-mail is still important for reaching voters and raising money
Everyone is buried in e-mail, which is still relevant, especially for fundraising. The fundraising function applies much more to bigger campaigns, with bigger e-mail lists than you’re likely to develop, but e-mail is still important to smaller campaigns, all the same. Your approach to campaign e-mail should be even simpler than your web site. Create an account with something like MailChimp or Constant Contact—free service is likely to meet your needs—and send one to three updates per month featuring news, events, opportunities to volunteer, and most importantly – a donate link.
Simple videos are another way to speak directly to your constituents
The costs of television advertising are often out of reach for a local candidate, although digital TV ads aren’t always prohibitively expensive. But while you probably won’t run campaign videos on television, you should still make videos anyway.
Videos might be the next-best thing to personal interaction with you. People can see you and hear you, and watching your video is probably more appealing to many people than a text or phone call from an unfamiliar number. A professionally made campaign video could be valuable, if someone will give you a break on the cost. You can and should share DIY videos, as well.
Record (or have someone else record) yourself talking about one subject, for a minute or two at most. Make a video about you, and why you’re running. Make videos about issues. You can also share experiences, like a successful event. In some cases, if you need a rapid response to a problem, video may provide an appropriate sense of both urgency and reassurance, because the response seems to come directly from the horse’s mouth.
Whenever you have a good video, share it. Share it on your social media accounts, share it on your web site. Maybe set up a YouTube or Vimeo channel for your videos, too, just to provide a URL that can be shared easily across different platforms.
Electronic media doesn’t replace other forms of contact, but it’s a part of meeting people where they are—including in front of a screen.
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