Social media is everywhere and it is definitely an integral part of political campaigns today. Social media offers an opportunity to easily connect with your voters. In 2008, Barack Obama was the first president that embraced social media in his presidential campaign. He used it to his advantage and, it proved him well. Similarly, MTV enhanced Michelle Obama’s National College Signing day 2017 speech through Sparkle and enhanced the power of her message sent.

There are many ways to take advantage of social media – might it be branded communication, creating a network or cheaper and targeted online advertisements. But, the social media landscape is one of the fastest changing industries and there are always new opportunities popping up. Embracing the possibilities that comes with user generated content is one of them.

 If you are not familiar with user generated content yet, this will give you an idea of what you can achieve:

Create stronger impression easily

By using user generated content, you can take advantage of your voters’ network to increase the extent of your influence. It improves your party image, adds authenticity and humanizes the candidate when you share positive messages, created by your fans.

Since United Kingdom’s Labour Party implemented Sparkle on their website almost a year ago, they have seen a significant increase in reach, impressions, and posts generated. Specifically, they saw that with Sparkle, they have garnered more than 11 million impressions, a 141% increase from before. This meaning that people are more often exposed to their message, allowing The Labour Party to leave a stronger impression on their audience. This also promotes more social media posts uploads across their social channels. It would have been a time-consuming task pulling together data from the different social channels. However,  Sparkle simplified it and with just a few clicks, 368 posts were collected across multiple channels and visualized in a single display, and it updates automatically adding new posts.

We’ve used Sparkle to bring our website homepage to life and it’s been invaluable in driving up engagement on our social media channels. Sparkle is engaging, dynamic and extremely easy to use.

-Chloe Green, The Labour Party, Social Media and Web Content Manager

 Let Your Influence Soar In Your Political Campaigns

You are probably very familiar with the importance of holding rallies, to win the heart of the voters. But, you may find that trying to do so through speeches is not enough. Complementing your time on stage with user generated content could amplify the influence.

When voters see other voters putting their trust in a certain political candidate, they are more inclined to do so themselves. This is a social effect whereby people conform to the majority and are influenced by their choices. According to Nielsen, 92% of surveyees globally prioritize and trust their family and peers’ words more than branded messages. Meaning, through user generated content, it becomes easier for you to rally other voters. 

During the 2016 US presidential elections, Sparkle partnered with the US National Education Association and created a social hub for the #TeachersForHillary campaign. By having a social hub featuring user contributed posts, you can bump up the effect, build a stronger atmosphere and inspire voters to take a stand for your cause. Take the chance to effortlessly highlight and publish photos that portray yourself or your party in a controlled environment. Having such a set up also acts as continuous reinforcements to ensure that your efforts are maximized.

Keep Yourself In The Race

Donations are a big part of any political campaign. Be it the advertising or event, all of your campaigning efforts need cash in order to be carried out. Even President Trump who self-funded 72% of his campaign expenditure ended up receiving $269 million from donors.

But, these donations go beyond just the monetary value and your voters supplying you with funds to keep you running. It is a demonstration of how you find, communicate and persuade your voters, lobbyists or other politicians, to keep you in the race. With customizable social displays that can be integrated into your campaign site, you can add call to action buttons such as “Donate Now” to your photos.  This makes it easier for voters who are on your campaign sites and scrolling through your social display. The whole process should be streamlined. However, A/B testing is also important to find out exactly how you should position your CTA buttons to increase conversions.

There are endless possibilities as to how social media can help you achieve your goals. There is no right or wrong. But, only through experimentation, will you be able to fine tune the strategies for your political campaigns!