COMM608 Unit 7: Digital Do’s and Don’ts
Organization Name: Run for Something
Run for Something is a new Political Action Committee, started in early 2017, which aims to recruit and support young (under 35) progressive political candidates with the goal of building a progressive bench. The organization focuses on local elections including state legislatures, mayorships, and city council seats. By connecting prospective candidates with training organizations like EMILY’s List, National Democratic Training Committee, etc., Run for Something helps to educate young people on how to run for office. Finally, Run for Something also seeks to raise funds to support these candidate’s campaigns.
Run for Something currently operates Facebook, Twitter, and Medium channels and has seen impressive growth since their January launch. In the past month alone their Twitter channel saw exponential growth, up by 10,000 followers to 32,000 in total. It’s clear that Run for Something is meeting their goal of continuing to drive awareness.
Moving forward, Run for Something should measure where followers are coming from and what content receives the most engagement and generates the most traffic over time. Measuring this will help to determine if the organization is meeting its goals of continuing to increase awareness and referral traffic, seeing what type of content performs the best, and continuing to share content that interests followers and potential followers. Improving these metrics will help Run for Something to continue to grow and encourage young progressives to run for office.
Another key to Run for Something’s digital longevity will be to strengthen “Always-On” digital content to recruit candidates and engage supporters outside of key election periods. Run for Something’s huge Twitter growth was seen in the month of November, a key election period. Maintaining this growth throughout the next year, up to the 2018 Mid-Term elections will be key to the longevity and effectiveness of Run for Something.
In an effort to focus on “Always-On” content, Run for Something will execute the #WhoShouldRun campaign. This campaign will encourage Run for Something’s followers to share who THEY think should run for office, outside of an election period. During this time, Run for Something will partner with four social figures and host local events around the country in order to highlight the role of elected officials, encourage followers to run for office, offer tips on running, ask followers who they think should run for office, and encourage followers to support Run for Something and it’s endorsed candidates. By directly asking “Who Should Run?”, Run for Something will encourage engagement outside of an election season and broaden the reach of the organization.
In executing the #WhoShouldRun campaign, and future campaigns, Run for Something should follow the below best practices for Digital Campaigns.
Strategic Best Practices
Do’s:
Do Clearly Identify Your Purpose in Social Media Plans and Campaigns: Decide from the onset whether your purpose is to raise awareness, to raise money, to recruit new candidates, or to grow your social following.
Do Set SMART Goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely Goals. Set these goals with measurement at the forefront so you can appropriately audit your content after a program ends and improve for next time.
Do Involve the Entire Team in the Social Content Calendar Development: Make sure you are appealing to the broadest audience, and bringing all ideas to the table, not just a segmented group.
Do Pick 2-3 Key Messages: Make these messages simple, memorable, and universally conveyed so supporters can easily repeat these to others and spread your message even wider.
Do Keep a Friendly and Brief Tone: For Twitter, use less than 100 characters, for Facebook, less than 40 characters.
Do Look at Competitors/Similar Organizations and See What They Are Doing to Be Successful: Figure out how to make those tactics, or similar ones, work for you.
Do Have a Consistent Look and Feel on Social: This will helps to build brand recognition and trust.
Do Audit What Content is Receiving the Most Engagement and What is Receiving the Least: After this audit, tweak content calendars to share more of what people like and less of what people don’t like as much.
Do Audit What Content is Referring Supporters to Donate/Sign up for Emails, etc.: Focus on the content this type of content moving forward, but continue the audit to see if this changes!
Don’ts:
Don’t Only Focus on Campaigns: Remember to develop “Always-On” Content for times outside of elections to continue to keep followers engaged, like with the #WhoShouldRun? Campaign.
Don’t Overwhelm People with Lots of Key Messages: Pick 2-3 Key messages and repeat them over and over with simple messaging.
Don’t Be a Nuisance: Let your story speak for itself, don’t overly draw attention to yourself. Sometimes a compelling campaign video can inspire more volunteers and donations than a panicked cry for donations.
Tactical Best Practices
Do’s:
Do Always Optimize Content for Use on Mobile: According to Zenith, 70% of internet usage is via Mobile devices, and according to comScore, 80% of social media time on mobile.
Do Tap Into a Younger Target Audience with Snapchat and Instagram: 76% of Snapchats audience is younger than 34, according to comScore. 90% of Instagram users are younger than 35, according to Brandwatch. By 2020, 75% of the world’s mobile traffic will be video, according to Cisco. Get in on video now. Even if its “low-quality” this can appear more relatable/grassroots.
Do Engage on the Platform Where Your Target is: For Run for Something, these platforms are likely Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Do Create a Clear Call to Action in Posts/Emails Where you Want People to Take a Next Step: For example, “Donate here:…”, “Wondering how to run for City Council, find out here:…”, etc.
Do Include Links to Social Channels in Emails: Chances are if people have signed up for your emails, they will follow you on social.
Do Double Check Posts for Spelling and Grammar Issues: Use tools like Grammarly to catch spelling/grammar issues.
Do Have a Purpose When Live Streaming: Whether you are streaming on Periscope, Facebook Live, Instagram Live, etc., make sure you are delivering a new announcement, a special guest, a cool location, etc.
Do Make Tweets a Question: Encourage engagement immediately by asking followers for their thoughts. Alternatively, ask followers what questions THEY have and reply to as many questions as possible to become an expert on the topic.
Do Join in on Trending Conversations on Twitter and Facebook, if Relevant: By relating your issues to a relevant topic, you can expand your audience by joining in on a big conversation in a clever way. For example: “Tired of Traffic? Run for office”.
Do Personalize Your Instagram and Snapchat Content: Make it personal and relatable.
Don’ts:
Don’t Write Vague or Annoying Email Subject Lines: Subject lines don’t need to be catchy or alarmist, they just need to be relevant, worth my time, and have a clear call to action. Remember you are speaking to one person directly, not the masses.
Don’t Post Long Messages on Facebook: Save long blog posts for Medium, keep Facebook posts short and sweet and usually include an image and a call to action link. Photos on Facebook have an 87% interaction rate.
Don’t Over Produce Instagram Images: Share personal “behind the scenes” images.
Don’t Forget to Thank Followers and Supporters: Thank email subscribers at the bottom of an email, send a thank you after a donation, share a “Thank You” tweet after a significant amount of money is raised or reaching a milestone number of candidates/social followers.
Don't Simply Share Your Own Links or Information on Social: Share interesting, relevant content from other users, and news, this will provide organic engagement and show your audience that you care about larger issues, not just what your business is doing.