Political candidates who want to be successful in building online support need two things – resources and time. Just like an offline campaign, campaign success comes about by creating a brand for a candidate.
Think about any consumer product. The brand surrounding the product is the result of years of advertising. Everyone knows Coca-Cola and McDonalds, yet they still advertise year in and year out.
We often hear from candidates that they wished they had started campaigning online earlier. A few weeks before Election Day did not give them enough time to build advertising momentum or to generate enough support to win the race.
Starting a campaign website a month or two out from Election Day may work for some local elections, but it’s just not enough time for any campaign site to gain traction. Just starting a website doesn’t guarantee results. It takes tome for your site to appear in the search engines when someone searches for your name – even if you have a matching domain name! Without any link-building or social media effort, a site might never rank well.
That’s one of the reasons why we include long-term hosting in our packages, rather than charging month-to-month. The earlier you get started, the more time you have to brand yourself online and dominate the online arena over your opponent. In most cases, you won’t get the exposure you need in one or two months. Unless you have a large amount of resources, building an online brand (or cleaning up an existing online reputation) takes more time than you might think.
Here’s a story about a candidate who started the branding process early.
John (not his real name) was a first-time candidate who decided to run against an entrenched opponent. He started early, and worked hard to brand himself. He started up his campaign website nearly a year ahead the election and started using social media to build a following.
With some work, John was able to dominate the search results for both his name and the position he was running for. In fact, his site appeared on Google with additional sitelinks. (Those are search results where you find additional links for the site under the main search result.)
By creating good content for his site, using social media to promote himself and campaigning hard in the real world, John built up a strong level of support in his community. The silver lining is that John’s branding worked. He ended his campaign with a much higher public profile than he had a year earlier. He made quite a showing on Election Day.
Unfortunately, the incumbent won the election. But for an unknown, first-time candidate, John performed extremely well. He pulled in more votes than any opposition had done in years.
The long-term branding effort worked. Despite his loss, John has kept his campaign site to solidify the branding he already created. He will continue to keep in touch with his supporters online to help him give him an edge in the next election.
We wish him all the best in his next campaign.
Branding. Start it early, maintain it throughout your campaign, and keep it going after Election Day.
Think about any consumer product. The brand surrounding the product is the result of years of advertising. Everyone knows Coca-Cola and McDonalds, yet they still advertise year in and year out.
We often hear from candidates that they wished they had started campaigning online earlier. A few weeks before Election Day did not give them enough time to build advertising momentum or to generate enough support to win the race.
Starting a campaign website a month or two out from Election Day may work for some local elections, but it’s just not enough time for any campaign site to gain traction. Just starting a website doesn’t guarantee results. It takes tome for your site to appear in the search engines when someone searches for your name – even if you have a matching domain name! Without any link-building or social media effort, a site might never rank well.
That’s one of the reasons why we include long-term hosting in our packages, rather than charging month-to-month. The earlier you get started, the more time you have to brand yourself online and dominate the online arena over your opponent. In most cases, you won’t get the exposure you need in one or two months. Unless you have a large amount of resources, building an online brand (or cleaning up an existing online reputation) takes more time than you might think.
Here’s a story about a candidate who started the branding process early.
John (not his real name) was a first-time candidate who decided to run against an entrenched opponent. He started early, and worked hard to brand himself. He started up his campaign website nearly a year ahead the election and started using social media to build a following.
With some work, John was able to dominate the search results for both his name and the position he was running for. In fact, his site appeared on Google with additional sitelinks. (Those are search results where you find additional links for the site under the main search result.)
By creating good content for his site, using social media to promote himself and campaigning hard in the real world, John built up a strong level of support in his community. The silver lining is that John’s branding worked. He ended his campaign with a much higher public profile than he had a year earlier. He made quite a showing on Election Day.
Unfortunately, the incumbent won the election. But for an unknown, first-time candidate, John performed extremely well. He pulled in more votes than any opposition had done in years.
The long-term branding effort worked. Despite his loss, John has kept his campaign site to solidify the branding he already created. He will continue to keep in touch with his supporters online to help him give him an edge in the next election.
We wish him all the best in his next campaign.
Branding. Start it early, maintain it throughout your campaign, and keep it going after Election Day.
