{"id":10141,"date":"2018-11-06T17:20:36","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T16:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mention.com\/blog\/?p=10141"},"modified":"2025-01-15T16:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T16:06:15","slug":"political-digital-strategy-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mention.com\/en\/blog\/political-digital-strategy-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Lessons From Political Listening to Supercharge Your Digital Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Long before the internet emerged as a powerful medium to reach out to your audience, political organizations invested in expensive broadcast campaigns. Politics has always been about listening. Woodrow Wilson, who was President of the United States a hundred years ago, said, \u201cThe ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, a lot has changed in the last century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, with the emergence of social media, political campaigns have started integrating digital strategies to their efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A digital strategy for politics is developed to support the key components of the campaign such as canvassing, GOTV and fundraising. Much like a digital marketing strategy<\/span> for businesses, the focus is on using a digital approach to understand the target audience.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both cases, the end goal is to build dedicated support, for the candidate or maybe for a product being sold, among the public. The campaigns address people\u2019s requirements (and how the candidate or the product is going to fill that gap) directly. Key insight into their needs comes from monitoring<\/strong> the relevant people through social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media monitoring<\/a> in politics is utilized to help the candidate engage their audience, form effective messages, and emerge as a packaged, political trend for the age. These digital strategies developed using classic approaches used in politics that prove effective even today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using these lessons in defining your brand\u2019s digital strategy will boost your brand image and help you build a strong connection with your customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Design a monitoring blueprint<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Monitoring social media\u00a0keywords is way easier than monitoring public opinion on the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Begin with an extensive list of terms and hashtags to watch<\/a><\/strong> on networks like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. Find the people who follow you, have tweeted about you, or have \u2018liked\u2019 your posts. There might be some people who subscribed to your email list or engaged with your site but not connected over social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You should build those bridges first. Keep an eye out for Twitter hashtags, Facebook comments, and Instagram keywords related to your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Expand your horizon<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Find the people who have mentioned your brand or product over social media and take the engagement a step further. Ask them to tweet with a certain hashtag or share a post with their network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember your followers have followers too. <\/strong>Your marketing reach will be substantially amplified by tapping into communities where one of them is a vocal advocate<\/a> of your product. Look for conversations in blogs and forums to discover close-knit communities beyond social networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Identify engagement and demand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Demand can be turned into engagement with the right approach. Listen closely for comments, likes and posts that align with your product, and reach out to those people. Spot the gap in their lives and configure your message according to their needs. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep track of who among them liked or commented on your Facebook page, mentioned or followed you on Twitter or even subscribed to your newsletter. Those people are now engaged with you and are closer to conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Merge your inflowing and outreach data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Add all the people who support you on social media to your marketing outreach<\/a><\/span> list. Connect with them and ask them to spread your message among their friends. This will bring advocates into your social media outreach efforts easily, since they\u2019re already talking about you. They also feel closely tied to your brand, which leads to long-lasting relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Know what the audience wants to hear<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is, of course, one of the key aims of a social listening strategy<\/a>. Listening helps you understand the perspective of your target audience.<\/strong> It makes you better at addressing challenges by paying attention to what they ultimately want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get better at this, follow your competitors<\/a> and watch what people say about their product. Figuring out why people feel the way they do will lead to discovering the right approach for different types of audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Map a path of engagement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The deciding factor for one person might be completely different from another\u2019s in choosing your product. Keep track of the customers\u2019 journey and gauge their sentiment to segment your audience by demographic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Map their mental path from indecision to firm advocacy.<\/strong> Political campaigns use this approach to come up with specific messages for distinct segments of voters. Tracking the customer’s\u2019 journey will help you understand what message worked and how to approach a certain demographic better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Make communication inroads into their lives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Political campaigns scale and recruit volunteers within a limited timeframe by entrusting them with a common goal. Supporters bring in more people they convince to join the cause, who in turn spread the message further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This model of engagement is amplified over social media, where customers who vouch for your product raise interest further within their circles. Having someone they know vouch for your product is the best marketing your product can have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Dissect your data to understand what works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every action taken by a customer should be recorded and analyzed. This can help in identifying the exact steps that lead to their conversion. For example, \u201cwhat percentage of people who registered through your site also followed you on Twitter?\u201d This will answer what trends are holding up and will lead you to form a better campaign strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Project a strong social media reputation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Social interaction helps to present your brand\u2019s image to the audience. Develop your brand personality through numerous social media conversations in terms of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n