To Reach New People You Need To Go Where People Are

One of my grievances with some of the local politicians I’ve dealt with is their unwillingness to use social media in a meaningful way to build a connection with their audience.

Many of them entered politics in an era where there was no Facebook. They aren’t built to handle the brazen attacks of the public and would prefer to not endure abuse for the sake of it. While that’s fair, they don’t actually need to moderate their own pages, they just need to use the tools at their disposal.

Many people are upset at the low engagement rate in city politics.

On the other hand, the majority of people don’t seem to be aware of what’s happening locally.

Most often the information gatherers and real professionals are not the sellout marketers the world of information dispersal needs. 

Especially with how complex the arena has become.

The news used to be consumed in predictable ways

There were the daily newspapers that gave you key information.

There were newscasts that came out 3 times a day and were broadcasted via television. The radio would fill the cars with new snippets of the most relevant stories to local populations. Our lives were programmed in a way where we relied on these news dispersal platforms to keep up to date.

Inevitably the world changed.

Ad models stopped funding papers and they moved online, paired right next to cat videos and relationship drama. 

People under 40 don’t really have cable. I have not once in my life paid for a subscription to a cable network that would let me easily watch the news. I’d also have to go online to consume that. 

I listen to podcasts on spotify. The radio only ever goes on when the girlfriend and I cannot agree on what to watch.

Our habits are no longer focused on controlled channels. We live in a “consume what we want, when we want” era. On top of that I live in a country where Canada lost a pissing match with Meta and the news is blocked from Facebook and Instagram.

Local politicians don’t have the resources to compete where multi million dollar companies failed.

There needs to be budgets put aside for digital consultants

If you are a political candidate/politician who doesn’t want to deal with the smoke of comments, find someone to help you.

For a minimal amount of time/money you can hire a minimum wage student to work a small amount of hours to vet your social feeds for you.

They can also teach you how to make “easy to edit” content on your phone, for free. While it sounds scary at first, in 15 minutes you can create a half-decent video ranting about anything. We are no longer in an era where this is hard.

It is awkward and weird. 

It is uncomfortable and corny to walk around filming yourself.

On the other hand if your goal is to really reach new people, in this video filled era, go make some low budget video content.

No one expects a local politician to have high budget content. They expect high value content, which is not about the quality of the production. They want the opportunity to get to know you as a candidate in a meaningful, and preferably entertaining way.

If you really don’t want to do this, hire someone like me to do some consulting work. 

Once you have a content strategy anyone can create content for their social media

The big question everyone has is what content they would even produce.

Most people feel they are uninteresting. They assume that whatever they have to say is something other people have already said, or are more qualified to say. In my opinion, people are worried about looking stupid on camera.

They are also afraid of cancel culture, which doesn’t really exist when you look into it.

Either way it is hard to come up with 30 posts a month, every month. To visualize a plan where 3-4 main content categories are flushed into individual content pieces working together to pursue your goals is a skill. If that isn’t for you, if you gave someone like me 5 focused hours, you could have enough decision making done to start making content on your own.

You’d see the vision of how easy it is to produce regular videos that support your brand, without breaking the bank.

Content is formulaic in nature but nuanced in its delivery. 

Once you know what you want to do it’s just plug and play. Look at the numbers, do more of what works, less of what doesn’t.If you ever feel stumped, holla at people who know what they are doing.

But stop acting like it’s too hard. 

Anyone can choose to invest in reaching more people if they want to.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone