Taking online campaigning seriously

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Publié jeudi 3 juillet 2008 à 10h57
par rikkeindenmark Devenir militant(e) du PSE (vu 864 fois et 6 commentaires)

This weekend I will be doing a presentation on social networking tools at the PES activist forum in Vienna. I was glad to find out that there’ll be a workshop dedicated to online campaigning - and now I'm looking very much forward to debating the topic with other PES activists. Therefore, I thought it would be appropriate with a few words on online campaigning and my particular ‘campaigning speciality’, namely social networking sites.

The US elections usually say a thing or two about upcoming campaigning tools and methods. In the primaries social networks turned out to be really hot - as a voter you could connect to candidates pretty much everywhere: Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn... you name the network and Clinton and Obama would be there!

Given the experiences from the primaries social networking sites are likely to play a significant role in the upcoming campaign for the European elections. Not to the same extent as in the US, but candidates (especially the younger ones) will create profiles and pages and put some effort into connecting to voters online. We’ll also see more social networking activities from grassroots, party members (including PES activists!) as well as NGOs.

Social networking has a lot of potential for grassroot campaigning. It will never replace hanging up posters or handing out flyers in the street, but it can help us reach new audiences since social networking is often more fun and less aggressive than traditional campaigning.

But if social networking campaigning is to become a success, grassroots need to take it seriously. It’s not enough to create a Facebook cause, a MySpace profile or a Twitter account – you also need to promote your initiative and to update regularly. Like traditional political campaigning social networking is hard work – it might take only an hour to create a Facebook page, but it’s your efforts in the long run that really count.

If you’re interested in social networking you’re welcome to take a sneak peak at my presentation for the PES activist forum. Find hand-outs attached to this post.

See you in Vienna!

Tags: blogueur de la semaine, campagne, élections, forum

Dossier: social_networks_campaigning.pdf

Commentaires

1. Taking online campaigning seriously par toldsted Devenir militant(e) du PSE le jeudi 3 juillet 2008 à 11h31

Dear Rikke Thanks for a good blog on a very important issue. This will probably be the most important political channel of communication in the very near future - also in Europe. We will have to help our candidates with this. Especially I think they need help on how regularly update their sites in an easy ways - e.g. with Jaiku.

Regards Jørgen

2. Work work work par rikkeindenmark Devenir militant(e) du PSE le jeudi 3 juillet 2008 à 13h09

Hej Jørgen, tak for din positive kommentar. Yes, we do need to help our candidates with online campaigning. It's a lot of work to maintain social network profiles - and stay active and visible in the networks. Social networking is often talked about as being 'easy marketing', since your connections are expected to spread the word for you. But it really takes a lot of effort getting to the stage where the campaign runs by itself! It's not enough just being online...  

3. great workshop par kim Devenir militant(e) du PSE le jeudi 3 juillet 2008 à 15h39

Hi, Rikke

nice to heare that you will be doing a workshop.

It is indeed very important that PES activist learn to use the internet for campaigning. Whit the EU election we will face a different campaign across borders, and learning to use internet and other new sources is very usefull.

 

I will try to go to your workshop, looking forword of seeing you again

 

kim

 

4. Soon in Vienna par rikkeindenmark Devenir militant(e) du PSE le jeudi 3 juillet 2008 à 19h51

Hi Kim, nice to hear from you and thanks for your kind comment. I look very much forward to seeing you and all the other PES activists in Vienna!  :-)

5. Well done! par desmondotoole Devenir militant(e) du PSE le vendredi 4 juillet 2008 à 20h06

Hi Rikke, a very useful blog about using Facebook (amongst other Web2 tools). We have just established PES Activists Dublin here in Ireland and we quickly developed a Facebook presence. The immediate result was a rise in membership of our PES group. But you're right to point out that in common with analogue campaigning, on-line campaigning is hard work too! Regards ... Desmond O'Toole.

6. Facebook is no. 1 on the 'to do' list for new PES activist groups par rikkeindenmark Devenir militant(e) du PSE le lundi 14 juillet 2008 à 00h01

Hi Desmond - it's my impression that developing a Facebook presence is one of the first things that new PES activist groups do! Facebook is a very easy way to keep in touch and coordinate - especially for people who don't meet that often or live far from each other. So we should certainly continue taking advantage of Facebook - I guess the activist group in my home country should take the inspiration from Dublin and appear on Facebook before too long as well :-)

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