Much has been written about the effectiveness of social media outreach in national campaigns, such as Scott Brown’s victory over Martha Coakley in Massachusetts. But social media can also have an outsized impact on local policy proceedings and elections, as an interesting Huffington Post article today explained.
The article details follows Mark McGuire, a candidate for county supervisor in Sonoma County, California, and his social media strategy. McGuire built a respectable base of supporters on both Facebook and Twitter, and engaged these supporters by coordinating service projects and grassroots advocacy via his social media networks.
A drive to gather coats for homeless residents of the area garnered more than 300 coats and enhanced McGuire’s reputation as a community servant. The drive was organized solely through social media channels, as was his promotion of a petition to stop an unpopular transportation plan that received a 10 percent response rate on his social networks.
Here are the keys to McGuire’s success that small businesses and local advocacy groups can use to raise recognition and get value out of social media outreach.
1) Actively grow member base initially– Most of McGuire’s initial social media effort focused on attracting people to his social media groups so that they would have adequate scale to be useful in outreach. He did this by encouraging early members to publicize the effort and recruit friends and family. This tactic gave people the satisfaction of participation and increased return because the appeals to join the group came from trusted sources.
2) Combine social media outreach with other channels – The article makes a great point that McGuire’s social media outreach was not done in isolation, but in concert with his other communication efforts. Encourage email recipients to join your social network groups, and vice versa. The more avenues of communication you have to offer your potential supporters and customers, the more likely they’ll find a way to contact you that suits them.
3) Engage the community – By organizing service projects and advocacy work with his social media networks, McGuire made his networks useful and valuable to his members. The initial effort required to grow social media networks will be in vain if the network is not engaged and interactions are limited. Seek feedback, organize events, and inform your social networks about your cause or business. The community will yield surprising and helpful insights into your business, and the cost of generating them is very low.
