Door-Knocking with 3,000 of Your Closest (Facebook) Friends: Moving Your Campaign’s Supporters Offline and Into Your Precincts
Move Your Campaign’s Supporters Offline and Into Your Precincts
It’s that time of year. Time for long summer nights and beach music? Yes, thankfully, but I’m talking about something much more important.
It’s time for your campaign to start thinking about moving your 3,000 Facebook fans offline and into your nearby precincts knocking on doors, handing out literature, etc.
This year, folks who are new to the political process have become fans of your Facebook Pages and are ready to help with your campaigns, but may not be sure where to begin. For new activists who are unsure about the campaign culture, jumping in head first can be intimidating and many activities (read: knocking on strangers’ doors) will require extra encouragement.
Fortunately, Facebook Pages allow supporters to get an inside look at your campaign and provide you with the opportunity to create an inviting atmosphere for your campaign volunteers.
Take a few steps now to make sure your group or campaign is welcoming and inviting for our newly-engaged citizenry. The tips below will help you create an engaging Facebook Page community that will encourage your activists to join you offline.
Be sure your contact information is easy to find on your Facebook Page. Include an email where interested volunteers can contact you both on your Facebook wall (just under your profile picture) and the info section of the page. Also, be sure to include the person’s name that volunteers will be contacting. People are much more comfortable writing an email to info@nameforcongress.com when they know who to address the email to!
In addition to including an email on the page, I also encourage you to link to the Facebook Profile of a campaign staffer where volunteers can direct questions. Many campaigns have chosen to link their Facebook Pages to the profile of their volunteer coordinator. Of course, if you choose to go this route, be sure your campaign staffer understands and is using the Facebook privacy settings!
Upload Pictures
I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Facebookers love pictures and your fans will feel much better about joining you at events if they have already seen pictures of other fans at similar events. Upload pictures of fans putting together yard signs. Upload pictures of volunteers knocking on doors or handing out literature at local fairs. Upload pictures of your candidate engaging with volunteers. Upload pictures.
Don’t stop here. Once you’ve uploaded pictures to albums on your page, encourage your Facebook fans to tag themselves and their friends in the pictures. You may also want to encourage supporters to upload their own pictures. For example, you could have supporters upload pictures of their yards decked out with the campaign yard signs or their cars in various places around town sporting your campaign bumper stickers. The goal here is to create a community that seems friendly and engaging!
Recognize Offline Work Online
A great way to encourage participation online and offline is to highlight accomplishments by your volunteers or group members on your Facebook Page. Recognizing work done offline online reinforces the idea that your campaign is an actual community working together toward a common goal.
Did a campaign volunteer make an impressive number of phone calls this week or knock on a record number of doors? Be sure to recognize those accomplishments on your Facebook Page and encourage your other fans to try to reach those goals. Pictures of your featured fans doing whatever they do best will go along way toward encouraging the rest of your community! You may also choose to reward your fans with campaign gear such as t-shirts, bumper stickers, tickets to events, etc.
If you’re looking for an example of a great way to honor your fan base, take a look at the Heritage Foundation’s Facebook Page Featured Fan App. It isn’t necessary for you to build an application- a simple shout out will do- but hopefully Heritage’s example will inspire you.
The overall goal here is to acknowledge that volunteers are making a difference and having fun while doing it, so play around with these ideas and find something that works for your community.
2 Responses to “Door-Knocking with 3,000 of Your Closest (Facebook) Friends: Moving Your Campaign’s Supporters Offline and Into Your Precincts”
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Thanks for a great article, Jessica. We immediately implemented tip #3 on Rick’s FB status (http://www.facebook.com/smithforhouse) and will work on the other tips asap.
That’s great, Liz! I’ll be sure to head over to Facebook and check it out. Let me know what other great ideas y’all come up with for implementing these tips!