In various candidate and party offices throughout the country at the moment, a consultant, expert, ninja, communications scientist, says something that Obama has managed to make use of social media to create a "grass root movement" that led him to the US presidency. Those of you who are candidates or party staffs do yourself a favor and ignore him. They will offer you absolutely nothing at this stage. They are more likely to do you harm than good.
The reasons are too many, but let us summarize them in the two most important. First you do not have enough time to set up something serious and important in social media and generally on the internet if you have not already done so. Second, the most likely thing is not to do it well.
The first one doesn't need much explanation. As for the second? A serious candidate-level campaign requires, at a minimum, to set up the right site, texts, creatives, find people or groups who will post content on social networks and, above all, have the responsibility of handling many small jobs that may seem easy but are not . The minimum is photo adjustment, video editing, content modification depending on the media that will be uploaded and generally many, many small but important things that if done on the knee will spoil the image instead of improving it.
If we are now discussing a party, things become even more demanding. They need sustained productions at the creative level, many times more in volume than a simple candidate. Banners are needed. Processes for simplifying messages. Finding, evaluating and training volunteers. Keyword management strategy for engines searchς, έλεγχο σε ποιες γράφει σωστά και ποιες πρέπει να αγοραστούν ώστε να καλυφθεί το κενό, χρειάζεται διαρκής μέτρηση και optimization. Constant control and measurement of whether the right messages on social networks like Facebook which has a complex display selection algorithm reach the right audience and all this is just what is needed.
It is understandable that there are too many variables that it is not easy to control if all of this has not been designed and thoroughly studied early. It is extremely difficult to find people who have the requisite specialized knowledge even at market level, let alone at the level of party mechanisms. As if it did not reach this, there is the most difficult to control variable. The complete ignorance of party mechanisms for basic communication principles in the social media. Most people think that a good strategy is to talk nonsense on twitter and fight with opponents. In the past, blog response groups were in vogue. Rarely is there a provision for spreading messages through media with specific targets, a look at the parties' facebook pages where press releases from the leader or spokesman's statements are usually posted.
Το πόσο λίγο είναι ψημένοι σε αυτά τα ζητήματα οι κομματικοί μηχανισμοί στην Ελλάδα φαίνεται από απίστευτες γκάφες στις οποίες έχουν υποπέσει. Η πιο πρόσφατη ήταν όταν η ΝΔ έβαλε κεντρικό σύνθημα το “Νέα Ελλάδα” και ο ΣΥ.ΡΙΖ.Α αγόρασε το domain neaellada.gr που ήταν διαθέσιμο γιατί κανείς δεν σκέφτηκε να το αγοράσει μήπως στήσει κάποια σοβαρή καμπάνια πάνω στις αναζητήσεις του “Νέα Ελλάδα”. Προσωπικά έχω και μια υπέροχη ιστορία για την απάντηση σε ένα απλό tweet που περίμενα έγκριση και τελικό κείμενο από το γραφείου πολιτικού planning ενός μεγάλου κόμματος τέσσερις μέρες.
In conclusion, dear candidate or contact person of the party. Make a favor for yourself and us who will be forced to block or hide you. Limit to simple. Run a banner campaign to send to your site and up there. Make some retargeting. The other wants trouble, resources and time you do not have. If you do it for a long time and with the appropriate team, the conversation changes. The ninja mentioned above that told you how to become the new Obama or how to become a viral is irrelevant and dangerous and it is good to throw him out with kicks.
