Lessons Learned from the Ballot Box

- November 15, 2010 by Anamaria Suescun-Fast

GDC recently helped the San Antonio Independent School District get a bond approved by a majority of voters by providing strategy and execution oversight for the effort. Along the way, we discovered some new lessons and reaffirmed some old ones. 

Still two weeks after Election Day, I’m still waking up in the middle of the night thinking about what needs to done to ensure we win in the upcoming election. Note to self: Election Day is over! My thoughts revolve not so much around the national or state outcome but rather more on the local scene in San Antonio where GDC was front and center on the San Antonio Independent School District Bond campaign. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the details, but I will share a few insights that I think can benefit your public affairs and political professionals, no matter if you’re working on a local campaign or a national campaign. (By the way, in case you were wondering, we did win -- with 66% of the vote.) As I think back on the past few issue-oriented campaigns that we have been a part of, here are my top three lessons to share.

Lesson One: Stick to Your Grassroots

Despite the hype, and yes the need, for social media, traditional grassroots and mano-a-mano strategies can make all the difference in a campaign. I’ve been involved in several issues-oriented campaigns, and in every case tons of yards signs are left over. Not so in the SAISD election. I was amazed at the grassroots enthusiasm for yard signs. Teachers were calling. Parents were calling. Students were calling. Businesses located in the district were calling. In fact, we had to re-order several times over just to keep up with the demand. Yard signs were our “in” to get in front of key constituents for quality discussion about the bond. We delivered signs to PTA meetings and talked to supporters, as well as detractors, about the bond. I believe we won over a lot of folks through face-to-face outreach. We delivered signs to neighborhoods and talked to hundreds of neighbors about the bond. The campaign was very grassroots driven and the importance of personal contact and conversation was critical. Social media was a secondary strategy but certainly did not have as strong an impact on the campaign as grassroots outreach.

Lesson Two: Have a Post-Campaign Strategy for Social Media

Raise your hand if you were asked to be a part of a candidates’ Facebook fan page? I received countless requests from judges and other political candidates. I was very apprehensive to accept, or like, because I knew that it was not permanent. Well, the campaign is over, now what? Those candidates who won, and didn’t win -- will they keep up with their Facebook page or just go dormant? Did they really want to have a two-way communication with me for the long-term or just to get my vote? Was it just something they were told they had to do, and was it in reality that a campaign staffer “talked” to me? (To be fair, I can say this is a fact for everyone, but just trying to make a point.) From a campaign perspective, be sure to have an exit strategy for your social media tactics.

Some points to consider:

• After a campaign, Facebook can still be used to keep up momentum. But be careful to stay focused on the broader issue that made people want to fan your page in the first place.

• Be sure to post a thank you to supporters after the campaign. A video message is one of the most effective ways to do this as it adds a personal touch.

• If you’re keeping a campaign page going, do not over-communicate with frequent posts as this is likely to drive away fans. Be strategic on the news you share.

• Expect that some fans will elect to leave the page now that the campaign is over and that is okay.

• If you decide not to continue to Facebook, advise your fans via a post that you will no longer be using the page and provide them with an alternate form of staying in touch. After you have provided sufficient notice to fans, delete the page.

• This ease of removal and flexibility is a benefit of establishing a Fan page versus a Group page for your campaign. With a Group page, all members would have to first opt out one by one before the Group could be deleted.

Lesson Three: Media Tours Need Meat

Let’s be honest, this is not an a-ha moment. This is a strategy that has been quite successful in most of our campaigns. However, media tours for the sake of media tours are not successful. The old adage “a picture is worth a thousands words” is also true for issue-based campaigns. For the San Antonio Independent School District Bond, a media tour highlighting where the bond money would go (e.g. aging buildings, lack of playgrounds, cracked buildings, outdated infrastructure, etc.) was important, in that helped get to the heart of the issue. We (the PR team) tried to organize a media tour where we did as little talking as possible and let what people saw help sell the reasons why the bond was needed.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: in this digital age, traditional strategies and tactics still have a key role in any public affairs campaign. Integration is key, having a post-campaign social media plan is vital, and media tours are an integral element. If I had to wrap it all up in one lesson, though, it would be this: stick to the tactics that encourage a two-way conversation. People want their voices heard and their issues addressed.

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