Social \u201cmedia\u201d sure isn\u2019t what it used to be, is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Facebook\u2019s made itself more difficult to use<\/a> and less reliable for targeting voters. NextDoor, LinkedIn TikTok, Spotify and Reddit either ban election-related ads or have broad policies in place that allow them to reject ads as they see fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what\u2019s a small to mid-size campaign to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n First step: Reassess how you look at these platforms. Rather than focus on \u201cmedia\u201d think about the \u201csocial\u201d part. Concentrating on the \u201cmedia\u201d aspect of things encourages campaigns to buy ads in bulk to \u201cflood the zone\u201d which is almost impossible online, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s no question that social part of social media scares most campaigns because it\u2019s putting messaging in the hands of folks who may not be on 100% in agreement with the campaign. And many influencers will make mistakes. They can focus on their agenda, not the campaign. Or they just flake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But those deviations are part of the social <\/em>aspect of these platforms. When users talk about \u2018authenticity\u2019 they mean the ability to deviate from the norm, to show flaws, to admit mistakes. It\u2019s part of genuine engagement. Which means influencer support can give a campaign a real boost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But no campaign can run entirely on social media. Influencers may be powerful but their reach is limited \u2013 online and in \u2018real\u2019 life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paid digital media has a role to play these efforts. But the places where smaller outreach efforts want to do business are limited by budget. Regional media outlets which dominate local news in many places and the large automated trading desks have minimums and are often not very savvy about political outreach, especially at the local level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spot-On runs a lot of these local campaigns and we\u2019ve come up with a solution to campaigns, across the board \u2013 if they can join forces on spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, think of platforms as extension of field outreach. Platform are a good way to send volunteers \u2013 with keyboards, not clipboards – to talk to their real friends and virtual neighbors. Some folks talk to lots and lots of these friends and neighbors \u2013 they\u2019re what campaigns are now calling \u201cinfluencers\u201d<\/a> which is a fancy word for someone who like to tell other people what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n