Grassroots candidates have to be able to strike the balance between a strong call time program and a strong digital campaign.
Your digital presence is a visual reflection of your personal brand in social media. Creating a strong digital strategy elevates your campaign, increases name recognition, and allows you to reach constituents indirectly.
Successful digital campaigns tie into and complement successful fundraising. You should pool in digital with your call time. The overwhelming majority of folks you connect with will see both of these campaign facets, as well as how they affect each other. Haphazard digital strategies become barriers to fundraising.
This digital checklist for fundraising is curated with our experts in social media, web development, and graphic design and covers the following aspects:
Effective political websites and landing pages
Your website should contain accessible information about your campaign as well as calls to action for voters who look you up online. Make sure it's as up to date as possible. Here's a checklist to make sure your website is on the right track:
1. Home Page
Use a high-quality portrait
Make sure your campaign information is easy to find
Highlight important endorsements
Include a Call to Action for donating and signing up for mailing lists
2. Call to Action to Volunteer and Donate
These should be easy to find in your website
Embed a sign-up form and make sure your comms team is able to see the data you capture
Streamline the process by ensuring you’ve linked your newsletter form and Act Blue page properly
3. About Page
Share key aspects of who you are that answer why you’re running for office. This page should give your site visitors a glimpse into how you would be as an elected official
Highlight your successes as a community advocate
4. Issues / Policy Page
List each topline issue and your vision for your district. Emphasize your main policy points by placing them ay top of the list
5. Contact and Connect
Make sure your visitors have a way to easily leave a message
Link your social media profiles for easy reference
6. Additional section that's nice to have: Voting Information
This section is helpful to address any issues caused by districts facing gerrymandered redistricting. To help your voters and visitors, add links for the following resources:
Updated district maps
Voter registration and status databases
Polling Locations
Your Link in Bio: One Link for All
Social media services like Instagram only allow room for one easily accessible link for your profile. Leverage on free services like LinkTree, Koji, and LinkPop to make sure all your important links are in the same place. Make sure this link contains all your online campaign accounts as well as any necessary information or calls to action you want to highlight. Here's a sample on how we set-up Sole Strategies' Link Tree.
Social Media Management and Activity
Post regularly! This helps the algorithm push your content on top of your followers’ feeds. Posting once a day tremendously helps engagement. Be wary of posting too frequently in a single day as that can potentially tag your account for spam.
Use Twitter for easily digestible policy points. You can take the language you’ve crafted for your website and break it up into bite-sized tweets to share who you are and what you stand for.
Document your campaign trail in Instagram and Facebook. Your face will always get the most engagement especially if you’re engaging with your future constituents.
Engage your Instagram followers with questions and polls on your story. Ask them which areas they live in or what policies and issues they care about.
Get creative with TikTok and Instagram Reels! Politicians are hopping onto utilizing 1-minute videos to get their messages across while maintaining their viewers' attention effectively. Spend some time looking at politician feeds on TikTok or Instagram Reels and save videos that you enjoy. You can use these for inspiration for quick videos you'd like publish in the future
Elevate your feed with branded content and graphics. Create a distinct brand that stands our in the digital space with the help of experienced graphic designers and copywriters.
The Bottomline
Launching a successful online campaign that can strengthen your campaign requires consistency and the right support from a driven team. A solid digital strategy incorporates a visual aspect to your campaign that complements your verbal calls with voters.
If you're ready to elevate your digital presence, let's talk.
About Sole Strategies:
Sole strategies is a woman and minority–owned organization built by a team of political experts who specialize in strengthening grassroots campaigns at the community level. Running a race is tough on a shoestring budget– but we’re here to make that possible. You shouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for consultants who tell you how to do the work they themselves have never done. Here at sole strategies, we know that words of guidance are empty if they’re not backed by real support and tangible results