My business partner, Ed, and I both love politics – local, state, national, world. We may be on opposite sides of the tracks for the most part, but we both have a passion for it. Add in our love for social media and our great partnership that is Yatmedia, and you could say we monitor a broad spectrum of political social media that is on the internet. We wanted to give you some sure-fire tips that will absolutely help any candidate fail digitally for any election – no matter what size.

1. Do not bother with a website. Seriously, who the heck is on the internet these days? Such a waste of time!
2. Forget about having a Facebook page. There are only about 800 million people on there – probably not any of your voters.
3. If you do decide to get a Facebook page – make sure your neighbor’s cousin’s kid is speaking on your behalf. I am sure he will get your political message out clearly to the masses.
4. If you are fortunate enough to have enough money in your war chest to hire a political consulting/PR firm – by all means have blind faith in their social media. An 18 year old intern might be running it from a bar on Friday night. They need to get their feet wet sometime, might as well be with your political future.
5. Ignore on-line stuff written about you, bloggers and forums. Who reads anything on-line anyway?
6. Make sure to tend to your social media less and less as you get closer to the election date. Starting out the gate with enthusiasm is what matters, not how you finish the game.
7. Do not tie your social media presence into any of your printed material or your website. Certainly, there is no need for anyone to find it.
8. Have your website done by the friend of the neighbor’s cousin’s kid’s friend. She likes computers and certainly knows the standard for a professional political website!
9. DO NOT implement any social media strategy into your political campaign! Your time is valuable, stick with traditional high dollar stuff!
10. 5. Do not hire a professional social media consulting company. After all, social media can’t be that hard, your mother is on Twitter and Facebook and your Uncle has a You Tube account. And certainly any monkey can write a well-thought out piece for mass mailing.

For the record, Ed and I have seen very few political campaigns do a great job with social media, especially for state and local elections. It is very much under-used and is usually a haphazard strategy not properly incorporated into the overall plan. If you need some help getting your social media campaign for your political campaign or small business going, contact greta@yatmedia.com today and she promises to not give you the same advice she did in this post!

c/p at Yatmedia

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