grace

… filling in the negative space with positively everything

How *NOT* To Win An Online Campaign : PT II

In How *NOT* To Win An Online Campaign : Part I, I cautioned any political candidate (or business or nonprofit organization) who wants to wage a successful online/social media campaign to heed the following advice:

  1. Do NOT Start Late.
  2. Do NOT Confuse a Presence with a Strategy.
  3. Do NOT Play Dr. Frankenstein.

I was going to write about specific tools for “Part II,” but decided that this next point is so critical and essential to a winning online campaign that it deserved a post devoted entirely to it:

4.   Get Your Team to “Get It.”

Not long ago, I wrote an article for AYN Brand on How to Get Your Group on Board with Social Media. It was a direct response to feedback from attendees of my social media and online marketing workshops. While the attendees themselves were enthusiastic about “joining the conversation” online, one of the biggest challenges many faced was a fear of new media among their organizations’ board members and senior executives. The people who ultimately decided when and where financial and human resources should be allocated did not understand the reach and use of online tools, so they decided to ignore developing anything beyond a basic website. Rather than learn how online networking could help their organization, those stakeholders chose to remain out-of-touch and dismissed social media as “just for kids.”

It’s NOT. As I wrote, successful campaigns like President Obama’s prove:

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

Lincoln delivered this famous speech, noted for the phrase “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” when accepting the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate from Illinois in June of 1858. In July of that year he challenged his Democrat opponent, Stephen Douglas to a series of debates over admitting Kansas into the union as a slave state, and, to a large extent, over the future of slavery and of the union itself. Lincoln, of course, represented the anti-slavery position. The skill with which Lincoln debated Douglas helped catapult him to the Republican Party’s nomination for president in 1860, a race which he won.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifty year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting and end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crises shall have been reached and passed. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”
- at http://www.nationalcenter.org/HouseDivided.html

The Bully Pulpit

According to Wikipedia, a bully pulpit is  “a public office or other position of authority of sufficiently high rank that provides the holder with an opportunity to speak out and be listened to on any matter. The bully pulpit can bring issues to the forefront that were not initially in debate, due to the office’s stature and publicity.”

In the current Houston mayoral race, however, the bullies have taken over the pulpit. And in what’s supposed to be a non-partisan race, they have emerged from the partisan hacks on both sides.

When I first started paying attention to the mayoral race, I thought, “This is great: for the first time in a long time, the three most viable candidates for the position have similar positions on the issues; and, for the most part, those are positions I agree with. We’ll be able to vote for the BEST of three candidates, rather than the lesser of several evils.”

As a staffer for former City Council Member Gordon Quan, I knew a bit about Peter Brown and Annise Parker, and was inclined to support Brown. Then I went to a couple of mayoral forums and saw what the candidates had to say on the issues. That was my introduction to Gene Locke. After seeing and hearing his answers to a variety of tough questions, I thought he was the best candidate to lead Houston. And when his campaign came knocking on my door, I wholeheartedly agreed to support Gene as his social media strategist. Then, as his liaison for Asian/Pacific American outreach. Then, as his liaison for Young Professionals.

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