Top seven social media mistakes made in the 2010 elections

#3

Failure to act in a timely manner. Social Media is “real time.” You can’t wait days or weeks to make decisions and then implement. You will be left behind. While working with a political client who was revising an older book title with a new foreword, we cautioned that the book would need to be pushed early, and we were right.

If you wait too long to push your key strategies, you will undoubtedly miss a social media opportunity or not start an initiative soon enough to be effective.

Top seven social media mistakes made in the 2010 elections

#4

“Winging it” – i.e., no plan. Expecting Social Media to  magically make it happen for you.  A very, very few candidates (the most notable example being Scott Brown with his “people’s seat” response on the “Kennedy Senate seat” question) are lucky enough to have a positive viral event occur and have it captured on video.  It’s just as likely that an unfortunate event will occur and you will need damage control.  Always have a plan for positive, negative, and insufficient response. Your plan should include the following steps:

Step 1: Visibility

Step 2: Engagement

Step 3: Organization

Step 4: Mobilization/Action.

In each step, obtaining data on your demographics and micro-targeting, what worked and what didn’t, are essential to fine-tuning your campaign.

Top seven social media mistakes made in the 2010 elections

#5

Underestimating the importance (and the budget) for online ads that link to all of your online Social Media channels.  One client, based on “dinosaur” advice that only TV commercials were necessary to win, invested far too little far too late in the election cycle and lost a winnable race. General rule of thumb:  the less name recognition you have before the election cycle, the earlier you need to start ads and the more you need to spend, especially with a well-known incumbent.

Top seven social media mistakes made in the 2010 elections

#7

Repetition is good, but it’s not enough. In politics, repeating your key messages is important, but in the age of social media, it’s not nearly enough to get the job done. That means you must find different and unique ways to communicate the same idea–often by adapting your message to the latest news or hot topic of the day. When he was running for Senate in New York, longtime certified public accountant Joe DioGuardi often hammered the message “we’re spending money we don’t have, borrowing from countries we don’t trust,” a fiscal warning that was co-opted by his competition in the race.

By utilizing multiple forms of social media, it is easier to prove you were delivering the message first without sounding like the bitter kid in the schoolyard. We do this by adding dimensions to the original idea and spreading them across multiple mediums where they can take on a life of their own and gather momentum.